[Closed] hydrophobic down???

[url= http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=3747 ]Sea to Summit Alpine II[/url] is what you are after...not cheap but is supposed to be great.

Curious as to what you'll be doing that will require hydrophobic down?

I use a down bag all through winter and have yet to get it wet enough that it loses heat.

Petersfile.... Uk winter in the peaks/lakes/Wales and biviing throughout the year, though I have a good summer bag for the warmer weather . Plus on a personal note I can sweat an ocean at night!!! Gross but true. ?and seeing as most of the newer bags come with a hydrophobic down so wondered if anyone knew if it was worth it...

You'll ideally want two bags then. Any bag that will keep you warm on a winter bivvy is going to be a bit heavy/warm for summer use. EDIT - just spotted you have a summer bag - sorrY!

I've got a relatively cheap and lightweight synthetic bag rated to 7 degrees that I use from May - September with my down jacket draped over it. Does me down to about 2 or 3 degrees before I start getting a bit too chilly to sleep.

Then I've got a down bag rated to -10 which does me to about -5 comfortably if I'm tired, but again if I sling my down jacket over it it adds a good few degrees.

I spent a couple of years using a winter bag all year round and being able to ditch it for a lightweight summer bag was a revelation!

In all honesty, I've never come close to getting the down bag wet enough for it to lose heat, but I can understand the attraction of "waterproof" down...I just feel like there must be cheaper alternatives?

seeing as most of the newer bags come with a hydrophobic down so wondered if anyone knew if it was worth it...

I didn't realise this? You sure this is correct? Does this effectively mean that newer down bags won't lose heat if they get wet?

I've already got a decent rab summer bag.... And yes it seems that all the new bags ive looked at, which isn't an exhaustive list having only started looking at down today, come with some form of hydrophobic treatment... I guess it's the.. " new and improved, let's charge an extra 20%" thing of the moment. It'd be great if it worked well

I'd look at hydrophobic down as a sort of insurance policy against accidental spills rather than something that'll give you synthetic-style resilience to damp. It dries faster than untreated down and regains more of its loft without any special drying treatment - it would have been a good call when I went in an Andean river complete with a pack and soaked my Rab expedition bag for example, not least because it would have dried out to something more like its original state and less like a sack full of matted feathers.

That said, it still won't loft brilliantly when it's wet, though it'll outperform ordinary down. If you're planning on getting wet - bivvis in the UK over winter maybe - I'd choose synthetic or maybe Primaloft's new Down Blend, which is a mix of hydrophobic down and synthetic fibres which costs a bunch.

One plus is for serious expedition use in sub-zero conditions where with repeated use, normal down tends to get damp from condensation as the dew point falls inside the fill of the bag, hydrophobic down apparently works better in maintaining its loft over repeated use in those conditions, but realistically most of us aren't likely to be involved in super-alpine style Himalayan ascents...

the last bag i had was a marmot lithium... proper light but waaaaay over the top for the uk (I got it for a trip to Aconcagua which was a bit chilly... -20!) i have just been to try one of the mammut alpine ul bags - super light and water resistant, unfortunately they are the skinny jeans of the sleeping bag world, i could only just do it up over my shoulders and you might as well tie my feet together for all the room in the footbox.... might have a look at the primaloft mixes cheers for the info