Down allergies: Hypoallergenic markings, loft and DWR questions

So I'm officially allergic to both ducks and geese – as per testing when I was a kid – but I have never had an issue with any of the down bags I have owned. Why, I don't know. Since I am allergic to various stuff, and have kids who are also, I have learned a few things along the way that may pertain to what you ask.
First of all,super tight weave fabrics are your best friend in this situation since that will keep allergens in. If you've ever bought dust-mite free mattress covers that's exactly what they are, super tight weave high thread count fabric. I very much doubt that the DWR treatment on the shell fabric would have anything to do with it, since those chemicals are absorbed into or coating the fibers in the fabric, and not filling the spaces between the fibers which is what they would need to do to make a difference.

Calendared fabrics – and many of the lightest nylons are calendared – should be effectively more tightly woven; calendaring is basically passing the fabric between rollers with one being a heated roller so that the threads are softened by the heat and mashed by the pressure so that spaces between the fibers are made smaller. This is often done with really light fabrics that otherwise would not be downproof.

As to Hypo-allergenic, as I understand it, down plumules are not allergenic at all – just as dog hair and cat hair are not – it is the dander , or sloughed off dead skin cells, of the animal that is the allergen. so in the case of down, to achieve hypo-allergenic status I suppose you'd simply have to clean thoroughly enough to eliminate any dander. But whether that makes a difference, whether any leftover dander could actually escape through the fabric, I don't know. Treated down might have an effect here, as that process might affect the down in such a way as to eliminate any dander or other possible allergens: but I have no information on that one way or the other.

Whether duck or goose would be better for you is probably impossible to tell other than by trail and error, since everyone's allergies are different and you may be more allergic to one or the other

Hi r m. I work at EE.

When doing customer service for EE, I talked to a decent number of folks who were allergic to down, and weren't sure what to choose. I think most ended up going with the DownTek treatment (though I doubt it would affect allergies much, if at all, so they may well have been choosing it just for the water resistance). Probably split down the middle as far as going with the 20D outer fabric or just sticking with the 10D, and no pattern in what down type was chosen. In the end I haven't heard of anyone who was able to point any allergy issues to the quilt (there may have been one, but they didn't follow up to let us know if any of the stuff tried ruling out was an issue).

Anyway, not a very scientific sample so I can't promise that one option will be better than another, but in my experience I haven't seen anything that would obviously affect a down allergy.

I have mild down allergies — e.g. sometimes ask for a synthetic replacement when I'm in a hotel or B&B.

I have no issues with my EE quilt. No idea if any of the specs matter, but fwiw, it's 10 denier shell, goose down, 800/850 (forget which), no DryTech. (But for future purchases I'd probably go duck and Drytech)

and for reference I've also used a down loaner quilt (GoLite maybe) and a down loaner bag (Marmot), for two nights each, will no symptoms.

Generally the higher the fill rating the more processed the down is and usually the cleaner it is. That is just from experience but is not always the case. We've had 900 fill that was really dusty and other bags that were just about dust free over the years. So it really depends greatly on what sort of cleaning process is used. For the most part all our customers with down allergies haven't had any issue with any of our 900+ fill over the years.

As for "Allergen-Free" or to post something like that on the goose down simply means it has to pass a "Turbidity" test of 400+mm. What they do is wash up a bit of down then poor all the water into a container and see how dirty the water is. If they can see through at least 400mm of water it's considered Allergen-Free. Having said that all of the down we use is washed multiple times with a biodegradeable detergent and from what I'm told rates to 1000+mm turbidity or really clean.

No idea on the DWR coatings. I've had HyperDry and a couple others I've tested and it's just as dusty as the normal stuff. It also never performs much of any better, so I wouldn't give it anymore of a thumbs up than anything else.

Right now we've got about 30lbs of the most beautiful Hungarian white goose down in 950 fill I've ever seen. It's also some of the cleanest I've seen and my guess wouldn't cause any allergy issue.

I've gone with a 850 fp goose down, 10 denier shell, EE quilt.

The AUD:USD exchange rate is terrible at the moment, so it ended up being pretty expensive, but I don't doubt it'll be worth it.