Washing your sleeping bag

[tasadam]

Ok, well, after 20 years I finally decided to wash my sleeping bag.
20 years without a wash? Always used a silk sheet in it.
Washing the bag was the easy bit.
Getting it dry was a different matter.
I stuck it in the tumble dryer with a shoe, on low heat. After an hour and a half it was still quite damp, and the noise from the shoe banging around was incredible.
So another two hours, still a bit damp, so another half an hour - mostly dry as. So I then laid it out flat.
It seems the feathers have still managed to clump a fair bit. Most likely the dryer isn't big enough to allow the shoe to thump into the bag enough when the bag begins to dry & fluff up.

Does anyone have any recommendations of where in Tassie to take your bag to get it properly cleaned / dried / fluffed up? I'm not interested in having the feathers replaced like they do in doonas.
It is a Mont Franklin bag. 95% Superdown or some such. It has served me well, but the last couple of cold nights I seem to have needed extra layers, and I had some pretty cold nights in it when it was new where I don't recall having to rug up. So I was hoping that a wash might bring the feathers back closer to their prime.

Any thoughts? Any experiences out there on cleaning your bag?

[photohiker]

Find a suitable large dryer at a laundromat seems to be the go.

Bag washing tips from the experts

HTH.

[Orion]

That's a good link, the one I would have posted.

It takes a long time to dry a bag and it's pretty noisy with those tennis balls (would be worse with a shoe). The last thing you would want to do is take it out while still a little damp. The feathers will not unclump and mildew is a concern. Put it back in there.

It's also possible that your bag, 20 years old, has permanently lost much of it's loft. Washing may help it some but depending on how much you get out it may be time for a new one. The technology has sure improved in the last two decades.

[Ent]

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[Son of a Beach]

Yeah, home driers are too small for sleeping bags. A good large laundromat drier works OK. I've done that with a couple of tennis balls (but don't let the laundromat people know about the balls - it confuses them and they think you might be trying to break their machines, or something). Anyhow it worked very well for me (first wash in about 15 years, it was).

One other tip... when washing it (eg, in a bathtub) do NOT take it out of the stuff sack first. Put the entire stuff sack under water first, then pull the sleeping bag out of the stuff sack while under water. This way it will draw the water into the sleeping bag as it comes out of the stuff sack. Otherwise it is very difficult to get the water into the sleeping bag in such a way as to make it easy to wash.

[Taurë-rana]

My two old sleeping bags have gone to my boys, and I took them to the dry cleaners to be cleaned. I was impressed and surprised with how they came back - it seems that dry cleaning methods have improved over the years. I must admit that my observations were only on how they appeared to be while I was handling them, I didn't get in them.

[Son of a Beach]

My two old sleeping bags have gone to my boys, and I took them to the dry cleaners to be cleaned. I was impressed and surprised with how they came back - it seems that dry cleaning methods have improved over the years. I must admit that my observations were only on how they appeared to be while I was handling them, I didn't get in them.

I took a bag to the dry cleaners once. Never again. It was a long time ago though. When it came back, there was a large section in the middle with no down in it at all! All the down had been shifted further down the bag. Nothing I could do would shift it back again, short of undoing all the stitching. I should have read the care label on the bag first.

[tasadam]

My two old sleeping bags have gone to my boys, and I took them to the dry cleaners to be cleaned. I was impressed and surprised with how they came back - it seems that dry cleaning methods have improved over the years. I must admit that my observations were only on how they appeared to be while I was handling them, I didn't get in them.

Did they dry clean them, or did they launder them?

[woka]

The Down and Quilt factory in Invermay specialise in down products and will clean it and also top up the bag.

There's one of these in Hobart as well. I gave them my 10 year old bag and, for about $120, it came back like new! Well, maybe not *new*, but I was really impressed and I realised there's a lot of life left in the bag. It has a pertex skin.

[rucksack]

I'm with Woka; I would try the Quilt & Pillow Factory on New Town Road in Hobart, (near the corner of Stokes Street). I haven't used them, but I have quite often passed that way when I have been in Hobart. I have three bags and at different timesI have had each of them cleaned and extra down added to bring them back up to the their original 'specs'. I tried washing a 900gm winter bag once (900 gm of down that is), and it turned into a very tragic week long epic. I finally got the bag dried, but it took for ever to break up the clumps of down. I would drop into the Quilt & Pillow Factory in Hobart and see how you go.

[ollster]

I'm with Woka; I would try the Quilt & Pillow Factory on New Town Road in Hobart, (near the corner of Stokes Street).

A definate +1 for this! I've used them, and got a 100gm top up at the same time as the wash. It's basically restored my old (13yr) bag to new again. Yes I had washed it a few times over those 13 years, but the results were not as good.

Only downside is the chemical smell from the detergents takes a few months to completely go away.

[Son of a Beach]

I've considered these the Quilt and Pillow Factory in the past (I think they have a place in Invermay, Launceston as well), but have not yet tried them.

I guess they have to undo a lot of stitching to remove all the down, and then sew it all up again afterwards. How is their stitching job? Does the sewing look like new? Can you tell the difference between their sewing and the original sewing?

[tasadam]

I guess they have to undo a lot of stitching to remove all the down, and then sew it all up again afterwards. How is their stitching job? Does the sewing look like new? Can you tell the difference between their sewing and the original sewing?

That's been my big concern with those options. Sooner get it laundered properly and see how I go with the original down, to start with anyhow.

[woka]

I've considered these the Quilt and Pillow Factory in the past (I think they have a place in Invermay, Launceston as well), but have not yet tried them.

I guess they have to undo a lot of stitching to remove all the down, and then sew it all up again afterwards. How is their stitching job? Does the sewing look like new? Can you tell the difference between their sewing and the original sewing?

I can see the new stitching. They've unstitched down one side of the zip then sewn it up again. I'm not sure what I'm looking for to determine the quality of the new stitching, but It looks OK to me.

I can understand anyones hesitation going ahead with this - in my case, the bag was getting cold patches and I was becoming reluctant to use it. So I figured I had nothing to lose.

[Lady McGuyver]

Hi evryone,
Just for my two bobs worth; My Macpac Sanctuary 700xp accompanied the Cannibal Run with us last year. Needless to say all our gear came back a bit damp, flat and odourous. I was a bit nervous about letting my expensive bag go away to be washed, having had bad experiences in the past with commercial cleaners etc...I was recommended by a friend to use the Launceston Linen Service. They were great. My bag came back just like new, it was beautifully lofted, not a clump in sight and smelled clean and fresh. They even delivered it back to Devonport through their own courier service.
The other thing worth mentioning is thet were very affordable (like way under $50). I was very impressed.
There's nothing like a nice clean fluffy bag to snuggle into after a long day in the bush!
cheers LmG

[jocielou]

Does anyone know of anywhere in Sydney that offers a similar rejuvenation service? Thinking about giving my down bag a clean and dont have dryer at home - and have a feeling that using the laundry mat's dryer for 3 hours might be a bit tricky

[casey79]

Venus repairs on Bathurst st in the city. $60ish for a bag to be washed.