Rose Feather Goose Down

I am happy to see this post as I just finished up my first down quilt…so I’m in need of more down and was seriously considering rose feather. I can’t say that I am surprised but I am a little bit disappointed.

How much do you need in order to get an accurate measurement? It would be great if we could get samples of down from different vendors. I used the bulk blend 800/850fp from wilderness logics and would be interested in seeing the resulting fill power, not that I am at all doubting.

Cool setup and ingenuity!

I love it.  I’ve often wondered about those Amazon feathers.  But the obvious problem is that you need at least one confirmed reference material to ensure this test is even remotely accurate.  And generally measurements should be made in triplicate with the range of values measured given to give an indication of the precision of the measurement.  Again, I love it — but it needs just a little bit more work to be practically useful.

The test protocol only requires one ounce of material.  The other test I referenced was 900fp from Thru-Hiker. I went on at some length in the first thread I linked about what to make of diy measurement results.

It would be great if more folks start measuring the down they receive and sharing the results.

To encourage that, here’s the US test spec:

Measurement cylinder is 241mm diameter (9.48″), compression disk is 68.3g (2.41oz), sample size is 28.3g (1oz).  The cross sectional area of the cylinder is 70.7″, so 1oz of 900fp should fill it to 12.7″.  You want a cylinder at least 24″ tall.

Mine was 36″ which let me flatten, fold and clip the top shut to shake the sample.  The cylinder could be made from butcher paper or wrapping paper, and the base and compression disc could be any sort of cardboard.  It helps if the inside is a dark color, or you at least have a dark, vertical stripe so you can see height of the white feathers.  I taped batteries and coins to the compression disk to get the weight right.  You’ll likely get a bit of down escaping the disk as it sinks.  When you see this, think about the quantities of feathers you put on the scale when measuring your sample – I was moving small hand-fulls at the very end.  In my case, the escaped down was obviously less than .01oz (1% by weight), so it was pretty irrelevant as a source of error.

I made an underquilt with their 850 fp stuff. I used a calculator made by someone on hammock forums. I followed baffle and chamber heights and put in the exact 1.2 oz per chamber that it called for. This was for a 20* rating and the resulting loft was spot on as well as the quilt works at the desired temp. Unscientifically, this has to put it fairly close to its rating so I can say I’m very pleased with it.

Well that’s good to hear.  The problem may be w/ the higher fill power I ordered, it doesn’t even loft to 850.

Any recollection of the overfill in that plan?  My measured fill power is 21% below spec.  If I used 30% overfill, I might not be able to tell my down was under spec by looking at the stuffed baffles.

Here are the specs from my build:

Yup.  Looks like your batch was pretty close to claimed fill power.

I wrote Rose Feather and they’re trying to tell me their fill power claim doesn’t actually mean fill power….

Hmm, down imported directly from China.  The Amazon reviews are pretty mixed too.  I would be willing to wager a large sum of money that they do not conform to the Responsible Down Standard, which is a pretty big deal to me, being a vegan.  I’m not sure that I would trust their advertising copy either as far as it being washed and hypo-allergenic.  But for those that don’t care about those things or consistent quality and rating, the price is ridiculously low!

950fp from Quest Outfitters lofts to 1166 with just a few minutes of stirring and shaking to break up clumps after removing it from the shipping packaging.  This is much more in line with the expected ~30% over-loft before compression – 23% over in this case.

I’ll update again after it has a full 24 hours to loft, and see how it does w/ the compression disk.

Ok, spec round up:

600fp from an unused bed pillow: free loft, 12% over spec; compressed, 35% under spec

900fp from Thru-Hiker: free loft, 33% over spec; compressed, 39% under spec

950fp from Quest Outfitters: free loft, 27% over spec; compressed, 29% under spec

“950fp” from Rose Feather: free loft 18% *under* spec; compressed, 55% under spec (this measures like 650fp)