Gear Treating

Use nikwax down wash to restore the dwr to your jacket and use scotch guard to restore the loft to your bag.

Trust me, I'm a professional.

I'd follow you anywhere. Done.

NIKWAX Down Wash to restore DWR??? I don't think so.

1. wash jacket in Nikwax wash for GTX
2. rinse 2X
3. wash jacket with Nikwax DWR
4. dry at medium in drier
5. Spray with REVIVEX DWR

Now you have the very best home DWR available.

(Trust me, I've tried everything else – except Justin's "DWR".)

SCOTCHGUARD to restore down loft?? REALLY? Justin, where do you get these ideas? Or are you just pulling Max's chain?

Restore loft to down bag? Not easy. Put it in a big commercial laundromat drier on medium and run it for 15 minutes. Or buy an new bag. MAYBE Justin's down wash will work here. In that event dry the same way with clean rumming shoes in the drier with
the bag to break up down clumps.

Around here we use tennis balls to break up the down clumps in the dryer, but I'm not sure who's yanking chains and whom is having their chain yanked… The OP asks about restoring loft to a synthetic bag. As far as care and feeding of a down bag is concerned, the method described on the JacksRBetter website seems to cover all bases.
http://www.jacksrbetter.com/care-and-cleaning/

+1 for the ReviveX spray on DWR. Works much better than nikwax ever did on my jackets.

Ultralight down bags and quilts such as WM ultralight should not be dried with running shoes clean or otherwise. You will damage baffles or outer fabric unless you are using baby shoes. Tennis balls are the heaviest items I would throw in there with my bag.

I have tennis balls. Let's do this!

Also, I knew there was a joke there with mixing up treatments. I was playing along :D

Way back in June I posted –

… per Mr. Nisley, 2/18/2010

"A DWR works by creating a low attraction (surface energy) between water drops and the fabric. This allows the water drop to roll off rather than flatten out and stick to the surface.

"The fluorochemical DWR molecules on the outer surface of your eVENT jacket contain a vinyl or acrylic polymer that sticks to the fabric. Attached to this backbone are little perfluoro tails (side chains) that are normally repelled from fabric surface by polar forces and stick up into the air. The little tails are what creates the low surface attraction to the water molecules and keeps the DWR working. Sustained exposure to water or abrasion will cause the tails to flatten out and the DWR to stop working. Heat of at least 140F is needed for about 15 minutes to create enough molecular motion for all of the tails to fully stand back up again. [ Throw it the dryer for 15 minutes and remove immediately. gm]

"… For others using Nikwax or a Silicone DWR, heat will provide no benefit. In order of durability the above DWR type is the most durable, silicone is next, and wax is last."

So I wouldn't mix-and-match fluoro's with wax or silicone.

By "covering" a fluoro with wax you are essentially re-engineering the DWR and committing to wax for the remaining life time of the garment.

Patagonia says it refuses to use Fluorocarbon-based DWR treatments as per health concerns, and to re-treat their DWR garments once per season. I guess if that means permanently changing how I treat my jacket, so be it…