Archive for December, 2008
‘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:
- More down clusters
- Loose down fibers (the parts that break off from the down cluster)
- Small feathers
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.
Buying A Comforter As A Gift?
With the holidays ever present I get asked all the time by folks online and in our stores - how to buy a comforter as a present for someone?
Well the simple recomendations - regardless of price point include:
- Always buy less on the warmth scale - its easy to layer on an additional blanket versus being too hot.
- Buy sizes which allow for easy duvet buying later on (oversized kings 108 x 98 versus european or higher end smaller sizes - ala 107 x 92).
- White is the best color - so down bedding makes a great gift - matches all decors from contemporary to traditional, etc.
- Comforters like pillows are a very personal choice - so a basic cambric weave or a basic pattern is better then a fancy or complicated looking pattern (although we love paisleys and basketweaves).
- Bigger is usually better - no one lines small ro skimpy comforters - go large - it can always drape on the bed (This is mainly for queen sizes - which in stores can run small - look for an oversized queen like 90 x 98 inches).
Need help - call or email us!
Posted in How To Buy on Tue, December 9th, 2008 at 5:52 am. No comments.