Actual Measurement By Professional Institutions: Here Is The Difference Between Genuine And Fake Down

Actual measurement by professional institutions: Here is the difference between genuine and fake down

In the deep winter season, down jackets are popular. What's the difference between real down and fake down? How much down jackets are reliable? Here's a reliable answer.

On December 8, the reporter saw at the National Textile and Clothing Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Hubei) of Wuhan Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute that many down jackets and bags of down raw materials from central China were being tested here.

It is found that the unqualified and low-quality down jackets on the market are often filled with "flying silk" instead of real down. Tang Jinbo, the chief inspection engineer of the inspection center, showed the difference between "real down" and "flying wire" while introducing.

Down mainly comes from the belly blobby down of geese and ducks. Due to the unique star shaped structure, down can form a good thermal insulation layer, which is superior to other natural thermal insulation materials such as cotton, wool and silk.

The inner filling of qualified down jacket should be down, also called down flower. The reporter saw that the lint looked like small edelweiss, about 1cm square in size, with pile cores and pile branches. It felt like cotton, but it was more gentle than cotton.

The low-quality down jacket is filled with "flying silk", which is a mixture of feather silk and down silk. Feather silk is the silk falling from feather, and down silk is the silk falling from down. "Flying silk" seems to be a part of down, but actually it can only be regarded as "leftover material", which has poor thermal insulation effect.

The reporter found that the velvet and the "flying silk" are a piece of white flowers from a distance, but the difference is obvious from a close look. The "flying silk" looks like a pile of loose sand, without shaped velvet flowers, and feels like fine sand, lacking a soft feeling.

The 2011 national recommended standard uses "down content" to measure the down content, while the 2021 new national recommended standard uses "down content" to measure the down content. This means that the standard is stricter. Down is mainly composed of down, and "flying wire" cannot be the main component. In the new national standard, only when the down content reaches 50% or more can a down product be counted, otherwise it cannot be called a down product.

For consumers, it is impossible to open the interior of the down jacket to check the down content. The main way to judge the quality of the down jacket is to check the clothing tag and washing label. Tang Jinbo introduced that at present, according to the new national standard, the standard down jacket label should be marked with down content, such as 80% white duck down and 90% white goose down. The higher the down content, the better the down quality.

In addition, the filling amount shall be marked. An empirical judgment indicator is that the filling capacity of short down jacket should be more than 130g, and that of long down jacket should be more than 230g. Of course, some thin down vests may not reach this value.

There are many indicators for down jacket detection, such as down content, puffiness, turbidity, oxygen consumption, etc. Tang Jinbo showed several inspection reports of down jackets submitted by enterprises for inspection. The most concerned and tested one is the down content.

Although there are many advanced testing instruments, it is a manual job to detect cashmere content at present. "It takes a long time and hard work. The tester is required to be careful and dedicated to clearly detect the content of cashmere."

Tang Jinbo selected some down evenly from the chest, back and sleeve of a down jacket, about 2g, and put it into a measuring cup. Then select the cashmere one by one through twice separation. The reporter saw that the inspector used tweezers to pick down the down, and tiny "white flowers" gradually gathered into clusters. Then the inspector will use the traditional weighing instrument to weigh, and the whole process will last for 3-4 hours.

If the cashmere content reaches the nominal content of down jacket, it is qualified in this indicator, otherwise it is unqualified. For example, if a down jacket nominally contains 90% white duck down, the down content in the 2g down sample should reach about 1.8g.

In terms of price, the cost of duck down is about 500-600 yuan/kg, and that of goose down is more than 1100 yuan/kg. The cost of a garment that can be called a down jacket alone is more than 100 yuan or 200 yuan. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee the quality of a down jacket worth one or two hundred yuan.

A penny and a penny of goods are particularly obvious on down jackets. In general, the quality of brand down jackets can stand the test. Tang Jinbo suggested that consumers choose formal channels to buy brand down jackets, and keep a rational attitude towards down products whose online selling price is significantly lower than the cost. (Liu Ruiche, Liu Yong)

(Source: Wuhan Evening News)