Primaloft Quilt Questions

[clutch146]

I'm starting a few project to be ready by mid Spring that include two top quilts and a bottom quilt. All of them will be single layer 3oz Primaloft, and I'm going for a 40-45 degree rating. I've read somewhere that this single layer should get me there and even a little bit lower under perfect conditions.

My main question: What's the best method for stabilizing the insulation (with my desired temp rating in mind)?

• Sew through all layers every 6 inches
• Sew insulation to only one shell (which is better, inner or outer?)
• Alternate stabilization between the shells
• Quilting loops

I read somewhere on here that quilting loops should only be used with continuous filament (apex) and that PL really needs sew to the shell, and that seems to make sense to me, but I don't know if that is the consensus. Any info and tips would be greatly appreciated!

[xxl_hanger]

A single layer 3oz Primaloft silver will get you borderline to

100g x 0.023 = 2,3 CLO
(21.1 - (((2.3 - 1)/0.1) * 0.8 = 10.7°C
which is 10.7 * 1.8 + 32 = 51.26°F

You have to make quilting lines. With 3oz Primaloft I guess you have to do it all 7 to 8". But 6" could be better. However, this can create thermal bridges. The better solution is to make a double layer with displaced quilting lines.

I have the following in mind because I can't buy 3oz Primaloft. I can buy 6oz, 4oz or 1.8oz Primaloft silver or gold. My decision was to take 4oz Primaloft silver, which brings me to 4.62°C (40.3°F) plus a 1.8oz layer Primaloft silver. Together I get a 3.8cm (1.5") loft. 4.44 CL0. This brings me to -6.42°C (20.44°F). I will make for the 4.oz layer quilting lines all 14 3/4" and for the 1.8oz layer all 5.9"-6".

[Monkeyboy42]

As already said 3oz is borderline. Have you checked out 5oz climashield available through thruhiker and ripstopbytheroll? Will get you a little below 40, and does not need any stabilizing quilting. I made two UQs this summer out of it, and they were super easy and plenty warm at that range.

[clutch146]

I guess I was basing my decision off of this spreadsheet. And I should also mention that it is PL Gold (.92 CLO) at 3oz/yd2, for a total CLO of 2.76, which from my understand of the measurement, should get me into the 40s. I do already have this insulation from RSBR, and my target temp range is survivable at 40F and mostly comfortable at 45F. If the expected low temperature is going to be any lower than that, I have a set of 20 degree quilts I would take along instead.

Do you think that the sewn-through technique is going to cause too many cold spots?

[xxl_hanger]

Climashield recommends to make for 6oz Climashield quilting lines all 11.8" too. I would guess that for thinner Climashield material you should also reduce the distances between the lines.

For 1 layer 6oz Primaloft silver it is recommend to make quilting lines all 23.6". So even in this case Primaloft is a bit better and Primaloft compresses better than Climashield. The nice thing with Climashield is only that you need no downproof shell material. But in most cases you have it already.

As far as CLO values are concerned there is almost no difference between Climashield and Primaloft silver. However, Primaloft Gold, which requires even shorter quilting lines than Climashield, warms better. I think Primaloft Gold is almost comparable with downs. The problem is only how to overcome the cold spots.

A really nice solution for a lightweight quilt could be a 2 x 3oz Primaloft Gold DL with displaced quilting lines all 4-5" and/or some inside filler material at the quilting lines. This can be still substantially cheaper than a down quilt as long as you make your UQ not longer than the width of the Primaloft material, which is 60".

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btw: 3oz Primaloft has a CLO value of 2.7 and 3oz Climashield is rated with 2.4.

It ist recommend to make for a single Layer 6oz Primaloft Gold quilting lines all 6". For 3oz materials I think you should make the distances between the lines approx. 4-5". For 1.8oz Primaloft Gold the distances between the quilting lines should be 3.1". Please note that all these recommendations mean the distance in all directions. Therefore I would make the distances by tendency a bit shorter.

[Flint]

I have used both climashield top quilts and underquilts without quilting lines and have found them to be durable and very warm for the weight. I have an EE prodigy and DIY climashield UQ and both have held up well without quilt lines. Ymmv, but in my opinion climashield is the way to go.

[MAD777]

I have always used quilting loops with any synthetic insulation including Primaloft and Climashield. The quilting loops don't compress the insulation at all, so no worries. Yes, they take a bit more time than sewing, but in the grand scheme of things, not much more.

[Scotty Von Porkchop]

There's 3oz primaloft? Anyway regardless primaloft gold/one is lovely stuff, supple, warm, soft. Its obviously a real pain to quilt but I love my hybrid down/primaloft quilts. I think climashield is awful stuff, though it's cheap and warm it's also large bulky and just plain feels like a bargain price filling. Primaloft has the more comforting softness that's great to climb in like down, though down still rules.
I say build your DIY quilts with gold (don't bother with silver) and see how you do, personally I'd just sew through in 6-8" boxes but it's a lot of work. For warm weather I don't care about cold spots from the sewn through as I never feel them.

[clutch146]

Thanks for the contributions everyone. I am going with Primaloft Gold at this point .

I have always used quilting loops with any synthetic insulation including Primaloft and Climashield. The quilting loops don't compress the insulation at all, so no worries. Yes, they take a bit more time than sewing, but in the grand scheme of things, not much more.

Thanks for the info. I guess this goes against what some others have said - that with only quilting loops, the insulation will fall apart eventually due to its non-continuous filament nature. So you've not experienced this personally? How long have you used them in this way, and do you do repeated compressing? Do you remove the scrim or leave it on? Happen to have any pictures?

There's 3oz primaloft? Anyway regardless primaloft gold/one is lovely stuff, supple, warm, soft. Its obviously a real pain to quilt but I love my hybrid down/primaloft quilts. I think climashield is awful stuff, though it's cheap and warm it's also large bulky and just plain feels like a bargain price filling. Primaloft has the more comforting softness that's great to climb in like down, though down still rules.
I say build your DIY quilts with gold (don't bother with silver) and see how you do, personally I'd just sew through in 6-8" boxes but it's a lot of work. For warm weather I don't care about cold spots from the sewn through as I never feel them.

Yep, ripstopbytheroll sells 3oz gold. I got samples of both CS and PL, and I completely agree with how you described them, and is exactly why I chose the Primaloft over the Climashield. So about boxing, do you feel that this is something that's required, or just protecting against eventualities? Have you you experienced any degradation of the insulation from not boxing?

[Scotty Von Porkchop]

So about boxing, do you feel that this is something that's required, or just protecting against eventualities? Have you you experienced any degradation of the insulation from not boxing?

I know others have tried quilt loops and other methods but I always just figured that primaloft was primarily intended as a way to make synthetic box baffles like on down hoodies easily so that there's an even distribution of filling. That way it then doesn't matter when it all falls apart, it becomes a pseudo down of broken synthetic fibres. I have washed a couple of my hybrid quilts and didn't have any pulling apart or breaking, my ideas were formed just in the basis of feel as the sheet of primaloft was fragile. Having said all this it seems there's no firm answers when it comes to primaloft so I've just bashed out a few to see what happens.