who can explain..down and moisture

[Anorak84]

as far as I know..water / moisture will negatively impact the insulation of a down sleepingbag or quilt . It will spoil the loft and although it can contain some moisture , too much will make you cold..

But isn't the down coming from waterbirds? They need a lot of down to keep them warm but are in the water even when it's freezing ! Is the down of a duck more waterresistant than the down we use for the sleepingbags/quilts ? Or are the feathers working as a kind of goretex or greasy vapor barrier?

(anyway ,I'm not gonna paste feathers on my quilt )

[Alamosa]

The way I understand it is that the down is the innermost feathers on the chest of the birds. The outer feathers form a waterproof barrier that protects them from getting wet.

[Cannibal]

Down is the undercoat of water fowl, not the water barrier. As I understand them, the feathers and body oils keep most of the water from penetrating into the down. The difference is when the down does get wet, the birds can clean themselves and keep the down in good condition. Can't really get to the down to clean it in a bag, so we have to soak-wash and tumble dry to clean and break it up.

This is really only going to be an issue during prolonged exposure (days/weeks) to very cold temperatures. In those situations, synthetic insulation is the easy winner over down. Otherwise, and IMO, down is King.

[Joey]

Just sent Rogaine and email asking if they can develop something to help me grown feathers. Who needs hair....feathers are the shiz-nit!

[Newzy]

Just sent Rogaine and email asking if they can develop something to help me grown feathers. Who needs hair....feathers are the shiz-nitz

Long time back, didn't they tar & feather people ?? Seems you would have warmth and waterproofing

[Newzy]

ON top of that, a civil question. Has anybody tried making a hybrid UQ with maybe a layer of IX close to the hammock, with down channels, then ripstop?? Maybe the IX would limit moisture transfer to a fair degree, but still breath some?

[mbiraman]

People shouldn't get too freaked out about moisture and down. You have to pretty much get your bag or quilt WET before it has any significant loss of function. Yrs ago i use to work for months at a time on the west coast of BC, can you say rain forest. It was early spring, late winter so things were always wet and moist and in my tent everything was damp . Over a period of a couple of months i would dry the bag in a dryer but there was never allot of problem.

[BillyBob58]

as far as I know..water / moisture will negatively impact the insulation of a down sleepingbag or quilt . It will spoil the loft and although it can contain some moisture , too much will make you cold..

But isn't the down coming from waterbirds? They need a lot of down to keep them warm but are in the water even when it's freezing ! Is the down of a duck more waterresistant than the down we use for the sleepingbags/quilts ? Or are the feathers working as a kind of goretex or greasy vapor barrier?

(anyway ,I'm not gonna paste feathers on my quilt )

Down is the undercoat of water fowl, not the water barrier. As I understand them, the feathers and body oils keep most of the water from penetrating into the down. The difference is when the down does get wet, the birds can clean themselves and keep the down in good condition. Can't really get to the down to clean it in a bag, so we have to soak-wash and tumble dry to clean and break it up.

This is really only going to be an issue during prolonged exposure (days/weeks) to very cold temperatures. In those situations, synthetic insulation is the easy winner over down. Otherwise, and IMO, down is King.

I have also always wondered about this. And not only that: How could my black lab jump into lake Erie, swim among the growing ice bergs for a while as he retrieved, jump out, shake off and good to go? What the heck? His coat was not more than an inch or so thick. He used to lay out on a block of ice by his house, just catching some rays!

How did his (even wet ) wool keep him warm in those frigid temps? What is up with these non-humans?

If a birds feathers protect the down from outside water, what about the birds own body moisture when they are exercising? Do they have some kind of built in vapor barrier?

[yakrs4]

The down does have some natural body oils that repel water to a degree. But when faced with overwhelming water for long enough, they "wet out", all the puffiness goes away and the down has no loft and no insulation value. In a sleeping bag it takes a while to wet out. My old down bag with standard nylon shell takes forever to wet out when I wash it in the tub. I've slept out many nights without cover and shaken off the heavy dew and kept going, maybe needing a little sun drying in the afternoon. Your most likely wet out suituation is a leaky tent, but we aren't doing that anymore, right. Even then, you might only get a limited portion of the bag wet, so you probably won't die. The oils in the down help it dry out faster once the water is gone. Some moisture might build up in a bag over days/weeks at damp cold temps, especially if the water freezes inside the bag, but that is not an issue for most people. It seems like the newer hi tech bag shell fabrics might be tougher to wet out but then tougher to dry out if they did. Maybe others can comment on that.

[psyculman]

ON top of that, a civil question. Has anybody tried making a hybrid UQ with maybe a layer of IX close to the hammock, with down channels, then ripstop?? Maybe the IX would limit moisture transfer to a fair degree, but still breath some?

Yes, I have, and it does