Category Archive, “Down Talk”

‘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.

Can A Comforter Be Embroidered?

I just had a customer send us an email asking if a comforter can be embroidered as a gift? Well the quick answer is not really. I wrote the customer and gave two examples of alternate solutions. 

Solution #1: Embroider a ‘Corner’ Silk and attach to the lower corner of the comforter. You can have a local seamstress take a piece of satin and embroider it and then attach it to the comforter. 

Solution #2: Buy a Duvet and embroider the duvet instead. 

Because filled bedding - whether it is down or polyester or whatever are finished - it is nearly impossible to embroider a filled item. There are a couple reasons for this. First - the filling can leak out of or near the embroidery. Secondly - the process of opening up the item embroidering and then stuffing the filling back in - is very messy. 

So - when buying or making a gift - the cheaper solution is to buy a duvet and embroider that instead. Actually an even cheaper and maybe more visible option is to embroider the matching duvet shams. Finally - you can also just buy ala carte shams and embroider them and simply toss on the bed - a far cheaper solution.  Embroidering shams at a local gift or embroidery shop should run you about $12 or so.

Posted in Down Talk on Fri, November 21st, 2008 at 4:14 am. No comments.

Removing Natural Down Or Feather Odor

Over the years we have gotten requests from customers along the lines of ‘How long will the pillows have an odor?’

Anyone who has bought a down or feather blend pillow knows that natural products have a natural odor. Typicaly the reason a product may have an odor is related to heat, humidity or moisture. Every down bedding manufacturer has to meet specific industry standards for cleanliness. In addition, most bedding manufacturrs have their own ’story’ about how they clean their fillings above and beyond government standards. Some manufacturers process their fillings domestically or they bring in the fills pre-cleaned.

DOWNLITE is unique in that 85% percent plus of its fills are processed in the states for domestically made items including pillows and comforters. Our special cleansing process is called RestAssured and it certifies that our fillings are processed to the same standard in the USA with 3-4 times higher standards then the governments.  Although we process all of our fills ocasionally the filling material might become moist or heated in which case the ‘natural’ odors can come out and cause discomfort. DOWNLITE stands behing all of its products and any cases of ‘odor’ are replaced and researched to pull those fillings off the market ASAP.

If a product smells is it bad?
Aside from the unpleasent sensation caused - it is likely that the filling has remnant oils inside the clusters or small feathers which when heated have an odor.  This is an occassional happening with duck down products [duck down or duck feathers have higher oil content].

All you need to do is wash the items in question with a teaspoon of dawn which is a degreaser. Be sure to dry the items extra well so that all moisture is removed. To learn more go to our informational website on bedding care.

A cheap trick for a feather pillow used as a sham stuffer on your bed is to place a fabric softener sheet in the sham or case [just don’t sleep on them as the scent can be too powerful].

Posted in Down Talk on Mon, August 4th, 2008 at 3:42 am. No comments.