It is flammable and explosive, and you may wear it every day

Not long ago, a netizen uploaded a video of "a down jacket suddenly torn while riding the subway." According to the video shooter, Ms. Lu, she was riding the subway Line 9 when she suddenly heard a "bang" sound from the opposite side. She looked up and found that it was a little girl's down jacket that was torn.

Image source: Beiwang New Vision

As soon as the video was released, it caused an uproar and aroused doubts among all sectors of society and consumers about the quality of down jackets. In fact, as early as the end of 2012, the quality of down jackets was exposed by CCTV media due to serious quality problems such as "adding harmful flying silk" and "fake labels", and its quality and safety risks caused heated discussions.

Fortunately, the explosive down jacket was found to be made of real down and the down content was sufficient. Because down jackets are light and have poor air permeability, the accumulation of down inside the jacket causes the gaps in the jacket to become larger, which can cause a vacuum explosion under pressure.

01

Why do down jackets explode?

News about down jacket explosions will become a hot topic from time to time. For example, a mother's down jacket exploded when she was washing it in a washing machine, and the fragments of the washing machine scratched the children playing nearby, which made people feel distressed and worried.

Image source: Photo Network

So why would a perfectly good piece of clothing explode? Down jackets have poor air permeability. After being completely soaked in water, the down inside will gather together, creating large gaps inside the jacket. When drying at high speed, the water-saturated down will continue to expand after being dehydrated, creating air inside the jacket.

The waterproof coating of the down jacket is not conducive to the discharge of gas, which will continuously expand the down jacket. In addition, the dry nylon cloth and down will generate static electricity. The large amount of heat generated by static electricity will explode in a short period of time . When the gas accumulates to a certain level, it may cause an "explosion".

Image source: Photo Network

In addition, washing machines are generally divided into old-fashioned double-cylinder pulsator washing machines, single-cylinder fully automatic pulsator washing machines and drum washing machines. Most of the "explosions" are double-cylinder pulsator washing machines. This is because the dehydration barrel of a double-cylinder pulsator washing machine is equipped with a lid to hold down the clothes, the space is small, and the rotation speed is fast. Fully automatic pulsator washing machines have relatively large space and slow rotation speed. When an abnormality occurs, the lid can be opened immediately to force the machine to stop, so the danger is less.

Based on this analysis, the conditions for down jackets to "explode" are:

1) The outer layer of the down jacket is not breathable;

2) High-speed spinning must produce large enough bubbles due to the squeezing of clothes during the spinning process, and the air pressure must be large enough to "explode" the washing machine.

Generally speaking, these conditions are not easy to achieve at the same time, so there is no need to be afraid of them. However, if you are not careful, there are risks, so you must not be careless during the cleaning process.

02

How to properly dry a down jacket

From the perspective of the washing machine's drying performance, how to use the washing machine to dry down jackets is also very particular.

There is a layer of polymer coating on the surface of the down jacket. This coating is applied to the surface of the fabric to seal the gaps between the fabrics. On the one hand, it can prevent heat loss, and on the other hand, it can make the fabric leak-proof and water-proof.

Image source: Photo Network

Conventional cotton load drying temperatures are mostly between 75-80°C , which can easily cause a certain degree of damage to the surface coating, thus affecting the warmth retention and service life of the down jacket. After the down jacket is machine washed and spun dry, the down will condense and clump. If the moisture in the clumps cannot be completely removed, the down will all gather together, which will greatly reduce the static air content between the down fibers and the down clusters, increase the heat transfer coefficient of the down, and reduce the warmth retention of the down jacket. At the same time, the clumping of down can easily lead to uneven thickness of the filling, causing the clothes to lose shape, affecting the appearance and warmth retention.

Image source: Photo Network

Therefore, for the performance setting of the washing machine , the temperature of the heating tube should be set at 90-100℃ when drying down jackets, which can ensure good drying efficiency and prevent the surface temperature of the down jacket from being too high, avoiding damage to the surface coating of the down jacket; at the same time, the upper limit temperature of the heating tube is set at 90℃ to avoid the problem of excessive temperature of the whole machine, which may cause safety hazards. Of course, these are the problems of washing machine manufacturers. What should we ordinary people pay attention to?

Down jacket cleaning tips

1) Wring out the washed down jacket by hand first, then spin dry it in the washing machine , which will greatly reduce the risk of explosion;

2) When machine washing down jackets, you can lower the speed of the washing machine during the spin-drying stage for greater safety.

Of course, down jackets also need to pay attention to safety issues such as flammability and anti-slip.

Image source: Photo Network

The cold wave is coming, so everyone should keep warm and pay attention to safety.

I wish you all a warm winter~

References

[1] Zhuangzi. A girl’s down jacket “exploded” while riding the subway attracted attention. It is important to strengthen science popularization and help consumers avoid safety hazards [J]. China Fiber Inspection, 2021, (02): 40-41.

[2] Li Ying. Why did down jackets suddenly explode? [J]. China Quality Tour, 2021, (02): 92-93.

[3] Liu Yumei, Duan Hongtao, Wu Wanxiao, et al. Research on the drying performance of down jackets in drum washing machines[J]. Daily Electrical Appliances, 2020, (08): 30-34+52.

[4] You must be careful about these dangerous behaviors when wearing down jackets in winter! [J]. Trade Union Expo, 2019, (35): 32.

Author: Guo Weihong, a crosstalk artist with a PhD

Editor: Tiara