movement of moisture from Wiggy insulated products

WHY DOES MOISTURE ESCAPE A WIGGY’S PRODUCT BUT THE HEAT DOESN’T?

Since I have been making the Wiggy’s line of sleeping bags and cold weather outer wear there has been one constant; moisture that being the perspiration coming out of the body of the persons using these products from Wiggy’s has escaped through the insulation to form as either liquid or frost on the outside of the sleeping bag or parka, and I never understood why. I now know why this happens and it can only happen with these products made by Wiggy’s.

Water sticks to itself. When you syphon water from one vessel to another the tube used can go up and down and the water once it starts flowing will continue because the water molecules attach to each other so it is pulled along. Vapor which is a form of water does the same thing.

Air sticks to any surface for a distance of one eight inch and only moves if there is a form of pressure that causes it to move.

This is the reason that Wiggy’s products work as they do with respect to why moisture a form of water moves out of the sleeping bag or garment but air (warm air) does not.

This action is all made possible by using continuous filament fiberfill; i.e. Climashield/Lamilite insulation. And of course, when the Climashield becomes Lamilite it is a laminated product ready for its production use. This action does not happen with any other form of synthetic material referred to as insulation and that includes down. It also includes any other method of construction other than a laminated use of the Climashield.

When you are in a Wiggy’s sleeping bag, you are warm and your body is emitting moisture in the form of vapor. This moisture is moving away from you through the insulation as well as lining and shell fabrics very easily. There is a reason for this action which is not recognized but there is a reason. The air trapped in the Lamilite is warm because it has been heated by the heat from your body. That air does not go any place because there is no pressure of any sort pushing it. Therefore, it stagnates, stagnant air like stagnant water heats up. It is this heat that keeps the moist vapor warm enough to stay as a vapor which continually moves out of the sleeping bag or parka.

What I have just described does not happen with any other synthetic form of material referred to as insulation. In all cases there is a conductive loss of heat and all vapor movement stops very quickly and the result is the vapor changes to liquid and in a cold enough condition it freezes.

Down has the same end result only in a different manner. Air trapped in the down gets warm from body heat. The vapor moves slowly through the down proof material whereas the same vapor moves much more quickly through the more open weave non-down proof material used by Wiggy’s. The heated down does not conduct the heat through the down clusters as it does with the Lamilite. This action with the Lamilite means there is heat from one side to the other and maintaining this heat is important in keeping the vapor moving. Lamilite maintains the heated air because the air is stuck within the many thousands of filament fibers.

Because the heat does not move through the down clusters the vapor cools and condenses to liquid which is now absorbed by the down. The water has weight and as such the garment or sleeping bag increases in weight. The water the down has absorbed now causes the down to start losing its loft. The result is the vapor never gets to the outside of the garment or sleeping bag.

By laminating the Climashield to form Lamilite you have created a material composite that is uniformly thick. If you were to quilt the same weight of Climashield you would reduce the thickness of the fiber creating cold spots and you would further damage its insulating quality by compressing the fibers along the quilt lines. By laminating and allowing the Climashield to keep its loft what ever you make with it sleeping bag or parka these products have the greatest amount of insulating capability as can occur. This manner of construction allows for the best use of the Climashield/Lamilite material.

For years I have used the internet to seek information for masses of information on all subjects now and why I didn’t do that for this purpose until now I cannot say. But it was easy to find the differences between air permeability and vapor permeability.

Now you like me know the reason why moisture not heat escapes from Wiggy’s bags and parkas.