View Full Version : Down Bag Restoration
twodifferentsocks
09-25-2009, 16:08
I was just wondering...
I have a North Face Blue Kazoo 20 deg Down bag from 1993. The bag has been well cared for, but not babied. The down is clumped in the hood and a little clumpy here and there throughout the body. It makes a wonderful summer bag and keeps me comfortable down to 55 deg. I have not used it below this temperature in years, so I do not know how it would perform at or near it's original factory temperature rating.
Is there any way to restore a down bag to "like new" insulative ability?
Wash it again, properly according to specs? Throw it in the dryer with a couple shoes? Is it possible to perform sleeping bag 'surgery', pulling out the bad down and replacing it with new?
What have you guys done? Besides purchase a new bag.
I was just wondering...
I have a North Face Blue Kazoo 20 deg Down bag from 1993. The bag has been well cared for, but not babied. The down is clumped in the hood and a little clumpy here and there throughout the body. It makes a wonderful summer bag and keeps me comfortable down to 55 deg. I have not used it below this temperature in years, so I do not know how it would perform at or near it's original factory temperature rating.
Is there any way to restore a down bag to "like new" insulation ability?
Wash it again, properly according to specs? Throw it in the dryer with a couple shoes? Is it possible to perform sleeping bag 'surgery', pulling out the bad down and replacing it with new?
What have you guys done? Besides purchase a new bag.
Sure, wash & dry it per http://www.westernmountaineering.com/index.cfm?section=Product%20Tips%20and%20Care. Should restore the loft.
garlic08
09-25-2009, 21:21
If you want to throw money at it, I hear Rainy Pass in Seattle does a great job of cleaning your bag for you. I've never done that and don't know how much it costs. I've always had pretty good luck washing mine myself.
skinewmexico
09-25-2009, 21:47
I was going to say Rainy Pass.
Hikes in Rain
09-26-2009, 09:10
Something I read in Bradford Angiers Skills for Taming the Wild (or perhaps one of his others; he tended to recycle advice), was a method of redistributing clumped down. Lay the bag out as flat as you can get it, cut yourself a long thin whippy willow switch, trim it smooth so it doesn't snag on anything, and lightly whip the bag every inch or so, starting at the most clumped end and moving to the least. Keep at it for a long while, until the down's nicely distributed.
Caviot: I think this advice may well predate baffled bags. The guy was born around 1900 or so! But it's free, might break up some of the clumps, and might redistribute the insulation within the baffle. While it may not do any good, it shouldn't do any harm.
Possible the best advice, though, is to gently launder it, as Egads mentions above.
shelterbuilder
09-26-2009, 21:25
...Is there any way to restore a down bag to "like new" insulative ability?
Wash it again, properly according to specs? Throw it in the dryer with a couple shoes? Is it possible to perform sleeping bag 'surgery', pulling out the bad down and replacing it with new?
What have you guys done? Besides purchase a new bag.
Well, unless you're going to enlist the help of the "good down fairy", I would advise against the "surgery" idea - even "bad" down is better than no down at all, and if you open a baffle, you have 2 problems: 1.)you'll be likely to have down all over the room (especially after that first sneeze); 2.)you'll have the devil's own time getting the baffles closed back up again to "factory standards", which could mean constantly leaking down!
Try washing it before doing anything else - just remember that wet down is HEAVY, so support it from underneath when you lift it, or you'll rip out all of those lovely little internal baffles, and then the bag WILL be junk.:(
Not sure if down just looses some of its warmth or not but i have a blue kazoo also and its now my summer bag also. Just doesn't seem to keep warm much past 50 either. Try shifting the down to the top side and a warmer mat for the bottom this help me stay a little warmer in it. Wash it and then dry it in a commercial dryer or larger one of the ones in most homes.