Find The Ideal Duvet with Our Ultimate Buying Guide
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Time to read 4 min
When is it time to buy a new duvet?
Sleep experts recommend buying a new duvet approximately every five years – or even more frequently, should the duvet be low quality. Over time, duvets lose their springiness and no longer retain the desired temperature at night time, as the filling inevitably worsens with age. Like most material items, duvets will lose their exterior appeal and become unpleasant to look at.
On the other hand, the duvet you bought may have been bad to begin with – factors like tog rating or filling can seriously make or break a good night’s sleep. It is thought that only half of the UK population are getting enough sleep – with nearly a quarter getting the recommended hours every night. The right duvet should aid a quality rest – not have you wrestling with the bedding every night.
How to choose a duvet
Before you part with your hard-earned money on a potentially pricey new duvet and commit yourself to it every night for the next five years, it is important to be knowledgeable about the countless types available on the market, to avoid being duped by bad deals.
Common duvet sizes
- Cot bed: 120 cm x150 cm
- Single: 135 cm x 200cm
- Double: 200 cm x 200cm
- King: 230cm x 220cm
- Super King: 260cm x 220cm
- Emperor size: 290cm x 235cm
Factors to consider
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Allergies
An estimated 41 million Brits – out of a population of 66 million – have an allergy of some kind, according to Allergy UK. Due to factors such as climate change, the number of people suffering from hayfever and other allergies is thought to be rising every year.
Some people suffer from feather allergies or dust mites, meaning it is best to opt for a specific type of duvet material and filling. Silk, wool, and synthetic duvets are the most popular options for allergy sufferers – see the “Types of Duvet” section for more information.
Room Temperature
If your room tends to be cold at night – it is essential to find a duvet material and filling that traps the heat in, rather than letting it escape through the fabric. Similarly, if you often find yourself flipping the duvet around because it gets too hot, a duvet that expels excess heat and doesn’t retain moisture would be best.
Many shoppers opt for different duvets of varying weights for summer and winter, but most will opt to save on an all-year round duvet, which needs adapt to the external temperature of the bedroom – both at its hottest and coolest – and provide a comforting opposite.
Material Preferences
This is more a matter of personal taste – materials like silk are luxurious for some, but others find the smooth material unsettling. Similarly, some enjoy fluffiness, while others prefer a more straightforward, sheet-like thinness.
Tog Ratings
Silentnight
Tog Rating – Tog (short for thermal overall grade) is a unit of measurement that indicates a material’s thermal resistance. In sum, it’s a manner of explaining how warm an item – in this case, a duvet – is, and how it strongly it retains its own heat. Typically, a duvet ranges from 15 at the warmest, and 0 at the coolest.
For example, Silentnight offers a 15-tog So Snug duvet , their coziest duvet to date, as well as the Summer Breeze 2.5 tog , designed for the warmest nights.
Shoppers should think about the typical temperature of their bedroom throughout the year – if the room tends to go from one extreme to another from summer to winter, it may be better to go to have two separate duvets of polarising tog ratings, or one with a middling rating that can be used year-round.
Duvets like Brook + Wilde’s The Tussar Silk Duvet , at a 7.5 rating, uses high-grade silk material to adapt to the body’s external temperature and offer a perfectly complimentary climate in response.
Different Types of Duvet
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Duvets are separated into two main categories – natural and synthetic. Natural duvets are – surprise! – made of natural, traditional materials, such as feathers or wool. If you’re an allergy sufferer, you may want to skip straight to synthetic (or alternative natural materials), which use scientifically-developed materials as an alternative, while also keeping away dirt and moisture and can stand frequent washes.
Natural Duvet Fillings
The most common filling for natural duvets are feathers – typically duck or goose feathers. Like they provide for the bird, feathers have an unmatched ability to retain heat for what they are wrapped around.
Feather-only duvets tend to be heavier and more robust. Down-filled duvets, although not stated in the title, also use feathers, although they opt for feathers from the breast – offering both warmth and a lightweight quality. Feather and down mixes are also common, combining heaviness and warmth, in a best-of-both-worlds deal for returning heat.
Silk and wool are also natural, with the benefit of being hypoallergenic. While a less common filling, silk and wool – silk especially – are much lighter, and suit cooler temperatures. However, they also function well in hotter climates, as they can adapt to body temperature with ease, and wick away excess moisture that causes sleepers to overheat.
Synthetic Duvets Fillings
The Fine Bedding Company
Synthetic duvets tend to be split into two camps: microfibre and hollowfibre.
Microfibre synthetic fillings, similar to down fillings, balance warmth and a lighter weight, with thin, tightly-woven fibres to mimic down quality and a better price. On the other hand, has spacing between the fibres, while maintaining a flatness for those who dislike plumper duvets, all while retaining the heat between said spaces. They are easier to clean, for those with extra sensitive skin.
In both cases, synthetic duvets offer a hypoallergenic alternative for those with sensitivities to feathers, heat rash, and other potential triggers. For example, The Fine Bedding Company’s synthetic Allergy Defence Duvet combats “pollen, dust mite matter, dog, and cat allergens with the help of active probiotics”, using their signature HeiQ Allergen* Tech.