First down jacket --- Awesome! But there's a problem...

[Muse]

I bought it last Friday (6 days ago) at Costco, and it was a cheap $25 (please don't tell me YGWYPF). It keeps me warm enough, looks OK (it took me over ten minutes to find one smaller than XL!), has a fantastic assortment of pockets that really work (many of them nicely zippered), of the two colors they had, it wasn't my preference, but I'd be quite pleased but for the fact that feathers keep coming out of the material. If I pull them out, more keep coming. I decided to ignore them but I'm not sure that's working. My house is chilly and I'm seeing little and not so little duck down feathers very frequently, including on the back of my desk chair.

Is there something I can do to reduce the problem? I have some rain chaps that used to not really work and I sprayed them with a water repellent (years ago) and I'm wondering if something like that might improve the situation. Thanks for sage advice, comments, etc.

 

[effowe]

That happens with my down comforter as well. I'm not sure how to go about patching them, but find the source of the feathers and try plugging it up somehow. Maybe sew it up at those points, or is it just coming from everywhere.

 

[herm0016]

you get what you pay for.
The problem is the quality and thread density of the fabric. The down is probably low quality also. Most likely 400 or lower fill power. 1oz of down fills 400 cubic inches, probably feathers in there too. High quality down is free of all feathers and has a fill power of 800 +. To fix it I would pull the down back into the coat and then spray with a dwr coating to seal the fabric.

 

[Captante]

The bad news is that every down-filled product I've owned has had this issue to varying degrees & cheap down-filled jackets tend to be the worst offenders because of very porous fabric & wide stitching.

Also although it may help slow the feather-leakage, I strongly suggest you don't spray it with any kind of fabric sealant because you may damage any water-repellant coating it has.

The good news is that unless somthing is seriously wrong (like it has a hole) it won't lose enough down to make it less warm before you wear it out, also if its really bothering you I'm sure Costco will allow you to return it with no trouble.


Edit: Oh and sorry but you DO get what you pay for !!!

 

[FoBoT]

what they said ^^^

and stop pulling the feathers out

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: effowe
That happens with my down comforter as well. I'm not sure how to go about patching them, but find the source of the feathers and try plugging it up somehow. Maybe sew it up at those points, or is it just coming from everywhere.

Yeah, everywhere :Q!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Captante
The bad news is that every down-filled product I've owned has had this issue to varying degrees & cheap down-filled jackets tend to be the worst offenders because of very porous fabric & wide stitching.

Also although it may help slow the feather-leakage, I strongly suggest you don't spray it with any kind of fabric sealant because you may damage any water-repellant coating it has.

The good news is that unless somthing is seriously wrong (like it has a hole) it won't lose enough down to make it less warm before you wear it out, also if its really bothering you I'm sure Costco will allow you to return it with no trouble.


Edit: Oh and sorry but you DO get what you pay for !!!

This is pretty much what I figured although I'm new to these and knew nothing about them. I just wondered if someone knows of a way to mitigate the problem (i.e. a fabric treatment such as a spray). The down everywhere is getting annoying and it hasn't even been a week.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
what they said ^^^

and stop pulling the feathers out

Yeah, I know, I know, I said that to myself from the beginning...

*dope slaps self*

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: herm0016
you get what you pay for.
The problem is the quality and thread density of the fabric. The down is probably low quality also. Most likely 400 or lower fill power. 1oz of down fills 400 cubic inches, probably feathers in there too. High quality down is free of all feathers and has a fill power of 800 +. To fix it I would pull the down back into the coat and then spray with a dwr coating to seal the fabric.

Pull the down back into the coat? What do you mean by that?

What's a "dwr coating?"

I don't mind the feathers sticking out of the fabric so much (it does annoy me) as them escaping the coat entirely and flying and clinging all over the place.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Captante
The bad news is that every down-filled product I've owned has had this issue to varying degrees & cheap down-filled jackets tend to be the worst offenders because of very porous fabric & wide stitching.

Also although it may help slow the feather-leakage, I strongly suggest you don't spray it with any kind of fabric sealant because you may damage any water-repellant coating it has.

The good news is that unless somthing is seriously wrong (like it has a hole) it won't lose enough down to make it less warm before you wear it out, also if its really bothering you I'm sure Costco will allow you to return it with no trouble.


Edit: Oh and sorry but you DO get what you pay for !!!

This is pretty much what I figured although I'm new to these and knew nothing about them. I just wondered if someone knows of a way to mitigate the problem (i.e. a fabric treatment such as a spray). The down everywhere is getting annoying and it hasn't even been a week.

If its really bad enough to be everywhere then I think you should return it because although all down products leak feathers it shouldn't be constant.

Sadly I think we now know why it only cost $25 ... at least you got it from Costco.

 

[Oyeve]

Its probably more feathers than down. A good ratio is 80 down 20 feathers. Down does not poke thru the fabric as its quills are soft. Feathers on the other hand poke thru pushing the down out and thereby sticking to everything you wear underneath.

 

[Captante]

DWR coating spray


This isn't the same as fabric sealant & won't damage the jacket, but I doubt it will help any with the leakage problem.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

1. Like everyone said, do not pull the feather out. Sometimes they cling to each other and pulling one out results in pulling out a long string of feathers. Instead, try to pull them back INTO the jacket.
2. DWR: Durable Water Repellent. Used on such things as down coats and down sleeping bags in the outdoor industry. May help a bit with the leakage.
3. Most feathers will leak through the seams. Consider using something like McNett Seam Sealer to seal the seams. Seal sealer is normally used to seal the seams on things that are supposed to be waterproof such as tents and rain jackets.

And yeah, you get what you pay for. Cheap down jackets mean there will be a lot of feathers and too little down. The feathers have quills which poke through. More expensive jackets usually have more down and less feathers and tighter stitching.

 

[Jeff7]

I paid around $90 for a down coat from Cabella's. It does the same thing. My supervisor has a down coat, also from Cabella's, a slightly more expensive line - it molts, too.

 

[zinfamous]

they all shed

 

[Chronoshock]

My last down jacket started to break down on the inside and i'd get a line of feathers on all of my clothes right around my waist. It sucked and there was really no way to fix it. I got a new north face (omgtrendymacy'sclothes) jacket which is higher quality but there is still a little bit of feather leakage, but only on the outside around the elbows and shoulders. In conclusion YGWYPF

 

[Muse]

I actually bought two down jackets on the same day (about 11 days ago), a mega shopping trip where I went to 3 different Costco's. I went to one for an item my local one doesn't carry. I bought a down jacket there for $50, nicer looking and so far no moulting, although I haven't been wearing it because it doesn't have those awesome pockets! I went to a 2nd Costco because the first one I went to no longer carried the item I needed. The 3rd one was to get new tires because only they carried the ones I needed. It was there I noticed and got this moulting jacket (I had to do something while they were installing my tires).

It doesn't seem to be the seams that are the problem points but the fabric itself. Although the labeling indicates down, I figure the problem is indeed that there are a lot of feathers and it's those that are poking through.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Captante
The bad news is that every down-filled product I've owned has had this issue to varying degrees & cheap down-filled jackets tend to be the worst offenders because of very porous fabric & wide stitching.

Also although it may help slow the feather-leakage, I strongly suggest you don't spray it with any kind of fabric sealant because you may damage any water-repellant coating it has.

The good news is that unless somthing is seriously wrong (like it has a hole) it won't lose enough down to make it less warm before you wear it out, also if its really bothering you I'm sure Costco will allow you to return it with no trouble.


Edit: Oh and sorry but you DO get what you pay for !!!

I'm not concerned that it will lose significant feathers but I am tiring of seeing down here and there in my house. My office chair has many feathers on it and I refuse to pick them off (just yet). I see downy effluvia floating about from time to time and it makes me want to sigh. I encounter random feathers here and there from time to time... I don't like it. Other than that, I am very high on this jacket. It's warm and I love the pockets. It has 3 zippered pockets on the outside, one on the inside and two unzippered pockets on the inside.

The fabric (as-is) apparently has zero water repellant properties. So, I'm not afraid of destroying any if sprayed.

My alternatives right now as I see it are two:

1. Return

2. Spray

I'm going to try option 2. I once sprayed some rain chaps I had that were close to useless in terms of keeping my pants from getting soaking wet when bike riding in the rain. That was around 15 years ago and those chaps are still pretty much rain-proof! They are, however, somewhat stiff! I hope my down jacket doesn't get too stiff. Now, the rain chaps, I don't recall exactly how I water proofed them. It was probably a can of spray, but possibly a matter of soaking in a solution. I figure that today I will visit REI and talk to them and buy something there, if they recommend it convincingly enough. I will wear the jacket there and have a feeling I will get some decent advice. For one thing I figure I don't want to soak the fabric to the extent that the feathers/down beneath absorb much of the solution. Otherwise, the insulating properties and softness/reslience of the fill could be very compromised, is my suspicion. I'm also concerned that the appearance of the jacket will suffer significantly from whatever treatment it gets. It seems like a tricky thing.

 

[BoomerD]

Pulling the feathers out of a down filled jacket is like pulling gray hairs out...every one you pull out brings 10 more to take its place...