10.5 Tog Hungarian Emperor Duvet

First and foremost we tend to be looking for warmth and comfort. The more expensive your duvet, the less weight is typically required for warmth. Equally, your bedding will tend to perform better for a longer period of time. True value for money is difficult to assess at point of purchase especially when the lifetime may well be judged over decades, not years.

In the UK, the tog rating is your guide to warmth in duvets – essentially it operates on a scale from 2.5 tog (lightest rating) to 15.0 tog (warmest rating).

A good solution is the All Seasons duvet, which combines a summer weight quilt with a warmer duvet, which would typically be used in Spring and Autumn. The two duvets can then be attached together in the event of colder weather to give, for example, a combined tog rating in excess of 13.5 togs – the space between the two duvets also contributes to trapping warm air.

Most Duvet Store products can be hand filled to any tog rating, please ask if you don’t find the exact specification you require.

For warmth, the solutions are relatively straightforward. The higher the tog rating the warmer the duvet – we currently have over half a dozen 15.0 tog duvet options in our range.

Buying a duvet is no different to anything else in life. You get what you pay for. A cheap duvet may last a year or two. A top quality duvet may still be in good working order in 20 or 30 years time – so that £500 duvet can end up costing less than £20 a year and giving a level of comfort and happiness every single night….

When it comes to the top of the range fillings, the question is often asked about selecting between the different products which are presented. Our top quality Siberian or Hungarian down duvets are sourced directly from reputable long established Scottish and Hungarian manufacturers. The quality of filling is everything – the down feathers used by our suppliers are exceptionally long and of the highest possible standard – cheaper products may carry the same name but the actual quality is not! If a product costs half the price of another on the market there is almost certainly a good reason for that – it is likely to be heavier and not have the same lifetime.

The choice between down and feather can be based on two main factors. If you are looking for a duvet with more weight to it, as some prefer, then feather will provide this. The second factor is of course price! Feather does not insulate as well as down, hence more weight of filling is used – it is also a far cheaper material to source leading to the cost advantage.

We are also asked on occasion to help customers choose between duck and goose feather or down. The actual quality of filling itself is more relevant in fact – some qualities of Duck Down such as our 100% Pure European White Duck Down is far superior to most Goose Down products in the market The duvet will be that bit lighter whilst offering the same tog value.

As for natural filled duvets, the same principles apply in terms of lifetime of product. Cheaper synthetic duvets are particularly prone to losing their tog value rapidly. We use primarily Dacron branded fibre fillings which both feel softer and are remarkably resilient over a long period of time.

When we look for all over warmth we need to consider the type of stitching – any point where the duvet is sewn together could be a potential dead zone or cold spot. Our natural duvets benefit from cassette box construction (small squares with a 4cm wall on each side to ensure the duvet is never stitched together from front to back). Synthetics generally have random stitching which ensures best possible spread of fibre.