Best duvets 2024: Down and synthetic fillings, tried and tested

The Dorma Dream duvet is part of Dunelm’s conscious choice collection. It’s Oeko-Tex certified, which means it hasn’t been produced using any harmful chemicals under socially responsible working conditions. That’s got to help you sleep easier, right?

Like many of the polyester duvets in this review, this dream duvet was also made from recycled plastic bottles to reduce waste. The casing is 350 thread-count cotton, which helped to keep us at just the right temperature while testing. We were also impressed with the quality of the finish – all the seams have piping to make it more durable and it feels premium for it too. The 10.5 tog is surprisingly lightweight, yet the duvet also has a decent loft. We feel like this duvet is a really good all-rounder.

Made in the UK from 100 per cent recycled materials (the king size is made from up to 87 recycled plastic bottles), we were pleased to see an eco-friendly option from Silentnight.

We tested a 7.5 tog, and it’s very lightweight – people who don’t want a heavy drape on their duvet will love this option – and we think it is definitely best suited to use from late spring through until early autumn. Plus the polyester casing is moisture-wicking should you overheat at night. It’s also machine washable and hypoallergenic, so those prone to allergies are going to fare well with this duvet. There’s not much loft on this duvet – it looked quite thin on our bed, so didn’t bring those sumptuous hotel-bed vibes, but we were warm under it without overheating on very warm summer’s nights.

As an all-season duvet, the Scooms Hungarian goose down duvet has two parts to it – a 4.5 and a 9 tog duvet. We tested both duvets together which felt like sleeping inside the fluffiest cloud. The Scooms duvet is filled with 90 per cent goose down, which is one of nature’s best insulators. There’s also 10 per cent goose feather, which has more of a rigid structure for stability.

This duvet is toasty warm and will keep you snug even on chilly winter nights. In fact, although we were warm, we never once overheated. It’s been designed in the UK and has extra side walls, which cleverly keep all the down in place spread across the whole duvet, and this also has the benefit of keeping it airy. And although this duvet is generously packed, we never felt weighed down. We were also pleased that it created a microclimate in our half of the duvet, so we were kept at the right temperature for us, and our co-tester on the other side of the bed kept at their version of perfect too.

Now this duvet is cosy living at its finest. It’s the wool equivalent of 8 to 14 togs, so definitely suited to cooler nights. It’s made from 100 per cent traceable British wool, the casing is 100 per cent cotton, and it’s handmade in Devon, so we reckon you can’t get much more eco-friendly and high quality than that.

The combination of cotton and wool natural fibre work together to keep you toasty warm, yet never sweaty. The drape on the duvet is sumptuous too. Some might find this a bit much, but we love a weighty duvet – especially on cooler nights. Caring for it is a bit more of a faff though, which is why it dropped a point. You ideally don’t machine wash it, but air it regularly. If you do wash it, it’ll need to be on a 30C wool cycle and then air-dried, which is quite a lengthy process.

Piglet in Bed is perhaps best known for its high-end bed linen, but its duvet inserts are pretty special too. Filled with 100 per cent Merino wool, this is a great option if you want all the properties of natural fibres but down is not for you. Merino wool is a super temperature regulator, keeping you perfectly warm whatever the weather.

Despite this duvet being quite thin, we quickly warmed up under the duvet and were kept warm overnight. If you’re not a fan of duvets slipping inside their covers (who is?!) then there are ties on this duvet to tie in inside the linen – these are designed to work with Piglet in Bed’s own linen, but other brands of bed linen have this feature too.

We think this would be ideal for those who don’t love super thick duvets, as wool has a lower profile than other fillings. The wool is also naturally hypoallergenic and fire retardant, so there are no nasties in this duvet. Both the filling and casing are 100 per cent organic in the Piglet in Bed duvet, so you can rest easy knowing your duvet is totally chemical-free. We think all this for the price is pretty impressive. It’s not a budget duvet but it’s not eye-popping for the quality either.

Light and fluffy without a hint of a feather in sight, this duvet from Soak & Sleep is great for vegans and allergy sufferers alike. It’s machine washable at 30C and thanks to the microfibre filling is easy to dry too, meaning you can blast any allergens out of the duvet and have it as fresh as a daisy on your bed on the same day.

The microfibre filling inside has been carded – which essentially means untangled and combed so that it all goes in the same direction. This makes for a higher profile and smoother duvet. Certainly, ours is lump-free and voluminous – it feels positively cloudlike, despite the duvet “only” being 9 togs. It also is lightweight, meaning we could wiggle about under the duvet without it feeling like a Herculean effort.

If you want to pair Soak and Sleep’s duvets together to create an all-season duvet, then it comes with cufflink-style fastenings to clip them together. This means you can bolster your duvet to a whopping 18 togs if you feel the chill.

Happily, we gave this duvet a test during the turning of the seasons, so we tested it both at max thickness (13.5 tog) and at its summer thickness (4.5 tog). The duvets clip together with plastic popper which we found are liable to popping open, but are far less work than buttons. Marks and Spencer claim that the polyester used provides “climate control”, cooling you down when you overheat at night and wicking away moisture. We can attest to that as we didn’t overheat under this duvet, even when we were using the 13.5 tog.

We loved the weight of it – it seemed more substantial than other synthetic-fill duvets we tried – and we liked that the casing is 100 per cent cotton, which is naturally cooling. You can wash this duvet at 40C and tumble dry on low to keep it as fresh as a daisy. It also arrives in a durable reusable bag, which is handy for storing the winter section of your duvet away when you’re not using it.

At 4.5 togs, this Habitat duvet was great for warm summer nights – which is when we tested ours. If you’re looking for something warmer, then Habitat does this duvet in a range of togs to suit all seasons.

We were astounded by the good value of this duvet. It’s 100 per cent polyester, which isn’t the most breathable of fabrics, but you can machine wash it at 40C. You can even tumble dry it on low. This makes it a practical choice, especially if you’re using on guest beds and want to give guests that ultimate fresh-bed feeling. Or if you’re using it with kids who are liable to mess up their duvets one way or another.

We did like that it’s filled with 100 per cent recycled polyester, and made in the UK, making it a fairly planet-friendly choice. We found the 4.5 tog duvet we tested kept us nice and warm, while still being lightweight thanks to the synthetic filling. There’s stitching to ensure the filling doesn’t slip inside, making it more durable. But it is worth noting there are no fastenings to secure two of these duvets together to create an all-season duvet combination.

We loved the comfort of this duvet. It was pillowy and soft, with a bit of a crunchy sound to it as we moved around. Maybe it’s just us, but it reminded us of a hotel duvet because of this. The duvet is packed with temperature-regulating features. The cotton casing is designed to remove hot air as you overheat, then release it again as you cool down so you stay like Goldilocks all night – just right.

We found that while testing it with a co-tester who’s liable to overheating at night, we both stayed our version of the perfect temperature and crucially the co-tester didn’t overheat once. The filling is synthetic but is great for repelling dust mites so it’s a tick there for allergy sufferers. You can also wash it at 40C to blow the proverbial cobwebs away. We were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the finish on this duvet – with its casing, durability and even the stitching, it definitely feels a bit more premium than some others we tested.

We tried the summer warmth Soak and Sleep wool duvet, which was perfect for, well, summer. Using only New Zealand wool, Soak and Sleep says it’s “proven” to help you sleep better. We found that almost impossible to test scientifically, but we certainly did get a good night’s sleep under it. The wool is a bit heavier than synthetic fibres and keeps you temperate all night long as it’s such a good insulator.

The Soak and Sleep wool duvet adapts to each person’s temperature needs – so if you share a bed and are constantly arguing over which thickness of duvet to go for, this could be a relationship saviour. For us, the Soak and Sleep wool duvet was the perfect marriage of natural fibres, a reassuring weight and a great insulator. Wool is also naturally antimicrobial, hypoallergenic and fire retardant and you can wash this duvet at 30C, too.

Although this brand is better known for its wool-based duvets (more on those in this review elsewhere), this is its vegan-friendly option. The botanic duvet’s filling is made from tencel lyocell. Catchy, right? This fibre is derived from wood though, so it’s completely natural without the need for any animal products in the process. Tencel is fully traceable so you’re guaranteed there are no extra fibres added in there. Plus they’re environmentally friendly too. If that’s not enough, these duvets are handmade in Devon without glues or bonding chemicals. They’re then hand-folded and put into eco-friendly packaging.

We tried the “ultralight” version of this duvet, which is around 2 to 4 tog and found it was ideal for summer. It was as light as a summer’s breeze to lie under, and we didn’t get sweaty even on the warmest evenings. The stitching means all the filling stays in place and there’s an even distribution of weight across the whole duvet. We also liked that you can wash it at 30C and even tumble dry it on low.

If you’re vegan or want something very eco-friendly, look no further than Duvet Hog. This duvet is filled with 100 per cent polyester, made from recycled PET bottles, so it’s kind to the planet and uses no animal products. We found this duvet incredibly soft and, despite being a fairly heavy-duty tog rating at 10.5, pleasantly lightweight. It had a lovely drape to it, keeping us tucked in and feeling like we were in our own bubble all night.

Polyester isn’t famed for being super breathable compared with other fibres, but we found this duvet didn’t have us overheating on warmer nights. Those who suffer from allergies will appreciate you can wash this duvet at 60C to blitz any allergens – it’s rare we come across duvets that can be washed at such high temperatures and live to tell the tale. It’s also made without the use of any chemicals – the fibres are all Oeko-Tex standard 100 certified.