When it comes to duvets, I have pretty straightforward tastes and requirements. I want something that I can have on the bed all year round, supplementing it with a blanket on the coldest winter nights and most likely throwing it off the bed completely and replacing it with a sheet during summer heatwaves.
Now, some of you might go looking for the best duvet and quite reasonably decide to have a 4.5 tog option for the summer, a hefty 15 tog for the winter and maybe even a 10.5 or 13.5 tog for the in-between months. I applaud your dedication and envy all the storage space you must have, but basically I want a duvet that I hardly ever have to think about, and the fact that I can't even remember when I bought my previous duvet (it may have been this century but I can't swear to it) is testament to that.
Consequently the DreamCloud Duvet, which only comes in a 10.5 tog rating, felt like an attractive proposition to me and I was more than happy to put it through its paces. Here's what I found out.
DreamCloud Duvet review: price & availability
The DreamCloud Duvet is available directly from DreamCloud in four sizes. A single (135 x 200cm) will cost you £50, a double (200 x 200cm) is £65, a king (225 x 220cm) is £75 and a super king (260 x 220cm) comes in at £85. Delivery and returns are free, and the DreamCloud Duvet also comes with a two-year warranty.
DreamCloud Duvet review: design & features
DreamCloud doesn't say very much at all about the composition of its duvet when you look it up online; the only information you'll find on the DreamCloud site is its price and tog rating. Given the not-cheap (but not exactly premium either) pricing, you might expect it to have some impressive materials going on, but in fact it's largely polyester. The cover is 100% polyester microfiber that feels lovely and smooth, while the filling is a mix of 80% polyester fibres and 20% Modal fibres, derived from wood pulp to enhance breathability and also to help wick moisture away and keep things cool.
There's wavy stitching going on along the length of the duvet to hold all that filling in place so it doesn't get bunched up over time, but what this duvet really has going for it is just how light and soft it feels. A double duvet weighs in at 2.5kg, which maybe seems like a lot, but spread out over a 200 x 200cm duvet it really does feel wonderfully light, even when it's weighed down slightly by a duvet cover, and that polyester and Modal fill is quite spectacularly soft; that's the first thing my partner noticed about it on the first night we slept under it.
Care-wise it's a winner: it can be washed at 40C and tumble-dried. If, like me, you don't have a tumble dryer, don't panic because this one's so soft and light that you should be able to hang it on the washing line on a warm summer morning and find it's easily dried by bedtime.
DreamCloud Duvet review: performance
The delivery of my DreamCloud duvet coincided with the arrival of a summer heatwave that wasn't remotely conducive to fairly reviewing a duvet, so it had to sit in its box for a few weeks while I waited for the night-time temperatures to become a little less overbearing.
When I finally unpacked it – it was rolled up and sealed in a plastic bag, and simply needed shaking out a bit to loosen up the fibres – I was pleased to note how soft it felt, and how easily it slid into a duvet cover. And come bedtime it was refreshing to realise just how light this duvet is; while my previous 10.5-tog duvet wasn't exactly a heavyweight, the difference between the two was remarkable.
I've been sleeping under the DreamCloud Duvet for a good three weeks or so by now, and it's proved to be nice and cosy on cooler nights while generally avoiding being stifling when the temperatures went back up again. There have been a couple of instances where I've woken up too hot in the night, but that's more to do with me misjudging the weather than the duvet itself. Sometimes it's simply not duvet weather,
I expect this duvet to come into its own once autumn rolls in, and I'll be interested to see how well it copes when winter properly arrives, but I'm guessing a blanket on top of it should make all the difference.
DreamCloud Duvet review: verdict
I think the best way to summarise the DreamCloud Duvet is that I've been largely unaware of it throughout my testing process, which is frankly what you want from a duvet. It's splendidly soft and wonderfully light and it's simply let me get on with the important business of sleeping; when I have woken up too hot in the night it's basically been because of hot weather rather than the duvet not being too heavy or not breathable enough.
The fact that it's washable and unlikely to take an eternity to dry afterwards, even without a tumble dryer, is a bonus that I'll definitely appreciate if I ever get around to washing it (frankly I do not have a good track record in this regard, but the fact that this one seems so easy to care for makes it a little more likely that I'll risk stuffing it in the washing machine).
My only real niggle with the DreamCloud Duvet is its price. Compared with other all-polyester / fibre fill duvets it feels a little on the expensive side, and I suspect you're paying a slight premium for that 20% Modal content. I can't really tell how much difference the Modal makes to the duvet's breathability, but I certainly have no complaints about the duvet's performance, and seeing how you'll get a good few years' service out of it (and more than that if you're anything like me), in the grand scheme of things it's not an extravagant price for what you get. If you're pinching pennies and don't tend to overheat in the night, though, you may do just as well with a cheaper hollowfibre option.
DreamCloud Duvet review: alternatives to consider
On the whole the DreamCloud Duvet does a good job for what you'll pay. However if you want comparable performance at a lower price, you can't go far wrong with the Silentnight Airmax duvet. It's impressively breathable thanks to mesh side panels, and allergy-friendly too, and its 10.5 tog option comes in at less than half the price of the DreamCloud.
If you're after something a little more luxurious, however, the Panda Cloud Bamboo duvet is well worth your attention. Again it's a 10.5 tog that'll cope with all but the hottest and coldest nights, it's wonderfully soft and beautifully made, and it's one of the most environmentally-friendly options around; you'll pay almost twice for it what the DreamCloud will cost you, however.
