Goose Down or Duck Down Duvets - Which Is Better?

Goose down lasts longer than duck down, because its larger clusters resist breaking down under the friction of rubbing together night after night. It is also lighter and warmer for its weight, which matters more in a duvet than in a pillow. Duck down is softer than feather, costs less, and is a perfectly good choice.

Is goose worth the extra money?

It depends entirely on how long you want the duvet to last, and almost not at all on how warm you want to be tonight.

That is not the answer most guides give, because most lead with warmth. Warmth is the easy thing to describe and the least useful thing to buy on. The real separation between goose and duck shows up in year four, not on the first night.

I should say where this comes from. I am Jonathan Woods, and the person who buys our down is my father William, who has been doing it for longer than I have been alive and is unusually blunt about the marketing in this category, largely because he has watched it grow up around him.

What actually wears a duvet out

Friction, and nothing else.

"Goose down lasts longer than duck down and doesn't break down with attrition of rubbing together."

Every night, the clusters inside move against each other. Over years that rubbing reduces them to dust, and the filling loses its loft. It does not tear or leak or wear through. It quietly turns to powder, and one winter you notice the duvet is thinner than it was.

Goose clusters are larger and more resilient, so they survive that process considerably longer. That is what the extra money buys. A goose down duvet is not warmer tonight than a good duck one. It is still a duvet in a decade.

Where warmth for weight does matter

In a duvet, unlike a pillow, you are underneath the filling for eight hours.

Goose down is lighter and warmer than duck for the same weight, so a goose duvet reaches a given tog with less filling in it. That is why a good goose down 13.5 feels like almost nothing on top of you while a cheaper duvet at the same rating feels like a coat.

My father is careful to note that this argument does not transfer to pillows, where longevity is the only part that counts. If you are choosing a pillow rather than a duvet, that guide is here.

Two duvets can both say goose down

And be entirely different objects. This is where people lose money.

"I've used the analogy of Mercedes cars, you can get a Smart car and an S-Class with both Mercedes, but there's a world of difference. And so it's true of downs."

What separates them is fill power, cluster size and grade. We sell a goose down pillow at roughly half the price of our best one, and both are genuinely good. The difference is inside, not on the packaging.

"So as I said before, you have goose down and you have goose down."

Which is also why Siberian, Hungarian, Canadian and Mazurian on a label should be read as geography rather than as a grade. Ask what class the down is and what the fill power is. Those two answers tell you more than the country ever will.

And down is not a feather

"Down comes from the belly of the goose or the duck and feathers obviously is from the top of the bird."

Down is a three dimensional cluster with no quill, more like a dandelion head. It traps air, and trapped air is what insulates. Feathers have a shaft, so they give structure rather than loft, which is why feather suits a firm pillow and not a light duvet.

At the very top of the scale sits eiderdown, gathered from the nests of the eider duck. My father keeps some in the shop purely so people can see what down is capable of:

"This is eiderdown which is very expensive but it gives you an idea it's light as a feather and you couldn't find anything softer really."

The Siberian question

It is genuinely exceptional, and genuinely scarce.

"Siberian goose down is very, very special. This is Siberian goose down. You see just how it's grown in the glass. It is most unbelievably soft, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful down."

There is a world shortage of it. My father's response was not subtle:

"I've taken the unprecedented step of buying all the stock I could find."

Ours comes in 4.5 tog for summer, 9 tog for spring and autumn and 13.5 tog for winter, filled with 100% white Siberian goose down, made in Britain, with Nomite and Downafresh certification for allergy sufferers.

Before you buy

• Down comes from the belly of a goose or a duck. Feathers come from the top of the bird and have a quill.
• Goose down lasts longer than duck down because it resists breaking down through the friction of rubbing together.
• Goose down clusters are larger, which gives more loft, so a goose down duvet is warmer for its weight.
• Warmth for weight matters in a duvet, where you are under the filling all night. In a pillow, longevity is the point.
• Quality varies enormously within goose down itself, so the words on the label tell you far less than the fill power and the cluster grade.
• Siberian, Hungarian, Canadian and Mazurian describe where the down came from, not how good it is.
• Duck down is not an inferior product. It is softer than feather, less expensive than goose, and a sensible choice for spare rooms and children's beds.
• A down duvet or pillow is finished when it flops rather than holding its shape, because the filling has rubbed down into dust.

So which one

If you want the duvet to last a decade and you sleep somewhere cool, goose, and pay attention to the class and fill power rather than the country on the label.

If you want most of the softness at a more sensible price, duck. It is warmer than synthetic, far softer than feather, and for a guest room it is often the better decision rather than the compromise.

If you want support rather than loft, a duck and feather blend gives more structure, and you can feel the quills a little, which some people like.

Whichever you choose, judge it the way my father judges a pillow. Lay it over your arm. If it flops, the filling has gone.

The full range is in duvets, and the matching fills in pillows and bolsters. The same "the headline number is the least useful thing on the label" argument applies to thread count in bed linen.

Our mailing list is the Heritage Partnership. It is the first place we mention it when something scarce arrives, which with Siberian goose down can be the difference between getting one and not.