Down Bedding Vs. Polyester Bedding

Often we get a question from a concerned consumer about the eco impact of their buying decisions.  In this case they want to know which bedding has the least eco impact. So we will discuss the two options we know pretty well – natural down and feathers versus polyester.

We’ll start with the easy one – polyester. Polyester filling can come from virgin polyester or reclaimed polyester. Virgin polyester comes from petroleum. Reclaimed polyester comes from recycled polyester from plant scraps (remnant fiber from carpet manufacturing is one example).  Some polyesters are carcinogenic in some form and can off gas. Polyester fibers used for bed fillings can have some distinct advantages – they can be made hypoallergenic and with the right materials – antimicrobial.

Natural fillings are a by product of the poultry indsutry in China and Eastern Europe. They are renewable, sustainable and breakdown (like hundreds of years later). Natural fillings can also be reclaimed by simply washing the fibers and sanitzing them again. Down and feathers can be washed to such a clean state as to make them hypoallergenic like our RestAssured process.

Both filling materials can be used with various cloths like cotton or TENCEL blends for an extra green solution. Both down and down alternative fillings can keep you warm. Down, however being natures best insulator does a more efficient job at it. Therefore – to lower your home heating bill you can use quality down bedding to allow the thermostat to go down and still keep you warm and snuggly.

That is the green truth!

Adjustable Bedding

I had recently taken a series of phone calls from customers with adjustable beds searching for sheets. It turns out that many adjustable beds feature seperate sides which are basically two twin xl adjustable beds. Normally, we see most of our twin xl bedding being bought by potential dorm students or their families. After some further research it appears that one of our fastest growing segments we serve is twin xl adjustable bed owners. It was a pleasent suprise because when we designed our new fine linen collections we specifically wanted to have twin xl bedding for dorm students and or older customers with seperate beds.  We did not plan or know about the market for twin xl adjustable bed bedding.

One thing we did learn is that our deep pocket twin extra long sheets were really too deep for most of these beds – which ranged from 12 to 14 inches at most. We have told customers to try sheet clips as a way to hold on to the fitted sheets from below.

We also heard from another customer whose husband had Parkinsons with issues of getting in and out of bed and wanted a ’slick’ sheeting material in a twin xl size. In that case we recommended our Tencel Lyocell Cotton sheet set in twin xl.  The cool touch, moisture wicking Tencel Lyocell sheet set is a great choise for sleepers with night sweats.

‘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 hotel 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.

Twin XL Bedding Truths

Were just now passing the busy season for back to school college students.  By this point most students have purchased their dorm room items and are moving to or living in the dorms as we speak.  So in reflection I wanted to pass on some thoughts about the special sizes needed for most dorm beds which measure 39 x 80 inches (or as we say twin xl).

Now most colleges do have these longer beds which cause quite a bit on confusion and worry on the part of students and parents.  We get flooded with questions on how to buy the correct bedidng for the dorm rooms. There are basically two areas of bedding products – ‘top of bed’ and ‘on bed’.  Top of bed would include items like pillows and comforters – in other words items that appear above the sheets.  Typically many students can get by using a ‘normal’ size twin comforter (although we recommend the longer xl twin size - usually 66 x 90 or 68 x 92). Pillows are of course a matter of personal preference and most students seem to buy a couple standard pillows or jumbo pillows.

When it comes time for ‘on bed products’ – like twin xl sheets, mattress pads or featherbeds – size does make a difference.  We only recommend specially sized items in those cases – by default the measure 80 inches long – to fit those additional 5 inches (a normal twin measures 39 x 75 – a twin xl measures 39 x 80).

Now no one is a fan or dorms rooms – even the nicest luxury ones suffer from issues like noise levels, visitors, smells and all kinds of fun.  What we see is a lot of college students who want a ‘piece of home’ with them in college – so items like a nice puffy down comforter or a soft featherbed really can make a difference.  The truth is that most dorm mattresses are pretty much the same thing used in prisons – hard, plastic coated and used from person to person.  Why anyone would want to live on a bed like that astounds us.  Our newest item we make specially designed for dorm beds is our pillow top twin xl featherbed. Not only is it longer for the twin xl size – but it uses a special dual fabric layer system to prevent any poking.  The silky soft quilted top features a durable and pretty fabric as well which has a thread count of 325. Our xl twin featherbed pricing has lowered to $100 which is about $30 then what you would see in most specialty bedding catalogs for that size and style.

Another frequent question we see is about blankets – what will work in a dorm room?  Well most blankets are actually longer – typically measuring 70 x 90 for a ‘normal’ twin’ size.  As such they will fit your college students bed perfectly fine.

Of course as a bedding manufacturer were a bit biased – but overall I think these days college students have many twin xl bedding options.  So when your local store runs out or you want to buy a nicer version of a product carried in a store you can always visit or niche website – TwinXLBedidng.com for additional options.

FullSizeBeddingSale.com

As a manufacturer we often seem to have many overstocks on full size bedding. So we are launching a new site to address those products and match them up with customers in need of the full or double size bedding.