When choosing a comforter, your first choice to make is whether you want a down comforter or one with an alternative hypoallergenic filling. If you have already made the decision to buy a down comforter, you’re on the right page. If you can’t quite decide which would be the best choice for you, take a look at our review of the top five affordable comforters, which explains and compares both types of comforters.
Before you can decide on a down comforter, you have to answer some questions about your specific needs. Are you a warm sleeper? Are you usually too hot under your current heavy duvet? Do you usually end up sleeping half way out of the cover because the temperature just isn’t quite right? And do you live in a warm climate where the temperature of your room doesn’t usually drop below 70 degrees Fahrenheit? If any of these are true, then you may be looking for a summer down comforter, which offers all the coziness of a regular comforter without the temperature increase.
On the other hand, if you are usually cold at night, there’s a draft in your room or you live in a cold climate area you could be more interested in a winter down comforter. Winter comforters include more fill and use specific materials to increase insulation and keep you warm and cozy even in the coldest temperatures. One of the great things about down comforters, rather than a synthetic substitute, is that even the warmest comforter, with the plushest, fullest feathers packed inside, won’t be heavy and uncomfortable while you sleep.
Now, don’t worry, if you’re sitting there thinking “wait, I’m not hot or cold when I sleep” then don’t panic, one of the joys of buying a down comforter is that you can pretty much customize it to fit your personal needs. You can even buy a comforter with two different fill powers if you and your partner have different warmth preferences. This could save a lot of arguments and cover pulling in the future so could be worth a look! However, these cost a bit more so we didn’t include them in our recommendations.
Still, if at the end of the day you want to feel as warm and cozy as possible after a long day at work, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to envelop yourself in a comfortable electric blanket or snuggle up with a nice body pillow!
Unfortunately, in our review there was only room for 5 comforters but there’s many more out there. For example, you can get a
Heavy Weight Hungarian Goose Down Comforter perfect if you live in a cold climate. Having a comforter with a Hungarian down filling does cost quite a bit though. Lucky for everyone, there’s also some super budget friendly options under $100 like the
Quilted ‘n’ Cozy Luxury Down Comforter. The thread count on this one is a little lower than average though, at 300.
Another budget friendly option is the
WENERSI White Down Comforter which actually has a thread count of 600 and a fill power of 700+. This is a good deal for a budget comforter. If you wanted to just look at a budget friendly brand, Amazon’s brand, Pinzon, has a lot of options including summer, winter and all year-round comforters.
Price
We understand that you might not have the money to splash out on the absolute best goose down comforter which could easily set you back $1000, or more. However, we do think that there are certain things we own that are worth spending that little bit extra for great quality and design.
When you’re deciding what budget you have for a new item, the first thing you should consider is how long are you expecting to use this thing for? If it’s something you will use a few times, then throw away in a month or two, you obviously don’t want to break the bank. However, if it’s something you use regularly and will last you years you might be more willing to pay a little more for quality.
This applies exactly to choosing a down comforter. With the right care, a down comforter could last decades. Also, we don’t know about you, but for many people, one of the favorite parts of the day is crawling into bed after a long and stressful day under a fluffy, warm, cozy comforter that instantly makes you feel relaxed. Getting a good night’s sleep can reduce blood pressure; make you healthier, happier and slimmer (you can burn around 60 calories in one hours sleep) which is why we think it’s acceptable to stretch the budget slightly for something you will use every day and will last years.
To give you a variety of options, we have chosen 5 down comforters at just a few hundred dollars each which offer great quality and various models to suit you. If these are more than you want to spend, please check our Comforters Under $150 review for two other good quality down comforters, as well as some nice down alternative comforters, that we recommend.
Features
Down comforters, or any comforters for that matter, don’t really come with any added “features” as such. The only features you need from your comforter are style, temperature control and a luxurious, cozy feeling that makes you excited to crawl into bed each night.
Construction and Design
Probably the most important consideration when choosing a down comforter is the construction and design. When it comes to design, we have chosen all white comforters as a neutral base to make your decision. You can always choose another color comforter or use it inside a duvet cover. This means you can change the design and color to suit your mood and also, doing this will prolong the life span of your down comforter.
The construction of your comforter is based on 4 main factors:
- Filling Material: You have already decided that you want a down comforter but that’s not the only question (sorry, more questions!). What type of down do you want? Goose? Duck? Also, what percentage is each down inside your comforter?
- Fill Power: This will decide how much warmth your comforter will provide. What is the fill power? How warm will this make you? How heavy will it be?
- Outer Shell: With down comforters what’s on the outside is equally as important as the inside. With luxury goose or duck feathers inside you want the outside to be just as luxurious. You want to be asking; what material is the cover? What is the thread count?
- General Construction: By general construction, we mean how it is all held together. This could be the most important point. What use is it having a luxury down comforter if the filling moves around and becomes uneven and lumpy? You need to look at the stitching used and how each comforter is held together. Usually, down comforters use a baffle-box construction which stitches internal fabric to ensure the fill is spread out and it will keep you evenly warm throughout the night.
Performance and Ease of Use
In order to assess how well a product performs, you need to know what you expect from it. With down comforters, a main factor you want to assess, is how well can it keep you warm/cool? For this, you should consider not only the fill power, but how the materials used are optimized for temperature control. One of the most accurate ways to assess the performance of a down comforter is through what real customers have to say about how they performed. It’s easy to look at all the numbers and think you’ve made the right choice, but the best way to decide is to see how those numbers translated into real experience.
One of the perks of choosing a down comforter, rather than a down-alternative, is the weight. By using down, these comforters can provide warmth without being extremely heavy. This will help when it comes to making the bed in the morning or changing the cover if you choose to have one. Also, you should consider how you will clean your comforter. Some down comforters need to be spot cleaned, which can be time consuming and does not neccessarily thoroughly clean your comforter. Others are machine washable or need to be dry cleaned. You might also want to consider how often this needs to be done. Usually with down comforters, especially if they are a duvet insert style and have a cover, this only needs to be done a few times a year
Down comforters come in many sizes and colors and they feature different types of filling. We have analyzed the offerings of multiple brands and came up with 5 exquisite down comforters that will make you feel like you are in heaven when you sleep! Here are our finalists:
If you’re looking for the perfect down comforter which suits all your needs, we are sure you can find the right fit for you within these 5, affordable, down comforters.
