Degradation of synthetic insulation like Polartec Alpha?

You could measure it’s thickness (loft).  It should get thinner as it degrades.

Worst is if you compress it a lot, like in your backpack.

Thanks for the reply. Can safely say that I use it mostly for bike commuting, then secondary is walking and third is hiking. So, very little compression – and definitely never stuffing it.

I would imagine its too late to measure loft now.

Hoping for other insights specific to Polartec alpha or long term studies of how insulation fails (eg 4 years.. 14 years…?)

Jimmy,

I don’t have specifics as to type and loss of loft.  I’ve used garments and sleeping bags made of many synthetics, however, and they all lose their loft over time, regardless of brand.

It depends on so many factors: time,storagecompression, outright use, laundering, etc. It will lose loft — that’s a given.

Might be a different answer then for the usual syn-insulations, as its more fleece like. So compression shouldnt be as bad maybe?

Thats what I imagined (that its more fleece like) but it definitely feels cooler this year :-(

According to Richard Nisley, Alpha insulation is nearly the same as Polartec Thermal Pro High Loft which loses up to 30% of its insulation from compression but the loft can be restored to 100% by a tumble dry.

In the field, you can get the same clo restoration by brushing against the nap with a small brush.

I found washing synthetic garments can restore lots of loft.  Wash and tumble dry low with tennis balls.  A Polarguard vest of mine from the 1970’s restored to almost full loft after laundering.

Climashield (of any type) seems to have the best resistance to losing loft after repeated stuffings in a sack. It also has long fiber life. The US military uses Climashield in many garments.

PrimaLoft Gold is said to be “fragile”, whatever that means.