On 03/18/2015 06:29 PM, Deacon Patrick wrote:
I may finally be catching up with Grant on the sleeping bag front. I’d
long ago cast aside synthetic bags as bulky, heavy, and stinky after a
wee bit of time. But after last year we had to wash my down bag
(requiring us to do it at home without a dryer to avoid the scents
inherent in laundromat machines) the process literally took weeks
(granted it was a high humidity time of 80%+, rare in Colorado, so our
timing was horrible). After all was said and done, I hadn’t gotten the
hood quite right so it is lumpy and needing rewashing.
Did you do it like this?
*Drying*
Drying can easily be the most time intensive step in cleaning down
items. This is especially true with larger down garments, sleeping bags,
and comforters where the drying process can typically take several
hours. It is important to dry your down products properly, and not to
cut corners. For maximum effectiveness, do not flat or hang dry down items.
* •Move your product from washer to the dryer. Always carefully carry
down products from the underside while they are saturated with water
* •Use the largest front-loading commercial dryer you can find, set to
medium heat
* •During the drying process, it is important to periodically go
through the item and manually break up the clumps of down that have
formed during the wash process
* •Make sure your items are completely dry before storing them
-- http://featheredfriends.com/washing/
So it came time to get our ever-growing two eldest lassies new bags
and pass on their kid bags to their sisters. Might as well get them an
adult bag and let them grow into it. Down, per the above experience,
is fussy and I don’t do well with fussy. We’ll try Wiggy’s.
Yes they are bulky and they are heavier than a same rated down bag,
but they do compress down amazingly well (get the “radial" stuff sack
for easy lashing to your bike — it compresses into a tube rather than
cube) and the weight is less an issue on the bike than in a backpack.
Anyway, my lassies got the 20˚F bag on sale, and I got the two bag
system (three bags when you double them up) which covers temps from
40˚, 0˚, and -40˚ (when combined). That’s an 80˚F temperature range.
That’s a year-round bag system! Yowza!
Anyway, bags arrived today. I washed them (to get the factory scents
off) multiple times in the bath tub. They are already 90% dry, handing
on the shower curtains for the last 10%.
I am looking forward to putting these to the test, hopefully starting
next week. But they seem hearty without being overly heavy, (down
seems just plain delicate, especially around moisture).
So far it looks like another example of a fantastic MUSA product that
is high quality, crafted to last, and function regardless of
conditions. We will see how the first year goes! Grin.
With abandon,
Patrick
/www.MindYourHeadCoop.org <http://www.MindYourHeadCoop.org>/
/www.OurHolyConception.org <http://www.OurHolyConception.org>/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
an email to [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW
Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
