Gear Rx: Sleeping Bags
Has your sleeping bag lost its loft? Zipper off its track? Check to see if your bag is worth repairing or if it's time to buy a new one.
Can Fix
- Dirty bag. Ship your bag to a repair shop for a professional laundering.
- Unraveling seams or holes. Most outdoors stores sell patch kits, and repair shops can easily fix separating seams and patche torn shells and liners.
- Lost loft in a down bag. Ask your repair shop to inject new down (550 fill power or higher) in your bag.
- Broken hardware. Shops can mend or replace zippers and slip new drawstrings into hoods.
Can’t Fix
- Lost loft in a synthetic bag. There’s no way to restore loft to synthetic fills.
- Ruptured baffles. If you ran your sleeping bag through your home washing machine only to find that all the fill material gathered in the foot, it’s time to buy a new bag.
Click here, for a guide to repair shops nationwide.