Adding Down to Your Sleeping Bag

What is the best way to add down to areas of a sleeping bag?

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Question:

What is the best way to add down to areas of a sleeping bag?

Submitted by – Wayne: Salt Lake City, UT

Answer:

You have two choices. 1) Go back to the manufacturer (especially if the bag is relatively new and feathers have been escaping through the fabric or seams). Aside from an occasional stray feather, down should not escape from a sleeping bag in such vast quantities that it would affect warmth. 2) Send it to Rainy Pass (rainypass.com), the gear gurus who can fix just about anything.

“Overstuffing (of baffles) is not usually recommended,” says Bob Upton, president of Rainy Pass. “It just adds more weight to the bag.” The first step, he says, is to wash the bag to try to resuscitate the loft. Do it yourself (we show you how with this video) or send it to Rainy Pass and they’ll do it for $36.

If refilling the bag is necessary, and the manufacturer won’t take care of it, Rainy Pass will open up the bag and pump it with extra down for you. It costs $8 to open up each baffle and down costs $14 per ounce. Contact Rainy Pass for more details.