Practical advises for selecting down sleeping bags and down clothing
- Strongly boil down a sleeping bag or a down garment, release it and shake 2-3 times. Down must reintegrate 50-70% of its working volume. The whole volume must reintegrate in 20 minutes.
- If down has a displeasing smell, the best is not to buy it. Not clearly washed down will go bad quickly.
- If there are thick or long barbs of a feather, then this is a down of a wrong separation. Feather from young birds (called Green Feather) has an exquisite end, which pinks any fabrics. According to the standard its number in down must not exceed 2-3%. Gather a fistful of down and clench it strongly. If you feel some pricks, then there is too much green feather.
- Under the current regulations, U.S. manufacturers can advertise their filling as "down" even if it contains as much as 30% of other plumage and feather materials. Check the product tags for the percentage of feathers. 7% - 15% of feathers is considered to be a good proportion. Be aware that if product tags do not specify down and feather content, there maybe as high as 30% of feathers in the product.
Storage instructions
Try to store down garments unfolded - it will increase life time of a product. Do not store down garments damp compressed even for a days. The down is an organic substance, in such conditions it will decay. Try to wash down garments after each second season since the down absorbs fatty allocation of a body and cease to “fluff up”. It is often noticeable on a jacket collar and a hood of a sleeping bag.
Washing and drying instructions
You can wash down products by hand in a bathtub or in a home front loading washing machine or in a local laundromat.
- The laundromat option allows you to dry the down correctly with less effort. Take with you to laundromat special liquid soap Nikwax Down Wash®, tennis balls and coins. Wash the sleeping bag or the garment with down soap through one cycle. Wash it through the second cycle without soap. Gently transfer bag to the dryer. Add tennis balls and run the dryer at low heat for couple hours until the down is completely dry. Tennis balls bouncing around will help break up the down clumps and will loft your bag up nicely.
- In case you decided to wash your down product in a bathtub, the temperature of the water should not be above 40 C. After the washing carefully wring out the down very well, as heavy water inside may tear apart net tapes between baffles. Dry up the down product as soon as possible. For this purpose you can carefully use fan, or heating radiator.
- If you wash it at home washing machine, make sure you use front loaders only. The agitator in a top loader can wreck the down product. We do not recommend drying in home dryer because quite concentrated heat typical for smaller dryers can spoil a fabric. Carefully use fan or heating radiator to dry the down product.
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