The Ultimate Guide to Buying Down Bedding
The bottom line when it comes to those who buy down bedding is do you want to have a higher quality life and afford yourself the luxury of sleeping in goose down bedding or is saving $400 over the course of 5 or 10 years more important to you.
Down comforters and other products do cost more. But with the extra cost comes greater comfort and warmth (or coolness depending on if it’s summer) and in the end, the more expensive blankets and pillows actually save you money and are well worth it. Think of all the extra blankets and layers people buy in the winter just to stay warm when just one down comforter could have saved them repeated purchases, time, travel, and energy if they had done things right the first time.
With the benefits of down firmly in mind, let’s take a look at the guide to buying down goose products which for the most part also apply to down alternatives. Alternative down is a synthetic type of bedding that mimics down but doesn’t have real feathers.
Just like clothes, the sizes of down comforters are going to vary. Take measurements before buying to line up the specific size of your queen bed and queen comforter to ensure they match how you want. Don’t rely on the fact they’re both queen because that label isn’t universal.
Also, not all down bedding is created equally. Some goose down is lower quality and some are actually what is called “down alternative”. Quality determinations include fill power, thread count, grade of down, baffles, duvet covers, and stitching. Fill power is how strong the shield of down feathers within the blanket are. The higher the fill power, the warmer your comforter will be.
Baffles help keep the down in place. Think of baffles as little sewn together patches that box in the cushioning so that the north end of a blanket isn’t stuffed with insulation while the south end has virtually no feathers inside it and leaves you cold.
Duvet covers protect your precious down comforter from the elements and basically getting dirty. Their function is to guard and then to wash better when the time comes to clean the comforter. When duvet covers come included in a bedding down set, then you save the price of an extra accessory and get something easy to wash and replaceable if something should happen to the duvet cover. If you’re using a captains bed, take the different sizing into consideration when you buy your sheets and covers.
Thread counts are deceptively important because fragments of feathers can leak out of your comforter. Weird, I know, but a water analogy is appropriate here as comforters or pillows without tight threads are susceptible to losing down as you pound and move them around. Higher thread counts will command a higher price, but they are worth it.
