Best warm comforter 2024 – keep cozy in the winter weather

There's nothing like a duvet day in the depths of winter. When you sleep with the best warm comforter, you can cuddle up without worrying about lumps, bumps, or cold patches. A quality comforter will be breathable, too, wicking away moisture to keep you just the right side of warm and dry.

There are down duvets, filled with real duck and goose feathers, as well as down alternative comforters to suit sensitive sleepers and vegan shoppers. Premium duvets tend to come with a premium price tag, though some of the best warm comforters come in well under budget. There are so many kinds of comforter, sold at so many specialist sleep stores, that it can be difficult to know where to start. 

That's where I come in. As H&G's resident sleep writer, I lead a team of expert testers. Together, we've slept under some of the best duvet inserts money can buy. We've already crowned the best cooling comforter for hot sleepers. Now, it's time to find an ultra-warm insert to suit cold sleepers and cooler climes.

Our experts test comforters for months, if not years, to monitor their performance over time. When we haven't been able to get our hands on a duvet, we've scoured the specifications and read countless customer reviews to ensure we're recommending quality comforters. We've assessed each piece on the basis of comfort, warming properties, ease of cleaning, and the all-important price. 

The quick list

We'll dive into the details further down. If you just want to get shopping already, here are the best warm comforters at a glance. 

The best warm comforters in 2024

The best warm comforter overall

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The Boll & Branch Down Duvet Insert is the best duvet insert, bar none. This comforter comes in three weights to support each sleeper's ideal temperature. There's a lightweight layer for hot sleepers and warmer climates, as well as a midweight option for year-round use. If you tend to sleep cool, or you live in a colder climate, your best bet is the Ultraweight Duvet Insert, which comes with a thicker feather fill.

Boll & Branch incorporates bafflebox stitching into each insert to hold the feather fill in place. No lumps, bumps, or cold patches: just cozy comfort, all through the night.

This comforter is filled with real duck and goose feathers, ethically sourced from American farms to meet the Responsible Down Standard. That means that each stage of production, from farm to factory, is investigated by an independent organization to uphold the highest standards of comforter quality and animal welfare. 

This duvet insert looks good and sleeps warm, but it's a little tricky to clean. While this comforter is technically machine-washable and dryer-safe, it takes two or three cycles to dry completely, costing you time and money in energy bills. 

The best warm down comforter

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A lot of down duvets are filled with individual feathers. These feathers hold heat and keep you cozy, but their stalks can break through the cover of your comforter to scrape and scratch your skin. That's why Brooklinen fill their duvets with down clusters, which feel lighter and softer than feathers, while delivering the same level of warmth.  

The Brooklinen Down Comforter comes in three weights: lightweight, all-season, and ultra-warm. If you live in a cooler climate, or you like to cuddle up in the colder months, you might appreciate the ultra-warm option. This comforter comes in every size from Twin to California King. Perhaps it goes without saying, but it bears repeating that the larger and thicker the comforter, the more expensive it is.

Unusually for a down duvet, this comforter is hypoallergenic and suitable for sensitive sleepers. It's treated with ultra-fresh antimicrobials, which work to kill the bacteria that breed in hot, damp environments, such as bedrooms. The Ultra-Warm Comforter should keep you just the right side of warm and dry, while combatting microbes, mold, and mites. 

However, like a lot of down products, this duvet insert doesn't wash well. Brooklinen recommend spot cleaning smaller spills and stains and dry cleaning when necessary: you shouldn't run this comforter through the washing machine. Since you only need to wash your duvet insert once a season, this isn't a dealbreaker, but it is irritating. 

You can find more detail in our Brooklinen Down Comforter review.

The best warm down alternative comforter

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Many of the best warm comforters are filled with real down, which holds heat and air to create natural loft and cozy comfort. However, there's one big downside to down duvets. Since they're stuffed with duck and goose feathers, down comforters cannot be classed as vegan. If you're keen to avoid animal products of all kinds, you might sleep more comfortably with a down alternative duvet. 

Enter the Saatva Heavyweight Down Alternative Comforter. This ultra-warm insert offers the same plush comfort of the standard Saatva duvet with thicker layers to keep you cozy. The comforter is filled with a unique blend of down alternative and breathable lyocell, which is naturally moisture-wicking and thermoregulating to keep you just the right side of warm and dry. 

Down alternative duvets tend to be easier to wash and dry, and the Saatva Heavyweight is no exception. All you need to do is throw it in the washing machine on a cold cycle and tumble dry on low. Give it a good shake as you take it out of the dryer and it should look as good as new. 

The Saatva Heavyweight Comforter retails for around $345 in the queen size. While that might sound like a lot of money to drop on a duvet, this is one of the more affordable warm comforters on the market. If you live in a consistently cooler climate, or you like to cuddle up in the winter months, you'll get a lot of use out of this cozy comforter.

The best eco-friendly warm comforter

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When you're looking for the best warm comforter, it pays to shop around. Your options extend beyond down and down alternative to encompass breathable bamboo, smooth silk, and even sheepskin. For eco-conscious shoppers who tend to sweat while they sleep, I recommend alpaca. 

This duvet insert is filled with alpaca wool, which is hand-shorn and sustainably sourced. Moisture-wicking and thermoregulating, antimicrobial and hypoallergenic, alpaca wool checks all the boxes that make up good bedding. The insert is wrapped in an organic cotton percale shell to boost breathability. 

The Alpaca Duvet insert comes in two weights: lightweight for warmer climates, and all-season for year-round use. In the absence of a designated heavyweight or ultra-warm option, I'd recommend sleeping under the all-season to stay warm and dry. 

While the Alpaca Duvet Insert is neither machine-washable nor dryer-safe, it's relatively easy to clean. Avocado recommend spot cleaning to counter smaller spills and stains and hanging the comforter in direct sunlight to restore freshness. If you want to resist wear and tear, you could cover the Alpaca Duvet Insert with a cotton or linen slip.

The best luxury warm comforter

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This is the ultimate adjustable duvet. Scooms sells their Hungarian Goose Down Duvet as a three-in-one comforter, but it's more like nine-in-one. 

This comforter comprises multiple layers, which come in light, summer, autumn, and all-season weights, and are connected by simple snaps. Each night, you can customize your comforter to suit the weather, your home's internal temperature, and your own sleep style.

Our expert tested the mid-weight comforter, which combined a 9-tog and a 2.5-tog layer, and kept her warm in the depths of winter. As the weather turned to spring, she popped the snaps to separate the layers. She stored the lighter layer in her linen closet and slept under the 9-tog comforter, which kept her just the right side of warm and dry. 

If you want a cozy comforter for the colder months, but you live in a temperate climate, you might be better off with an adjustable duvet than a heavyweight ultra-warm insert. The Scooms Hungarian Goose Down Duvet is suitable for year-round use and comes with a 60-night sleep trial. That means you could test each layer, together and apart, in the transition between seasons before you commit to this comforter.

This adjustable duvet varies in price, too, depending on which layers you select, and in what size. The Hungarian Goose Down Duvet can cost anything from $300 to more than $600. Unless you have a few hundred dollars to drop on a duvet, you might be better off shopping elsewhere.

The best value warm comforter

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This warm comforter might not be the most premium piece, but it costs a fraction of the price of the other duvets on this list. Retailing for less than $60, the COHOME Winter Comforter is 10 times cheaper than the Scooms Hungarian Goose Down Duvet. Granted, you won't get the same plush comfort, but you'll save hundreds of dollars to spend on toys, gifts, concerts, vacations, and all sorts of things that are much more exciting than a duvet. 

The COHOME Winter Comforter comes in every size from Twin to California King, with the addition of Oversized Queen and Oversized King for a dramatic drape. The comforter comes in a range of cool neutral shades to complement any bedroom color palette, from a classic light gray to a chic navy blue. 

Rather than down or down alternative, this duvet is made from and filled with premium polyester. While it lacks the loft of real feathers or the breathability of lyocell, this polyester piece should keep you warm through the winter. 

This comforter is machine-washable and dryer-safe for quick and convenient cleaning. I'd recommend giving it a good shake after each cycle to keep the fill in place and preserve loft. It's the best way to eliminate lumps and bumps in your duvet.

While COHOME isn't one of the major home retailers or a specialist sleep store, their Winter Comforter boasts almost 20,000 five-star reviews on the Amazon site. That's how you know they're doing something right.

How we test comforters

We put a lot of thought into how we test comforters. It's more that a matter of sleeping on the job. Our expert testers sleep under these duvets for months, if not years, to monitor their performance across several seasons, as well as wear and tear over time. 

We consider all aspects of a comforter: its warmth; its breathability; the quality of its construction; the cost; and, of course, how much comfort it provides. We assess the sustainability of the fabrics used, as well as the manufacturing process. We follow the instructions on the care tag to learn how to wash a comforter. This might be as simple as throwing it in the washing machine, or it could involve spot-cleaning and hand-washing. 

Meet the team

Tested by

Tested by

Louise Oliphant

Louise is one of our former sleep editors. She started her journey to better sleep working in PR for a luxury bedding brand. She's tried, tested, and reviewed some of the top sleep products. Louise brings bags of bedding expertise to help you wind down well.

Tested by

Tested by

Jaclyn Turner

Jaclyn is one of our former sleep editors. It's her job to stay up to date on all things mattresses and bedding. In addition to Homes & Gardens, you can find her work in Real Homes, Livingetc., Apartment Therapy, MyDomaine, and The Spruce.

Best warm comforter FAQs

Final thoughts

Once you've bought one of the best warm comforters, it's important to take good care of it. It's worth learning how to dry a comforter to retain its loft and warmth. 

If you've ever wondered how often you should wash your comforter, then you're in luck: we've gathered expert guidance on when and how to wash your duvet insert to keep it looking and feeling good.