Twin XL Bedding Truths

Were just now passing the busy season for back to school college students.  By this point most students have purchased their dorm room items and are moving to or living in the dorms as we speak.  So in reflection I wanted to pass on some thoughts about the special sizes needed for most dorm beds which measure 39 x 80 inches (or as we say twin xl).

Now most colleges do have these longer beds which cause quite a bit on confusion and worry on the part of students and parents.  We get flooded with questions on how to buy the correct bedidng for the dorm rooms. There are basically two areas of bedding products - ‘top of bed’ and ‘on bed’.  Top of bed would include items like pillows and comforters - in other words items that appear above the sheets.  Typically many students can get by using a ‘normal’ size twin comforter (although we recommend the longer xl twin size - usually 66 x 90 or 68 x 92). Pillows are of course a matter of personal preference and most students seem to buy a couple standard pillows or jumbo pillows.

When it comes time for ‘on bed products’ - like twin xl sheets, mattress pads or featherbeds - size does make a difference.  We only recommend specially sized items in those cases - by default the measure 80 inches long - to fit those additional 5 inches (a normal twin measures 39 x 75 - a twin xl measures 39 x 80).

Now no one is a fan or dorms rooms - even the nicest luxury ones suffer from issues like noise levels, visitors, smells and all kinds of fun.  What we see is a lot of college students who want a ‘piece of home’ with them in college - so items like a nice puffy down comforter or a soft featherbed really can make a difference.  The truth is that most dorm mattresses are pretty much the same thing used in prisons - hard, plastic coated and used from person to person.  Why anyone would want to live on a bed like that astounds us.  Our newest item we make specially designed for dorm beds is our pillow top twin xl featherbed. Not only is it longer for the twin xl size - but it uses a special dual fabric layer system to prevent any poking.  The silky soft quilted top features a durable and pretty fabric as well which has a thread count of 325. Our xl twin featherbed pricing has lowered to $100 which is about $30 then what you would see in most specialty bedding catalogs for that size and style.

Another frequent question we see is about blankets - what will work in a dorm room?  Well most blankets are actually longer - typically measuring 70 x 90 for a ‘normal’ twin’ size.  As such they will fit your college students bed perfectly fine.

Of course as a bedding manufacturer were a bit biased - but overall I think these days college students have many twin xl bedding options.  So when your local store runs out or you want to buy a nicer version of a product carried in a store you can always visit or niche website - TwinXLBedidng.com for additional options.

Posted in Bed Sizes on Fri, August 28th, 2009 at 3:05 pm. No comments.

Can I Buy Down To Stuff My Pillow?

Being the countries largest down processor we get this question frequently from folks who have found us on google or who read one of our microsites such as WhyBuyDown.com or DownBuyingGuide.com.

Many times someone has an heirloom down pillow they want to preserve and restuff. For the average stay at home consumer the answer is no due to the cost of servicing the order. However, a simple trick is to buy another down pillow and use the stuffing out of it. Any modern pillow made since the 70’s will have a law label with the fill contents spelled out - such as ‘75% down’ or it might say ‘white goose down’. Most consumers can probably get away with a your basic down pillow sold on sale - sometimes around $30.

If you have a pillow fabric that is leaking it is probably better to just replace the whole pillow - or a stop gap method is to buy a zippered pillow protector to keep the filling somewhat in place.

Now if you are a business seeking bulk fills then yes we sell then in lots of 20 pounds or more. You can visit BulkDown.com and get the contact info of our sales team for those needs.

Posted in Uncategorized on Thu, June 11th, 2009 at 1:36 pm. 1 comment.

Common Hotel Pillow Sizes

DOWNLITE sells thousands of hotels and resorts and frequently we get asked - what is the common size pillow sold to hotels? Based on hundreds of thousands of purchases the answer is that most hotels and resorts buy a Standard 20 x 26 pillow for usage in rooms.  Typically an upscale hotel will bedscape so that the have a row of Euro pillows in the back against the headboard (A Euro pillow measures 26 x 26 inches) - then followed by a row of three double stacked standard size pillows.

This applies for the king size hotel bed - others like a queen still get a row of the Euro’s plus a row of two double stacked standard sized pillows. Very few hotels buy king size pillows for some reason - maybe it’s because they are so big.

The advantage of a standard sized pillow is that you can double them or trade a softer or firmer with your sleeping partner at a hotel.

When buying for home we are also fans of standard or jumbo sized pillows because you can offer more choices in bed - for example one soft pillow and one medium pillow.

Posted in Pillow Talk on Thu, May 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm. No comments.

Sleep Diet Challenge

We were very impressed with the recent attention on the importance of sleep care. Many talkshows, newscasts and magazines have had articles discussing the topics that we feel are very important.

We always tell folks that you can eat right and workout - but are you getting the proper amount of sleep?

On that note we need to go to bed!

Posted in How To Buy on Thu, March 12th, 2009 at 2:39 am. No comments.

What bedding is ‘Made In The U.S.A.’?

Frequently, we will be asked this question from customers wanting to buy American bedding only. The answer is tricky, because most fabrics are woven in China, with some higher-end fabrics woven in Germany or Western Europe. Just like buying a car, your bedding contains elements from across the globe - whether it is the origination of the yarn material (Supima cotton vs. Egyptian cotton vs. just plain cotton), to the fabric finishing location, to the filling process. In this blog entry, we will try to cover each of the elements that result in a finished piece of filled down bedding.

It’s all about the Yarn

The predominant material used in bedding is cotton. Cotton is grown across the globe, with the majority of it grown in the U.S., India, China, etc. Superfine cottons - Supima, Egyptian - are grown in unique locations.  Notably, Supima is long-staple American-grown cotton, and Egyptian cotton is grown in Egypt. Please note that just because a cotton is Egyptian does not mean it is long-stapled.

Weaving

Most fabrics (90% or more) are woven in China due to the high labor cost involved in the milling process. Some fabrics are woven in other countries - Portugal, Italy, Germany, etc. When cotton is first woven, it has a rough texture like muslin.  This unfinished woven cloth is called “greige” cloth or “greige” goods. Most fabrics woven in China are greige cloth.  The appearance of this cloth is off color and speckled - more organic looking. While most greige goods are usually finished in China, a small percentage are finished abroad in Germany, Japan, etc.

Finishing

The finishing process involves mechanical and chemical treatments to improve the feel and/or performance of the cloth. The finest feeling fabric in the world tends to be German or Japanese goods (Korean too).

Assembling

Once woven and finished, it goes next to the assembly of the pieces. Most ‘cut and sew,’ as it is called, is handled in the finishing country (so if finished in China, it is cut and sewn there; if finished in Germany, it is finished there or a nearby country - Ukraine for example). This assembled material is now ready for filling - whether it is down or a down alternative.

Filling

Natural fillings (down, feathers, etc.) come from two locations - China or Eastern Europe. Usually, this is where the meat is consumed and the down or feathers are a byproduct of the poultry industry. The filling for most DOWNLITE products is processed in the United States - approximately 75% or so of all bedding we make.

In Summary

As you can see, filled bedding is an international effort, with materials from several countries. I often have a consumer seeking an all-American product, but the reality is that what I consider American still involves materials from around the globe. The underlying issue is that consumers are looking for products not made in China. In this case we recommend some of the European down comforters we make with fabric finished in Germany. The hand and feel of the fabric is quite amazing - our best comforter features a batiste cotton fabric filled with 800-fill-power Canadian white goose down.

Some of our retailers insist on only the finest fabrics for their bedding collections, such as the ‘Flair Down Pillow‘ series we make for Bloomingdales private label collection.

 

Posted in How To Buy on Sun, February 15th, 2009 at 4:26 am. No comments.

eco Impact of Down & Feathers Versus Polyester

Often we get a question from a concerned consumer about the eco impact of their buying decisions.  In this case they want to know which bedding has the least eco impact. So we will discuss the two options we know pretty well - natural down and feathers versus polyester.

We’ll start with the easy one - polyester. Polyester filling can come from virgin polyester or reclaimed polyester. Virgin polyester comes from petroleum. Reclaimed polyester comes from recycled polyester from plant scraps (remnant fiber from carpet manufacturing is one example).  Some polyesters are carcinogenic in some form and can off gas. Polyester fibers used for bed fillings can have some distinct advantages - they can be made hypoallergenic and with the right materials - antimicrobial.

Natural fillings are a by product of the poultry indsutry in China and Eastern Europe. They are renewable, sustainable and breakdown (like hundreds of years later). Natural fillings can also be reclaimed by simply washing the fibers and sanitzing them again. Down and feathers can be washed to such a clean state as to make them hypoallergenic like our RestAssured process.

Both filling materials can be used with various cloths like cotton or TENCEL blends for an extra green solution. Both down and down alternative fillings can keep you warm. Down, however being natures best insulator does a more efficient job at it. Therefore - to lower your home heating bill you can use quality down bedding to allow the thermostat to go down and still keep you warm and snuggly.

That is the green truth!

Posted in Energy Savings on Sat, February 7th, 2009 at 5:33 am. No comments.

What Are Duvet Loops?

Some high end down comforters feature duvet ‘loops’ which are used with special duvets featuring ‘ties’. In essence, a comforter with duvet loops can be used with our without a duvet. They were designed to help ‘hold’ the comforter in place within the duvet. Most duvet comforter protectors you find in a store do not have internal ties. Really the only time we see this system used outside of the hospitality industry is in fine european style linens. An easy fix for those concerned about internal sliding is comforter clips which can hold on to the comforter and duvet inside to some degree.

Posted in How To Buy on Thu, January 22nd, 2009 at 10:13 pm. No comments.

Save My Feather Bed!

Probably about once a month I get a call or email question about a leaking or poking feather bed and what can be done.

For starters - even the best feather beds will have leakage or poking due to the nature of them - i.e. they are filled primarily with feathers. Feathers unlike down have quills - quills which can poke through the fabric under the weight of your body. Aside from any skin poking they can also cause unsightly leaking feathers whcih can cling to a mattress and or your fitted sheets.

Relax we have a few suggestions on how to prevent and limit the poking and leaking that can occur. The first thing we would recommend is to use a feather bed protector - which basically completely envelops your feather bed kind of like a giant duvet. There are many styles available and range in price from $20 to $80 based on thread count, features and others bells and whistles. Of course we are partial to our own collection which feature an innovative three sided zipper - which opens up clam style for ease of placing on. I would generally recommend a twill style fabric as it tends to be think and durable regardless of the thread count. Do make sure the feather bed protector can fit your size - sometimes the thickness of the feather beds require some fancy math - in other words some protectors come in slightly larger sizes to accomodate the height of the feather beds. The DOWNLITE model is appx 2 inches larger in both dimesnions and is gussetted to allow for a proper fit.

The next step in feather bed heaven is to get an old white comforter that is largr then your mattress. You can simply place on top of the feather bed and tuck it underneath and then add your fitted sheet on top. Or you can buy a cheap mattress pad and cover the feather bed and then add the fitted sheet on top. The goal here is that both methods provide extra cushion to your feather bed.

Lastly, you have to understand that most feather beds on the market feature a 95 percent feather blend and only 5 percent down. Some luxury feather beds feature a 90 percent feather blend with 10 percent down for comfort. Some feather beds feature a pillow top made of polyester or down once again for added comfort.

Please note even the best feather bed with a down top still can use the tricks I mentioned.

Posted in How To Buy on Fri, January 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 am. 1 comment.

‘I swear the pillow at the hotel was down’

At ShopDownLite.com we get lots of emails from folks who stay at a hotel and love the bedding. They track us down through either asking housekeeping or googling us - eventually they find us and have lots of questions. A common thing I hear from customers after telling them the hotel they were at had EnviroLoft Down Alternative pillows is this:

‘I swear the pillow was down - are yous ure - it felt like down -and it says DOWNLITE?’

So couple points here we can discuss - first DOWNLITE is our brand name - not the name of a filling material or style or model number. Secondly - we do sell tons of down pillows and feather pillows to hotels. However, if the pillow you enjoyed said DOWNLITE on the law tag and had the word EnviroLoft on it - then it is in fact our polyester down alternative filling we call EnviroLoft.

We make several EnviroLoft pillows - most of them look the same - thread count might be different, pattern might be different - but the filling stays pretty much the same.

EnviroLoft is great because it is easy care - you can machine wash it and machine dry it.

p.s. unless a pillow has a performance fabric like TENCEL - the outer material really will not impact the pillow too much.

Posted in Down Talk on Wed, December 17th, 2008 at 3:01 am. No comments.

What does 75% Down Mean?

I get this question from consumers about once a week. Normally, the questions starts like this:

‘I see that it only contains 75% down - but I want 100% down’

Well the reality is that our federal government has a specific guideline when it comes to how much down is in a product. The rule from the FTC states that to call an item a down something - it must contain a mnimum of 75% down clusters - the remainder can be down fibers or small feathers, etc.

There are very few cases where ou see a number higher then 75% on the law label - usually they are items that have high fill power - where by default you need more down clusters to increase the fill power count. For example our 800 fill power white goose down likely has a 85% down number on it’s law label.

Short of hand tweezering out loose fibers and small feathers it is impossible to have a 100% down anything.

If you were wondering what the other 25% is - it is a mixture of either:

All the down used by DOWNLITE complies to it’s RestAssured standards.

Posted in Down Talk on Fri, December 12th, 2008 at 4:28 am. No comments.