Down Sleeping Bag Left in Stuff Sack for One Year

[Al K]

I am going to the Wind River Range in a couple of days with a friend. The problem is that my friend had purchased a Kelty Cosmic 20 DriDown Sleeping Bag 20 Degree bag for Whitney last year and left it compressed for 12 months.

Is there any effective way to restore the bag? Does the fact its a cheap down bag mean its likely compromised and better to move on to a new bag? thanks in advance for any advice.

[Brad Rogers]

My first thought would be to put it in a dryer on low (or no) heat with some tennis balls and see if it fluffs back up.

[Golly G. Willikers]

Cut the tennis ball(s) in half.

The bag will be fine.

[Todd T]

Agree.  As long as the bag was dry, a dryer fluff should make it all better.  Man has never bested what God did with goose down.

[Bob Moulder]

I agree, probably going to be okay with a dryer fluff as long as it contained no dampness at all… hope it doesn’t have a mildew smell to it!!

Many years ago when I were a young lad in the USAF I witnessed the ‘reconstitution’ of a down bag that was part of a parachute survival kit (I was on an aircrew and we called them ‘butt boats’). That thing was so small it had to have been packed with a hydraulic ram, and had remained so for years! This was back in the day (1970s) when 550 down was common and 700 was considered ethereally light. In very short order it regained an incredible amount of loft and after a couple of hours it was very puffy again.

[James Marco]

Yup. Long term compression doesn’t bother down as long as it was kept dry. Acids from mildew and mold can ruin the down, though.

[Author]

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