Down Puffy jackets and sweat

[optimusprime]

Who here uses a down puffy jacket? I’ve always used a synthetic and found them to work decently at mitigating accumulated sweat from hiking. I like the idea of a down jacket for packability and warmth to weight but am a little worried about my sweat soaking through to the feathers and rendering them useless. Anyone ever experience something like this or is this more of a non concern?


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[i_b_welder]

Most down nowadays is DWR treated and doesn't absorb moisture like traditional down. I havent had any issues with either my kuiu, firstlite, or western mountaineering gear absorbing light moisture

 

[JeffRaines]

I would be wary of any "hydrophobic down" and supposed 'benefits'. Western Mountaineering did extensive testing and found most of it to be marketing and nothing else - which is why they don't use it in any of their products. I've also seen it wet out before regular down first hand.

With that said, a down puffy layer shouldn't be worn while hiking. I have yet to have an issue with them wetting out from sweat while resting... but to be fair, while I'm completely okay with a down sleeping bag, if I'm hunting or hiking in crap conditions I'm more likely to take my synthetic puffy.

 

[optimusprime]

Thanks. I never hike in my insulation as I heat up very quickly. My concern is solely just my sweat soaked top leeching into the down jacket while stationary.


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[couesbitten]

Others have already commented on this, but if you're sweating that hard, you're obviously to warm and need to shed the down puffy. Generally, mine only goes on when I'm sitting and have the potential to get cold, otherwise I am wearing various other mid or base layers to keep me adequately warm when hiking or still hunting.

 

[twall13]

No problems with sweat in my down puffy. As others have said, I don't hike in my puffy so I'm not sweating while wearing it. If you are worried about wet layers soaking into your puffy I'll offer this bit of anecdotal evidence, I've had multiple mornings in my down quilt where there was frost on the outside of the quilt in the morning. I use a hammock so it's not condensation (my tarp didn't have the frost built up but my quilt did). That shows me that my body heat is pushing, at least some of the moisture out through the quilt. If I was in those types of conditions for 10+ days of wet and cold it might build up inside to where it's an issue but for my standard hunt it's never been a problem. I think down gets a bad rap for wetting out, and no doubt it can, but if you take care of it there are very few situations where I think you actually need synthetic instead.

 

[optimusprime]

Can you not cook your clothes dry with a down jacket over the top of sweaty clothes after a hard hike?


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[jmden]

Keep the moisture, any moisture of any kind, from the down at all times, if possible. That is best practice.