Why is down warm

Visiting from another country? Check out our international portal in order to check out with up to date currency and inventory. Find Your Country No thanks, Stay on this page. The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. Posted: September 21, Categories: Gear and Tips. Author: Outdoor Research. How does down insulation work? Apocalypse Design, an Alaska-based outdoor gear company, makes custom coats and outerwear for truly brutal conditions, including Iditarod races.

The company is based in Fairbanks, where temperatures of degrees Fahrenheit are the norm in the winter. PrimaLoft shown below is one of the most common varieties of synthetic fill. It will work even if it gets wet. PrimaLoft is interesting because it uses synthetic fibers arranged in down-like clusters instead of a continuous sheet.

The primary function of the outer layer is to keep out wind and moisture. Ryan Knapp is a senior staff meteorologist and weather observer at the Mount Washington observatory in New Hampshire, where temperatures regularly cross the degree point with gusting winds that push the feels-like temperature down even more.

Outer layers are typically made from tightly-woven synthetic materials with a hydrophobic coating like Gore-Tex, which allows water vapor to pass out into the atmosphere while blocking outside moisture from getting in. Perfluorinated acids were once a typical ingredient in hydrophobic coatings which were hazardous because of their penchant for bioaccumulating in the environment. Manufacturers have made efforts to move away from the nasty chemicals.

Its primary function is to protect the insulation inside. The layer that goes next to your skin seems like the least important, but in many cases, it actually handles a lot of the initial heat retention. Columbia and other companies use reflective material it calls Omni-Heat—Blackford likens it to non-contiguous strands of a NASA thermal blanket—to reflect infrared wavelengths back toward your skin.

Having a hood certainly keeps you warmer and is worth the nominal additional weight and cost. The way in which a jacket is sewn matters. The more-expensive method of creating so-called box baffles eliminates those cold spots and makes a jacket look puffier, but adds weight and usually cost. Look for that type of construction in puffy jackets designed for temps near and below freezing.

I find occasional exceptions to those general weight guidelines, when a jacket is remarkably warm for its weight, usually because of the use of lighter materials, such as shell fabric, and construction methods that reduce weight. Click here to leave a tip for The Big Outside! Thank you. I purchased a Mammut down jacket with grams of fill rating down. Is it ok to wear in temperatures ranging below 0 degrees centigrade.

I also found that RAB Positron to contain g of fill rating down fill. Its is better but adds grams more weight. Thanks for the question. You so totally rock. Down jackets made of goose down the smaller, fluffier feathers underneath the harder exterior feathers are pound for pound the best insulation against cold temperatures , according to NY Daily News.

When searching for a down jacket, Slavin suggests looking for those tire tube-like panels of down for the warmest, coziest coat possible. If you're still confused, REI has made a handy chart of pros and cons for different types of insulated outerwear, including down and synthetic fibers.

They ranked down as the fabric with most warmth per weight, whereas fleece is the least warm of the four choices. Yes, there is a downside — down jackets are expensive as can be.

But you should know that not all down jackets are created equal. There's a reason the best down jackets see: Canada Goose are really expensive — they not only will last you forever, but they also come with a lifetime guarantee, says ABC News.