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Posted by calamity on December 20, 2007 at 10:44:30 pm EST
In reply to Re: Cleaning an Older Down Bag posted by alan on December 18, 2007 at 10:00:00 am EST

"I've never noticed any loss of loft on the down garments I've washed. Often the garment seems to pick up a bit of loft as the down is now clean. I feel down is a more resiliant than it's generally given credit for. With proper care and occasional cleaning it keeps going and going."

How much credit do you want?

Two of my three down sleeping bags are about 35 years old. They are both still functional, and have been getting at least moderately heavy use ever since I got them. These bags have never been compressed during storage apart from during trips, and have been obsessively well-cared for. Yet of course, they've lost substantial loft since they were new.

The majority of this loss is certainly not from washing and probably mostly from getting stuffed for packing.

I've little idea how much they've been washed; perhaps, an average equivalent of once every two or three months of use. If you said you rarely bathe (as is the case for me on trips) and wash your sheets that often, people would think, perhaps with good reason, that you're insane.

But I believe a highly conservative approach to washing these bags has helped, at least marginally, to preserve their loft. This is not a fact. It's an opinion based on a hypothesis that has some rationale. I do wish the two bags were like new. Probably I should just give them to some homeless people. I'd never give a Karakorum Eddie Bauer Bag to a homeless person. Let them freeze, maybe. They'd probably wash the damned thing.

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