Winter Coats : Can they lose their warmth? - YouLookFab Forum

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Winter Coats : Can they lose their warmth?

Star

Veteran

Hi Everyone

As someone who is relatively new to living in the northern hemisphere I have a question for those of you who have always lived in cold climes. Can coats lose their warmth over time and/or with laundering? Particularly the ones with some kind of filling; down or foam?

Thanks so much if you have any advice.

General

15 replies

Latest reply was from Joy

Joy

Veteran

I have not had a winter coat lose warmth and have almost always lived where there is cold weather. I can see foam disintegrating over time but nothing else. I have bought used coats and had coats a long time and this has never happened.

doggeh lover

I have a down coat (Shelley Segal's Laundry line) that is finishing it's 10th year of cold Minnesota/Illinois winters and it's every bit as warm as the 1st day out in it. Very little fill loss, under a dozen fuzzies altogether. Unlike my down comforter it doesn't need fluffing to keep fill in place. I would splurge on a good quality down coat- many are rated by temp range and you'll get a lotta use from it over the years...

BlueJay

Veteran

I think they can depending on a few things. Down-filled coats can lose their warmth if they've been left wet or not taken care of properly. Down coats can be laundered in a special laundry soap like Granger's down wash: https://www.grangerscanada.ca/...../down-wash

Also, depending on the quality of the coat, feathers can work their way out through the material resulting in less feathers over time and depending on how long you keep your coat. Some coats are quite awful for shedding feathers!

I think foam can disintegrate over time and break down and then lose warmth as well.

Runcarla

Veteran

My experience has been like doggeh lover. I do wash my heavier down coat at the end of the season, but dry it thoroughly before retiring it for the season. It fluffs up and looks like new! Have never found more than 3 or 4 feathers in the lint trap, and don’t have a sense that it looses any over the course of the winter. Same with wool coats.

LaPed

Veteran

I concur with all of the above. Down is very resilient and retains its loft for years — even decades — while synthetic insulation does deteriorate, primarily because once it has been compressed the fibers only partially regain their loft, so a synthetic-fill coat will look thinner and feel less warm over time.

The main thing with down is to store it loose, not compressed, and to wash it once in a while (using down specific soap) to remove any dirt/oils building up on the feathers and causing them to clump up.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

What the others have said. Down will last for ages if you treat it well and it doesn't leak out of the coat itself. (Like the others, I wash my down coats, and dry them.) Synthetic down can lose some warmth over a long period of time -- but it takes a while!

Wool coats are unlikely to lose their warmth.

Style Fan

Veteran

I have down coats over twenty years old, and they have not lost their warmth. I take them to be professionally cleaned (washed and dried) once a year. I do the same with my wool coats. I feel the cold more as I have gotten older, but that is not what you are asking.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I have never experienced a coat — down, wool, or otherwise - losing its warmth with time. My down coats that have been passed along for a lot of wear have been done so for aesthetic reasons (rips that required no-so-attractive patching, for example), but were still warm and functional.

Echo

Veteran

I have not experienced a coat losing warmth, but don't underestimate your own capacity to feel warmer or colder as you change. I have worn a coat one season happily and then felt it wasn't warm enough the following year. That wasn't a difference in the coat; it was a difference in ME. I definitely run colder these days than I used to, so some coats work better for me now than before.

JAileen

Veteran

I have an Eddie Bauer long parka that I’ve had for at least 8 years. I noticed recently that the bottom baffle is kind of flat in the back where I sit on it. I don’t know if that’s normal or if I’m extra hard on it. I would guess that that 2 inch section is probably not as warm as it used to be. But I wore the coat in December for dinner and a concert, and we had to walk several blocks downtown, and I was toasty in it. There were two women in our group wearing wool coats and, of course, they froze.

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phoebe

I think yes, depending on the quality of the fabric and the fill. I don't think it would be from the loss of the occasional entire feather that pokes it's way out but rather a gradual deterioration of the fill causing it to trap air less effectively.

Star

Veteran

Thanks so much for all your input, some similar and some quite different. My experience has been with two coats that I thrifted, not down, they are known brands, designed for cold weather but they are just not that warm. I have already passed one of them along. I was suspecting it was because they are old and probably have been washed more than a few times. Fortunately they were really inexpensive and I do have two very warm ones, one thrifted and one bought brand new. I am not sure that I need an expensive down coat. It is cold here but nothing like Scandinavia or Canada.

The Cat

Veteran

I live in a cold climate, and I take good care of my clothes. Among my oldest ones are a 30 y.o. long wool coat and an almost 40 y.o. long jacket filled with synthetic down, and they have NOT lost their warmth.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Star, my coats haven't lost their warmth.

BUT! Some coats are warmer than others. My wool coats with thinsulate in the lining are VERY warm. The heavy wool coats are warmer than the light wool coats. My shearling coat is warmer than some of my wool coats. My puffers range in warmth too. My arctic down Canadian puffer is the warmest coat I have.

It depends on the topper

Joy

Veteran

Wind can make a difference on how warm wool feels knits are the worst because the wind goes right through them.