Does anyone here have any experience with Insultex insulation?

Based on what I am seeing on the Backwoods Daydreamer website I am considering a new top quilt project using a combination of climashield and insultex.

Here is a link to all of the information that I have so far from the DIY blog on the Backwoods Daydreamer website.

Thanks in advance.

Party On,

Newton

Edited for spelling error.

Edited by Newton on 02/12/2011 07:44:56 MST.

John,
I posted an inquiry about this last year, and the consensus was that the material is of no greater R value than commonly used insulations of less weight (Primaloft, etc).
Don't recall if it was on G Spot or MYOG.

here

Thread mostly talks about insulbrite, but second page gives an opinion on insultex

Edited by idester on 02/12/2011 09:26:26 MST.

Go over to hammockforums.net.

All the info you could want. Many are using it....

Edited To Correct Link

INSULTEX JACKETS

Has anyone tried one of the insultex jackets shown above?

Daryl

Edited by lyrad1 on 02/12/2011 11:45:20 MST.

bad link. My guess is you forgot the "http://" before the www.

Douglas,

You were right....I left off the beginning parts of the link.

Daryl

Hey Sam,

"no greater R value than commonly used insulations of less weight"

Are we talking about the same product? I copied and pasted the following info in bold type from the Backwoods Daydreamer website.

"Insultex is an extremely thin, microperforated closed cell foam weighing 0.42oz/yd2".

From what I can gather it is being used as some sort of an exterior VBL.

"The key to getting the most "bang for your buck" with IX is having a good, yet loose, fit. If you press up against it, the insulative value is reduced. The same happens if it is too loose and allows too much airflow. You want it close, but not touching - having a climashield buffer is the perfect solution".

I gathered this from a comment on the BD site where the poster mentioned the possibility of using HDPE as an inexpensive substitute.

Has anyone here used this material in this way? Has anyone here made a top quilt using the exterior shell material as a VBL? Tim's cuben quilts come to mind but they are cuben inside and out.

Party On,

Newton

John,
Yes, I think we are talking about the same material.

https://www.idigear.com/insultex.php

I had been thinking about buying idigear's bivy bag to get a good chunk of it.

Granted, Richard's post does sound like he might have been thinking of something else. That's why I restated what I understood him to mean with another post.
On the above page, they spec it at .021" thick.
Maybe he will respond to your OP.

But I would add the old saw, 'If it sounds to good to be true, it is.'

Edited by scfhome on 02/12/2011 15:37:32 MST.

I was about to order 4 yards at $6.50 per yard for experimenting but was turned off by a $24 shipping charge.

Order it from Backwoodsdaydreamer. It costs less per yard, and shipping for me to San Diego would be under $8.

Placed an order for insultex (plus some 0 rings) with backwoods daydreamer, per your suggestion.

Thanks for the help.

Daryl

Edited by lyrad1 on 02/14/2011 09:54:08 MST.

The company that was going to charge me $24 shipping for 4 yards of insultex contacted me. They said their shipping calculator wasn't working and shipping would be $5.95 instead.

They had already lost my sale but it at least showed me they are reasonable people.

Daryl,
Would really appreciate knowing your thoughts about the Insultex once you've used it a bit in the field. Thanks.

given the air spacing requirement it seems like this would be more suited for a air pad than a sleeping bag. Maybe a replacement for what the neo-air is using but achieving a higher R value.

Since the heat value of the material is compromised by compression and also performs poorly with reflecting heat at a distance from the source, it only makes sense that it would be best suited to a top layer material for something like an ultralight bivy. The material specs say it is wind and waterproof.

It also looks like it could make a decent pfd if you wanted to build a hybrid cold weather jacket and life vest with it.

Samuel,

Per your suggestion, here's a post about my Insultex experience.

I compared a myog insultex vest (white) with a myog closed cell (sleeping pad) foam vest (blue). I prefer the closed cell foam vest. It was warmer and I could use it as a sleeping pad. Photos are at end.


My thoughts, in no particular order are:

Insultex makes some strong claims about warmth so I couldn't resist trying it, even though I was skeptical. Here's a link:

insultex

MYOG foam vest was posted here:

foam vest




The Insultex I got is a foam looking fabric about 1/50th of an inch thick weighing about .4 ounces per square yard. It is sandwiched between two layers of unwoven scrim (remay?). Insultex plus two layers of scrim add up to about 1.4 ounces per square yard. I would have preferred to work with just the foam piece.

The foam part of Insultex sandwich appears to be waterproof but the needle holes from adding the scrim allow water to go through easily.

We recently had several days of 20 degree F weather in Seattle so I had a good chance to do the comparison. I wore a long sleeve polypro pullover + vest + windbreaker. I would alternate between vests as I worked in the yard.

Insultex says that 1 layer of insultex has a clo of 2 and is warm to -13 degrees. That would be impressive from a fragile looking piece of foam that is only about 1/50th of an inch thick. I made a 1 layer vest and it was so cold that I could not stay outside more than a few minutes.

I then made a vest with 3 layers of Insultex. With scrim that adds up to 3 layers of foam and 6 layers of scrim. I then added ripstop nylon on the outside because the scrim snags and picks up debris easily. Even with 3 layers of Insultex and 8 layers of fabric I found the blue 3/8 vest to be much warmer.



The Insultex fabric does drape better than the stiffer 3/8" blue vest. But the blue foam vest can be used as a sleeping pad and is more waterproof because it doesn't have stitching through it. I might even forego a raincoat with the blue foam.



Next project will be a closed cell foam vest with thinner 1/8 inch closed cell foam. This should drape better than the 3/8 blue foam vest and be warmer than the Insultex vest.



Daryl

Edited by lyrad1 on 02/27/2011 22:02:28 MST.

Thanks, Daryl. That is the most useful feedback I've yet seen.

hey thanks it was helpful :)