It’s common knowledge that down is a great insulator but that it loses it’s insulative properties when wet. About 18 months ago Sierra Designs began investigating technologies that would help down to continue to perform even in wet conditions.
Ultimately, after rigorous testing, they chose a treatment called DriDown. But, before that could happen, one of the challenges that Sierra Designs had to surmount was the development of testing protocols to ensure consistent performance measures regardless of down treatment. They’ve offered them up to industry and are open to investigating other methods as well.
This example is of a shake test. At this point the samples have had 349 shakes. The example on the left is DriDown, the middle a competitor and the right untreated down. By the way, DriDown shakes out wet at 3725 shakes on average.
DriDown is a polymeric treatment. This means that it will take longer (10x) before you need to take shelter before your down becomes unviable. It will also dry 33% faster than untreated down. This could very well translate to insensible perspiration as well.
It looks to be a very promising technology and I look forward to hearing about how it performs in the field.
Tags: Sierra Designs