What is the Difference Between Down & Down Alternative Comforters?

This guide will answer questions about price, quality, warmth, and more to help you understand the difference between down comforters and down alternative comforters.

What is the difference between down and down alternative comforters?

What is Down?

Down comforters are made from down feathers making it Mother Nature’s warmest, lightest, and most efficient insulator. With unparalleled softness and comfort, down comforters are fluffy and thick, yet light enough to breathe. Long-lasting and incredibly resilient, down protects you from the cold winter temperatures.

Fill Power & Warmth:

Fill power describes the quality and insulating value of down. The higher the fill power, the better the insulating quality of the down. Down from mature larger birds have a greater loft, so it insulates better meaning it will trap more air and provide greater warmth and comfort.

Want to know what fill power you should buy? It depends on your warmth level and budget. Just know that a good quality down will usually have a fill power of at least 500. Anything less means that it contains too many feathers or small damaged down clusters.

What is Down Alternative?

Before you buy, here are a few pros and cons to having a down alternative comforter. Natural down may not be for you, especially if you enjoy the richness of down, but suffer from allergies. Down alternative comforters feature a mixture of synthetic materials including rayon or polyester to mimic down.

It is said that the warmth of down comforters cannot be duplicated with synthetic materials, however, our PrimaLoft® Deluxe and TCS® Down-Free™ comforters use the finest synthetic materials and offer the same level of durability, warmth, and coziness as down. The only difference is that more material is needed to achieve this level of warmth. Depending on your needs, this can be a pro or a con. A major benefit with down alternative comforters is that you get many of these benefits at a reasonable price and it is easy to wash.

Price Difference

The luxury and warmth of down has a cost. Real goose down comforters can be pricey depending on the thread count, quality of the fill, and fill power of the comforter. Down alternative comforters have the same insulating warmth as down, but cost much less since it uses synthetic materials making it lightweight, soft, and versatile.