Thread: Blowing wet wools weigh myth out of the water

Firstly a disclaimer.... and apologies for the Title pun, but this is a back yard comparison only, and there may be slight variations. But basically, a popular belief is that when it comes to wet wool versus wet polar fleece, popular consensus is that wool when wet is heavier than wet polar fleece and that wool takes longer to dry.

So... I soaked 2 popular & almost identical hunting shirts in style and size, 1 woolen and the other one fleece, and weighed their wet weight.
Well the difference in weights surprised me, to the extent that I dropped them back into the tub, dragged them out and re-weighed them. And although there was some very small difference from the original weigh in, the big gap between the 2 fabrics was still there. I expected some difference, but not as big as it was



and here is their dry weight..... with only 82grams difference between them. I zeroed the bucket weight on the scales, so all weights are "net"




I then pulled them out of the tub and held them up to drain for 20 seconds, then into a bucket to get their "wringing wet" weight




Then I hung them on the clothes line and re-weighed them after 10 minutes.


Then back onto the clothes line for a re-weigh after 30 minutes


Then back onto the clothes line for a final re-weigh after 1&1/2 hours



So as I indicated.... there's possibly some small variences and its not scientific..... but the results are the exact opposite of the popular belief, but then I've never doubted good old NZ wool

Which one do you think is warmer (dry)?

Thats a cool experiment, i've always thought the "myth" was true...

The fleece ..... but only if your sitting around. The wool breathes a lot better when your working in it.
And I wear MKM's soft woolen singlets or tee's under both of them anyway.

Great experiment.
Not the resulting expected.
Wool doesn't smell as quick either!
I wear wool baselayers now days after years of technical synthetic. Just the smell difference is worth it.

That is actually a fairl scientific experiment. The one other thing I can think of is wearing each while walking for say 30mins and 1hr and weighing after that. Maybe motion makes the difference?. Would be good to see if wool still beats Synthetic in that scenario.

good stuff mate

Originally Posted by longshot

That is actually a fairl scientific experiment. The one other thing I can think of is wearing each while walking for say 30mins and 1hr and weighing after that. Maybe motion makes the difference?. Would be good to see if wool still beats Synthetic in that scenario.

Yes, that would be interesting !.......Are you volunteering for that test ?

One so called advantage with fleece is you can spin it around and around and get rid of a heap of excess water, or just ring it out and then put it back on. That might be a myth too.

You dont see Sheep wearing fleece for a good reason

Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

One so called advantage with fleece is you can spin it around and around and get rid of a heap of excess water, or just ring it out and then put it back on. That might be a myth too.

I think that applies to both of them..... but of interest, I've just taken both off the clothes line, 5:15pm.... and the wool is dry, but the fleece is still holding significant water in the bottom 1/4, which as you say, a quick flick got rid of a lot of it, but it was still wet compared to the wool being reasonably dry ???
And I'm not biased.... as I own 5 of the popular brand fleece shirts, and 5 of the popular brand woolen shirts

Originally Posted by Pengy

You dont see Sheep wearing fleece for a good reason

Yes but fleece doesn't smell of sheep when its wet, and wool is itchy for some folks, I can't wear wool next to my skin not even Merino it gets itchy.

Counter-intuitive or counter-myth. Long time since I had a woolen Swandri, used to live in one. They stayed expensive and fleece came along dirt cheap. But I should have known. 5 yrs ago I got convinced to try merino underwear for several months thru a hot European summer backpacking. Best thing I ever did. Never worn acrylic next to my skin since. Might have to find a woolen shirt. Good post!

What was the relative thickness of the wollen material vs the fleece? Fleece is usually a lot finer and more dense material than the wool which is usually a coarser fiber. I had an old ex military swandri product that was about 6kg dry - warm as all hell but I'd hate to have to swim in it.

One possible fly in the ointment could be that the Synthetic material might be multilayered, so has more surface area to hold onto the water so will be heavier when wet, and be slower drying as more surface area is holding the water