Polyester Hammocks vs Polypropylene Hammocks

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Polyester Hammocks vs Polypropylene Hammocks

What is the difference between polyester and polypropylene?

First of all, polypropylene and polyester are synthetic materials. They are both polymers, which are essentially plastic. As a result, their colors won’t fade or bleed when washed because the colors are built into the material.

Polypropylene, however, is more hydrophobic than polyester meaning that it does not absorb as much water. Since the water cannot be absorbed into the fabric, the water (or rain) has a tendency to spread evenly throughout the garment which in turn helps the water to evaporate much quicker than a fabric that absorbs and retains the water.

As a quick example, if you cup your hand and put some water in it and continue to hold the water in your hand with your hand still in a cup shape, the water will take a very long time to dry. But, if you un-cup your hand and use your other hand to spread the water evenly all over both of your hands, the water will dry in less than 1 tenth of the time.

So, having explained this, polypropylene hammocks will dry much faster than polyester hammocks. Polypropylene has a much lower melting point than polyester so you will want to avoid washing polypropylene in hot water or drying it. For this reason, polyester hammocks are much easier to care for than polypropylene hammocks.

Polyester hammocks are also more UV resistant than polypropylene. Eventually, the polypropylene fabric will break down and the color will fade.

So really, whether one fabric is better than the other really depends on what it will be used for. If you just need a fabric to wear next to your skin that will dry very quickly and thus keep your skin dry, then polypropylene is probably what you want. If you want just a good all-around fabric that also dries quickly, but is very easy to launder and care for, then polyester is probably your best bet. Therefore we prefer polyester for hammocks.

On balance to me, it seems like polyester is the best material for making hammocks.

Here is a very close-up image of polyester from Wikipedia.