The Future – Nanotechnology Waterproof Down

I'm at work and can't watch youtube, care to share a summary? :D

It was a video by a company called KUIU. The guy was doing a demonstration between regular down and their "waterproof" down. He put regular down and the waterproof down into two separate containers filled with water where the down was floating on the surface. He shook up the containers to get the down wet. The regular down clumped up into a soggy mess. The waterproof down retained most of it's loft.

850+ fill power down treated with a DWR finish through nanotechnology. The guy in the video puts said down in jar with water and thoroughly shakes it up. The down stays lofted rather well.

Ah thanks guys. A berghaus rep showed me something similar last winter, I believe it's in their current "extrem" range of down jackets.

I feel that hydrophobic down is one of those things that is more of a gimic than anything else. At some point the down will wet out and lose its loft and you'll get cold.

On the other hand I haven't seen that video so I could be wrong ^_^

Hi Ben,

Checkout the video on YouTube of the Berhgaus Ilam jacket, the guy doing the review said his sleeping bag turned
To mush on a big Himalayan climb but his Dwr treated down jacket stayed lofty.

Nah, the heck with actual experience. Go with your feelings…

;-)

With the price of hydrophobic down I will be relying on 'feelings' for quite a while longer :P

You guys are aware of driDown by Sierra Designs, correct? The price of treated 800 fill down is very marginally more than standard 800 fill. Weight gain is marginal, though performance is extensively improved.

The talk about it resisting storms is nonsense. Where treated down really performs (SD, Big Agnes, etc), is in the fact that it doesn't lose loft overnight via respiration/perspiration. We lose around a liter of water per night, and after a few nights, most bags lose a considerable amount of insulation. These also shine in humid environmnents. I would have killed to have had one on a bike tour of Central America….

It has been discussed several times before.
Enter 63446/66725/67431 or 69714 into the "search BPL" box (top right of this page) and you will find those threads.

I'm waiting to see the new down DWR treatment from Patagonia. It may be the best of the lot due to its molecular level deposition process.

Actually I'm waiting for Will Reitveld to do an objective comparison of all the DWR treated down types. A winter down bag with a good down DWR will be a great advantage.

My overfilled 3-season WM Megalite down bag is fine as-is because I can (usually) unzip it and dry it during breakfast and packing as well as at the end of the day.

But I would REALLY like to have had my Eddie Bauer Down Sweater (see my avatar) with a down DWR. Generally EB's European down still has a fair amount of natural oils in it to aid in resisting moisture to some degree.

P.S. Now all we need is Unobtanium hiking poles and "Never Wet" DWR to come on the market. At the rate things are going I'll bet on the mythical Unobtanium as opposed to the near-mythical "Never Wet".

Eric
Sometimes it has do to with the way we perceive new technologies.
I call it myth understanding.

I think these coatings could have promise, but right now I view them as gimmicky at best. I think one of the main, though unhighlighted, benefits of the treatments from a manufacturing standpoint is that it inherently allows a lesser quality down to loft better. So instead of using the best 4th moult down to achieve 900 fill power, a manufacturer can use small plumes and chopped up fragments, spray them with the coating, and still claim 900 fill power.

If/when the coating wears off, not only do you have just regular down, but you now have crappy, poorly-lofting down that's gonna shift a whole lot more…

(The preceeding is pure conjecture based on my often incorrect logic.)

The down that KUIU uses is Toray's new Quix Down. They use a new patented process to apply the DWR that is different than others used in the past. I don't know details but I am a believer in Toray's technology. They are the best of the best in the world of advanced textiles. I hardly doubt that Toray would introduce anything gimmicky at all.

I would hope that when BPL reviews the DWR down products that they include the KUIU down jacket/vest in the mix. It's 900 fill French grey goose down treated with the Toray DWR.