Wednesday, September 21, 2011

How I measure insulated down jackets?

I've looked at a lot of down jackets here at Cold Thistle. Synthetics I generally use the weight of the insulation, 60g per square meter as an example or 100g per square meter.



Down jackets I want to know a couple of things.



Construction? Fully box baffled or sewn through. There can be a lot of different combos along with that. But that is the first. What is the construction?



SecondI want to knowwhat the quality of the downused. The fill rating? 750 cu inch per ounce or 800 fill or 1000 fill?



How much actual down fill, as in ounces used? And the jacket's size. Most importantly how that size fits me personally.



Three additional measurements matter to me. Cana full size climbing helmet EASILYfit inside the hood?



Length of the jacket's back from shoulder seam, @ the base of the hood to the hem.











And finally the height of the insulation measured 1/2 way between the neck and the point of the shoulder with the jacket laid flat and completely zipped up. It means little other than as a comparison of loft in the jacket one to another. This number could easily be fudged to gain or loose insulation depending on your bias and sway the charts.( even the pictures are difficutlt to read accuratly so I don't post them intentionally) I know that and try to make a consistent and realistic measurement so that I show no favorites here. It is also why I don't go smaller than 1/2 inch in differences.






Close up of the height of insulation at the shoulder. This jacketactually has 3" of loft Although the angle of the camera shows almost 3.5". You have to be consistent on every measurement and honest when you postthe numbers.









Shoulder between point of shoulder and the hood on ajacket

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