Material

Down Alternative Fill

What it is

Down alternative is polyester fiberfill. The name is a comparison to a different product rather than a description of this one, and it appears on both pillows and comforters throughout this catalog. Some of it is loose staple fiber, some is spun into small clusters meant to behave a little more like down does, and listings almost never say which.

How it is made

Polyester staple fiber is crimped, sometimes siliconized so the fibers slide against each other instead of gripping, and then blown into a shell. On a comforter the shell is quilted in a grid so the fill cannot travel. On a pillow it is either loose in the bag or held by a gusset, which is a strip of fabric sewn around the perimeter that gives the pillow a wall and lets it keep a squarer shape under load.

When it is wet

The fiber itself takes on almost no water, but a pillow or comforter full of it holds an enormous amount of water between the fibers, and that weight is what does the damage. A soaked fiberfill pillow in a top-loading machine can wrap around the agitator and come out felted. Wash on a gentle cycle, balance the drum with a second item, and dry all the way through, because fill that is still damp in the middle mildews.

When it is hot

Polyester holds warmth well and passes moisture poorly, which is the whole reason it works as a fill and the whole reason it can be too much in summer. In a comforter the amount of fill is the variable that matters, and GSM is the only figure that reports it. In a pillow, a gusseted shell with loose fill moves noticeably more air than a densely packed one.

After fifty washes

Fiberfill clumps. Every wash pushes fibers together and eventually they felt into masses that shaking will not separate, and the item loses loft in the gaps between them. Siliconized fill resists this longer. A comforter fails at the quilting lines first, and once fill can migrate between chambers, cold spots follow. That is the end of the item, and it is not repairable at home.