Down is a mixture of "feather" and "down". The feather is the harder part of the feather, which acts as a support in the down and makes the down elastic; while the down is the down bud, similar to the head on the dandelion, which can make the down fluffy and warm.
The mixing of the down makes the interior hollow and can contain more air, but the heat conduction of the air is relatively slow, and the small pieces of air between the down are inconvenient for convection, so the penetration of cold air and the loss of body temperature can be avoided.
Duck down or goose down?
Down jackets generally choose duck down or goose down as the filling material, because the feathers of water birds have a layer of grease, which is very easy to dry after washing.
There is no difference in the thermal insulation effect of duck down and goose down, but ducks are omnivores, and there will be a fishy smell in the down, while goose is a herbivore, and there is no peculiar smell in the down.
As far as the quality of down on the market is concerned: white goose down > grey goose down > white duck down > grey duck down. When economic conditions permit, you can choose down jackets of such quality as white goose down.
Is the thicker the down jacket the better?
of course not!
When buying down jackets, you can look at the washing marks or labels on the clothes. China's down jacket implementation standard is GB/T 14272, you can first check whether the quality meets the standard.
Secondly, look at the name of the filler, the amount of cashmere and the amount of cashmere filled in the down jacket. The amount of down filling refers to the weight of all the down filled in a down jacket.
However, the amount of down filling is not as much as possible. The down jacket’s down filling amount also has a baseline:
Short down jacket: the amount of down filling is more than 130g;
Northern down jacket: the amount of down filling is more than 200g;
Outdoor down jacket: the filling capacity is above 250g-450g.
The down content is the percentage of down in the total filling. For example, if a down jacket contains 80% down, the remaining 20% ??may be feathers. The higher the down jacket content, the better the thermal insulation effect.
Feather is relatively hard, if the down content is low, the stem of the feather is easy to drill down. When purchasing, you can make a preliminary judgment by touching and pressing.
How to maintain the quality of down jackets?
Down jackets should not be washed frequently, especially not by machine. Each cleaning is a damage to the down jacket, and the quality of the down will decrease, which will greatly affect the warmth retention, and will also cause certain damage to the outer fabric. The main way to best protect your down jacket is to wash it less often.
Try not to spin and dry down jackets with a washing machine!
The filling material of the down jacket is mainly composed of keratin, and its properties will change under high temperature. The high temperature of the ordinary dryer will cause certain damage to the down jacket. In addition, during the high-speed drying process, the down will continue to expand and generate a lot of air. These gases cannot be quickly discharged, and will constantly expand the down jacket and fill the washing machine.
In addition, dry nylon cloth and down will generate static electricity, and the heat generated by static electricity will accumulate. However, the space of the washing machine is limited, and if the gas accumulates to a certain extent, an "explosion" may occur.
Therefore, the thicker the down jacket is not the better, the daily cleaning of the down jacket also needs attention to prolong the service life!
Post time: Aug-11-2022
