viceroy bedding 500 Thread Count Luxury 100% Egyptian Cotton White, Super King Bed Size, 16" EXTRA DEEP Fitted Sheet

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To understand this, let's define thread count. This number refers to how many threads there are in a square inch of the fabric. The higher the number, the more tightly woven the material is. Looking for sheets with a reasonable thread count (200-600 for most styles) will typically produce the best results. Be sure to modify your expectations somewhat depending on the material used. When it comes to thread count,” Tannen said, “most people forget that the quality of threads is far more important than the quantity." Andrés Modak, co-CEO and co-founder of Snowe, noted, “Luxury sheets aren't simply the result of a high number; first you need the highest quality yarns, expertly woven.”

For soft, breathable bedding, cotton is the go-to choice for most. But did you know that thread count isn't the only factor when it comes to quality? In fact, the thread itself is also important — and Egyptian cotton bedding is widely regarded as some of the best. Thread count is a measure of the number of threads woven into one square inch of fabric. Essentially, it’s a measure of how tightly woven a fabric is. Sateen sheets, meanwhile, offer a silker, glossier appearance, although for this you may forfeit some of the light airiness associated with percale. The finer weaving of sateen means a thread count in the region of 300 to 600 is ideal for this refined fabric. We recently tested a 1,400 thread count cotton/polyester sheet set that uses one of these techniques and (not surprisingly) it wasn't a top performer. Polyester does have its own selling points – it’s stronger, more wrinkle-resistant and less expensive than cotton – but it certainly doesn’t feel as luxurious as a natural fiber.So the right thread count for you will depend on your particular tastes; if you're looking for an indulgent hotel feel, go for a higher number.

You'd assume that a higher count is better, but that's not strictly true. Linen bedding, for example, has a typical thread count of around 200, but that's what makes it so breathable and gives it that lovely texture. In our tests, top-rated bed sheets often have thread counts between 300 and 500. Anything above 500 isn’t necessarily better (so don’t be deceived when you see thread counts over 1,500), and on the flip side, you can still find quality sheets with thread counts under 300. On top of that, even though our tests have shown that the 300 to 500 thread count range is a sweet spot, a sheet that falls into this range isn’t guaranteed to be high quality: Again, fiber content and construction are more important. When you see counts above 300 for percale or 600 for sateen, that sometimes means the manufacturers are using ply—the number of single threads twisted together in yarn—to artificially inflate the thread count, namely counting two-ply yarns as two yarns instead of one. That means a 500-thread-count sheet made with two-ply yarns might be advertised as 1,000 thread count. Single-ply yarn is more pliable and lends itself to softer fabrics than those containing multiple plies of yarn. As Maher told us, “This is a marketing effort.” She added that manufacturers raise the number to capture customers’ attention, since people tend to perceive a higher-thread-count sheet as better. In 2005 the Federal Trade Commission issued an opinion (PDF), but not a firm set of rules or guidelines, advising against this practice. But our experts noted that although many manufacturers have stopped, they do still see it happening. Of course, remember that thread count is not an end-all, be-all measurement. The quality of the yarns, the manufacturer’s production process, the weave type, and many other factors all contribute to the performance of a set of bed sheets.It should also be noted that many popular bed linen materials are not measured in thread counts at all. Silk, for example, is assessed by momme, a Japanese measurement which indicates the weight in pounds of a given fabric measuring 45 inches by 100 yards. Gopinath told us a 400 to 500 thread count for percale could reflect a denser sheet made of fine, good-quality yarns. Over 500 was “not necessary or likely,” she said. If the sheets aren't 100% cotton with single-ply weaves, chances are thread counts are either misleading or irrelevant. Here's why thread count doesn't matter for other materials: It is calculated by adding together the numbers of lengthwise (warp) and widthwise (weft) threads within a certain area. For example, a cotton sheet with 100 warp threads and 100 weft threads in each square inch of fabric would have a listed thread count of 200.