Laundry Day - Fun with HyperDRY

[sr1355]

Yesterday and today we've been washing our personal gear getting ready for our Annual "GARAGE SALE". Most of our quilts are filled with ARD+ or HyperDRY Down, Allied Feather & Downs hydrophobic treated down. For fun we thought we would take a few pictures and weights before and after washing. We used a front loader, set on a 47 min cycle with medium spin. We've washed untreated down quilts on these same setting in the past to full wet out conditions, you couldn't even tell there was down in the untreated quilts when they came out of the washer.

This was NOT the case with the following quilt:

30*F 55X78 Full Taper Flight Jacket
HyperDRY850GGD
1oz body overstuff
1oz foot box overstufff
Total of 14.5oz HD850GGD



Weight before washing was 646 grams directly removed from two days storage in stuff sack used this past weekend in high humidity environment. Not looking as fluffy or happy as the day it was made....





We used a front loader, set on a 47 min cycle with medium spin.



Weight immediately after washing: 736 grams (90 grams of water adsorbed)



The water in the glass represents 90 grams. Not even a full glass of Champagne for you...

Weight after air drying on table for 2 hrs in shop: 692 grams



Weight after additional 1 hr line drying in sun: 618 grams At this point the quilt was pretty much fully dry and a quick shake brought it to full loft.

We found it interesting the quilt already had what appeared to be 28 grams of moisture/dirt on it to start from use over the past 3-4 months. How much of this was moisture in the down and how much of this was dirt on the shell/down is unknown. It only absorbed an additional 90 grams of water in the washer. It had retained most of it's loft, while the shell was damp the majority of the down was lofted and still would have been effective at doing it's job. There was some very minor clumping but we would have been able to use this quilt if it had been field exposed to excessive water.

On another note don't be afraid to wash your down gear per your manufacturer recommendations, it will make a BIG difference in performance. High fill power downs need even more care and cleaning due to their super fine down cluster. Just be sure to know the equipment you will be washing/drying in and monitor the drying cycle carefully to prevent shell damage. The dryer will not damage the down, down is sanitized t 130*C for 30 minutes in processing. The dryer may damage the nylon shell of your gear if they get to hot.

This was just an informal demonstration of HyperDRY and it's resistance to wetting out as well as it's quick dry time when damp. In my conclusion the hydrophobic downs are for real and have added performance value over untreated downs. From the introduction of the first hydrophobic down to the current technology there has been vast improvements in terms of resistance to moisture and it's ability to dry quickly. We will continue to include HyperDRY in all our offerings at no additional charge for our valued customers.

[PapaSmurf]

Excellent info. I've never washed any of my down insulation and my quilts sometimes begin to smell a little "smurfy". I would probably gain quite a bit of warmth with a good washing.

On the other hand, I've worked hard for the past 30 years to convince MamaSmurf that I don't know how to operate a washing machine.

Tough choice.....

[Zilla]

Excellent info. I've never washed any of my down insulation and my quilts sometimes begin to smell a little "smurfy". I would probably gain quite a bit of warmth with a good washing.

On the other hand, I've worked hard for the past 30 years to convince MamaSmurf that I don't know how to operate a washing machine.

Tough choice.....

Stick with the smell , you dont want to open that door !

[JToon]

Thanks for the info. That is actually really impressive.

On the other hand, I've worked hard for the past 30 years to convince MamaSmurf that I don't know how to operate a washing machine.

Do it while she is gone for a day, and then pretend it never happened. I am sure someone on here can give you a torturial.

[craige]

Good test Paul, that's a very impressive result!

Wonder how much dirt is in my 0* zeppelin, that thing is WARM and because it's still the only uq I have, I've had some pretty sweaty nights... Even not really using my sb :s

I know it's always suggested that one should use a large capacity machine but what would you suggest as a minimum capacity for washing a fl 0* zeppelin? Thanks.

[sr1355]

Wonder how much dirt is in my 0* zeppelin, that thing is WARM and because it's still the only uq I have, I've had some pretty sweaty nights...

I know it's always suggested that one should use a large capacity machine but what would you suggest as a minimum capacity for washing a fl 0* zeppelin? Thanks.

I would suspect that my UQ will required less cleaning than my TQ due to the protection provided by the hammock body from the biggest source of dirt "ME". And I'm using the word dirt to cover all sort of things....

Our washer is 3.9CF and that works for us, I run two wash cycles on heavier quilts. I really couldn't recommend a min size. I know some of the EU units get pretty small.

[WV]

Nice clear test procedure. Thanks. It would be interesting to repeat it for the same quilt. I hope you'll do a follow-up some day.

[f1prb22]

Pretty amazing.
I believe I have the HyperDry version as I purchased my quilt from you Black Friday in 2013.
Thanks for sharing.

[MAD777]

Wow Paul. That is really useful information! Its obvious that HyperDry isn't just "hype."

But PapaSmurf raises a good point, Paul, and I think you should come clean with the facts. Was it Missy who washed these quilts, or did you in fact help?

[BillyBob58]

Very impressive! Hard to see how Hyperdry down and moisture could really be a problem even under the worst imaginable conditions, short of ripping the shell and the down flying away.