Down Products Information

All of the comforters and pillows from Northern Goose Down Inc. are crafted right at our factory from the down and feather material obtained from our very own geese. Our goose down is the highest and most consistent quality source available on the world market today.

A large volume of our goose down goes to the Japanese market which demands cleanliness levels in excess of three times that of the North American FTC standards. For example, the standard tests for checking the level of cleanliness of down material throughout the world is the “Turbidity” and “Oxygen” tests.

Turbidity is a test to see how transparent the rinse water is when you are finished washing the down and feathers. Turbidity is, in fact, the true overall level of cleanliness of the down material. To perform this test, a sample of down is put in a container of distilled water and vigerously adjitated for 30 minutes with a mechanical shaking device.

The sample water is then poured into a graduated tube that is 1,000mm high. This tube has a crosshair site at the bottom of it. When you pour the water into the tube, you must be able to just see the crosshair in the bottom.
The higher the level of water, the cleaner the down is!

When the water comes to a level where the crosshair will go out of sight, you stop pouring the water into the tube and take a reading of its height. The normal industry standard is 300mm, the Japanese minimum standard is 800mm and at Northern Goose, our minimum standard is 1,000mm. In fact our water is so clear at the 1,000mm level the water is actually still potable!

The Oxygen Number test is another well know test for determining the cleanliness of the down and feather material. This test is a little more scientific to perform, but works just like the turbidity test. The difference with this result is that you are looking for a low number to have a good result.

The oxygen number shows the chemical decomposition of the down filling material. The maximum industry standard is 10mg/100g sample. The Japanese standard is 4mg/100g sample. At Northern Goose, we clean our down filling material to a level of 1.5-2.0mg/100g sample.

All goose down products from Northern Goose Down Inc. are sold with this great level of cleanliness! We pride ourselves in being one of the world leaders in high quality down material and products.

We guarantee that all products coming from Northern Goose Down Inc. are Hypo-allergenic, and are produced to the same high quality standards that our customers around the world have come to expect from us.