cheap down for MYOG

Any word on the quality?

I would be interested to get your impression as to the size of the down plumes and if you have heard of anyone testing their shipment vs. the labeled fill power.

I am working on using up the last of my thru-hiker down on a 10 degree quilt so I'll need some more down at some point soon for a 40 degree.

Anthony

I haven't received it yet, but I'll let you know when I get it. I've never worked with down before, though, so I'm not sure how much help I'll be.

nice!

Down just arrived today. Came in a large box. Inside the box was this:

Looks like the down comes directly from Allied Feather.
Definitely not going to be fun getting the down out of that. I'll have to poke a small hole and put a shopvac hose in and suck everything out and repackage into sandwich bags or something.

Down + sack it came in comes in at 1# 8.9oz

Hopefully I'll be able to get most of the down out of there.

After sewing all day, this is great news. Saved me 12 bucks.

You're welcome! I found it easier to just ham fist the down into my quilt.

A nice tip is to do it in your bath tub. That way it's easier to clean up.

Also, roll/compress the down in the bag it comes in into a box or something, that way you can grab compressed fistfuls if you go that route.

I ordered today, you apply the code after you enter your shipping info. Worked just fine. I noticed they have a 10% coupon for joining the newsletter, this is probably that code (without the extra spam)

I ended up upgrading to 900fp, gray with WR for $117. So basically this code upped my warmth by 50FP for the same price!

Andy, when mine comes we should try to figure out if I did in fact get 900fp vs your 850. Being recent orders of otherwise exactly the same stuff.

Do you have any not stuffed? Maybe we could both put 1oz in the same type of container, like a ziplock and measure/photo how lofty it is.

More for others' uses, not like I'm going to complain to them but it was 15% more so I'd expect it to be noticeably different stuff.

"I'll have to poke a small hole and put a shopvac hose in and suck everything out and repackage into sandwich bags or something."

I've just put main package in large plastic container, grabbed down in hand, weighed it for each baffle, moved very slowly,… Lose very little down.

If you re-package in 1 ounce bags, or whatever, it doesn't really solve anything.

If you had "an accident" with shop vac it could create blizzard : )

Yet many people use shop vac successfully so that works too

Sure, I can do that! If you have access to labware, like 1L beakers, etc, I could put mine in those.

I skipped the whole repackaging thing. I did end up making a little blizzard with the shopvac on accident (ended up returning it), and ended up just have studying my quilt which worked out fine. Clean up was pretty easy since I did it in my cleaned bathroom.

When I made my down hood, I had the down bag in the bathtub and used my vacuum with mesh on it. It worked perfectly and I didn't make any mess since my vacuum can only suck. What little down that did manage to escape from the bad was contained in the bathtub, which I vacuumed up and put back in the bag.

It would be kind of hard for us to tell since the fill power is based on laboratory conditions. Also, the US testing does some stuff to the down first to optimize/maximize the fill prior to testing, whereas European down does not "artificially" inflate their numbers like that. Which is why you'll often see people say 800FP EU down = 850FP us, or sobering like that.

Also, I believe they put a standard weight down on top of the down to account for any excess air gaps, etc, then measure how much of the graduated cylinder/beaker the down fills.

For the testing they do some pretty extreme stuff to the down like laundering it way more then they do for the production batches.

But I would be excited to see your results, and I could compare it to my old batch of the thru-hikers 850+

I've got a fairly accurate scale…. how about measuring out .20oz into a milk jug with the top 1/2" cut off and posting pictures? or maybe like 5.0g into a nalgene?

Anthony

Anthony,

I expect it to be more anecdotal than scientific, possibly not even helpful. Humidity alone could make the 50fp difference I imagine.

I have a 1L nalgene and a two-decimal place ounce scale, when the down comes I'll see if I can make that work.

Yeah! Thanks for getting on board. I'll try and post a picture of my down tonight

Ah, I hadn't really thought about the humidity. As long as its inside it should probably be fine.

Anthony

I think you also have to put a weight on top. Like maybe a paper or cardboard disk that just fits inside your container.

However I just did a little math.

It should only take 0.07ounces of 800 fill down to fill a nalgene.

Any ideas of household items with graduation marks that would be largeer than 1L?

Yeah according to the standards for testing down.

For ease of implementation it seams like leaving the weight out of the equation is a good idea. That way everyone has an easier time doing to same thing

Anthony

Anthony,

Inside an average home the humidity is typically kept between 35% – 50% RH for optimal health. IDFL rated fill power is measured after conditioning the down at 65% RH.

How can they charge only $6 more for the treated down? I figured if it was legit there would be more of a difference.

Well, the down comes from allied feather which provides down for some major companies like Western a mountaineering and Feathered Friends.

Since it's purchased in bulk, they probably don't rip you off the way a clothing company like Patagonia or Columbia or whatever will for having water resistant down vs regular down.

I _knew_ all of the standard techniques for handling down. However, there had just been some rain, so the humidity seemed higher, so I was guessing that the premium goose down wouldn't be so difficult to wrangle. Wrong.

The first few grams came out of the bag OK. After that, the down was picking up a big static charge as it left the bag. Then it exploded all over the house. I hate to think how much I inhaled.

–B.G.–

Best post ever.

My sympathies. But on the other hand, if only you'd thought to set up the video camera first…

What would be the optimum fill power for tar and feathering?

Well, tar is too harsh. Corn syrup and feathering? Low fill power so there's actually feathers or high fill power so it's multi use?

Corn syrup shower, then throw down on yourself + windshirt + wind pants = instant, no-sew down clothing!

I read of one person handing down in a large car camping tent set up indoors. Clever.

A section of aluminum dryer duct might work as a measuring cylinder. Might help keep the static at bay.