Gotcha. I knew downlinens.com was a reputable source, so I normally try to buy from places that people have had some experience with. I'm always a little leery of buying stuff from China anyway!
Two heads are good, three are great, but all heads at hammockforums is the best case scenario!
You would only get high-quality downs for outdoor purposes much cheaper if you would know how make a nano polymer down treatment or a water-resistant down coating.
http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/qu...how-is-it-made
It looks like that it is more or less a trust which determines the world-market prices for water resistant downs and I figured that the prices for high quality outdoor downs are almost the same worldwide.
The remaining chance is perhaps Ebay. Look for used high-quality sleeping bags. Perhaps you can still use the zipper and the downs inside. I would not buy cheap downs made in China. The best downs still come from canadian or sibiric geese.
Yeah I've looked at eBay also and still looked like downlinens.com was the best buy. Thanks everyone who has responded. I have done a lot of research, so I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the down situation, but I wanted to run it by the community just in case I had missed something!
Two heads are good, three are great, but all heads at hammockforums is the best case scenario!
I was expecting dodgy cheap down from China and a 40 day delivery. It came in 2 weeks. I've only took down from duvets before so can't compare to anything else but to my untrained eye I could not complain. Ive a post here of a diy uq I made with it showing pics of the down. Hope that helps.
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-Down-Argon-UQ
Last edited by The_hanging_dog; 03-06-2015 at 11:22. Reason: added link
The problem is what happens if you are exposed with a relative high air moisture under very cold circumstances. Do the downs then warm you up?
Downs made in China may come from young beast for slaughter (not older than 12 weeks - this is not the best quality) and nobody knows how the water-resistant down coating is made. I could buy high qualitity downs cheap from Poland or Hungary but would not get any information about the fill power and can be quite sure that the downs would not be water resistant.
Try to translate this article with the google translator and watch the video in this article. There is more which you should know about downs:
http://hugsforhikers.com/blog/2012/0...utdoorbranche/
The_hanging_dog, I appreciate the link to your quilt (nice looking project btw).
I, like xxl_hanger, am a little concerned about the water resistance factor though. I live in Alabama and while we don't get just a ton of rain, the humidity here stays extremely high pretty much year around, so I'm thinking I need some down with some sort of water resistance. But I really do appreciate your reply and link!
Two heads are good, three are great, but all heads at hammockforums is the best case scenario!
I like the way The_hanging_dog did his UQ too. But I had not saved 20 bucks for the downs. I had bought the best downs I could get. I have not much experience with downs but I know what can happen. When I was at the German army many year ago we slept one night in igloos in army down sleeping bags. Outside it was approx 5°F. My sleeping bag was somehow wet only because of the humidity. I have no other explanation. I have never frozen that much than in this night and I thought I would not survive the night. I think I was already blue with cold in that sleeping bag.
That sounds like a terrible night! I sure don't want to experience anything like that! Of course, like I said, I'm not planning my UQ for really cold temps because I don't have any plans on going in the dead of winter, but I'd prefer to not even be uncomfortable when I go, even if I'm not freezing!
Two heads are good, three are great, but all heads at hammockforums is the best case scenario!
I think you have two options. If you want to save money then go for synthetics.
Primaloft for example compresses almost like downs, is breahtable, water repellant and retains warmth when wet. 5-6oz Primaloft silver (4oz + 1.8oz DL with displaced quilting stitch lines) whould be sufficient for a 3 Season UQ up to the freezing point. If you plan to go into extrem temps too then don't save money. Your first priority should then to stay alive as comfortable as possible. Then you should also buy the best material you can get and this means high-quality downs for outdoor purposes.
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