Hand-wash with care, natural soap and lay flat to dry - any other tips? This is for a jacket but may try a sleeping bag if the jacket survives.

Tumble dry on low along with somethimg to agitate it.

I've not done it but my understanding was the biggest tumble drier possible and a very low heat with a couple of tennis balls. The balls "beat" the item and break up the lumps of wet down.

http://www.phdesigns.co.uk/cleaning-dow ... d-clothing

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Clothing: machine washing is described (for hand washing, see sleeping bags).

Use a pure soap product. These are not easy to find now, so you may need to buy something designed for the job from an outdoor shop: if you do, the package will carry its own instructions, so you can follow them, or carry on as below.
Set the washing machine for 'delicate' or 'wool' or the equivalent low temperature wash (usually 30 degrees). Use a side-loading machine.
After it has gone through the spin cycle, most of the water will be out. But it will still need drying. A spell in a tumble dryer will help: lowest heat setting: hot spots may melt the shell fabric. After that air it in a warm place and give it a shake from time to time until you are satisfied that it is completely dry.
Sleeping Bags:

Use a pure soap product as in 1) above.
Part fill your bath with warm water (hand-heat). Mix in the soap. Put in the bag and submerge it: this can be made easier by having the bag in its mesh storage sac until it is wet through, then drawing it out gently in the water (do not lift). Note: if the bag is made with a water-resistant outer such as Drishell or Ultrashell, it is much easier to wash it inside out.
Move the bag about in the water and squeeze it gently to work the soap right through it. Do not pick it up, or the weight of the waterlogged down may damage the baffles.
Leave it for 30/40 minutes. Repeat step 3), then pull out the plug and let all the water out. Without lifting the bag, squeeze the water out by rolling it up gently.
Refill the bath with warm water and move the bag about to rinse the soap out. Drain and squeeze out as before. Rinse again. You may have to do this a few times before you get all the soap out.
Drying: If you can put the bag through the final spin cycle on a washing machine, it will give you a good start: if not, let it drip for a while. After that a tumble dryer on the lowest heat setting (hot spots can melt the shell fabric) will remove even more moisture. In the end, even if the bag feels dry on the outside, you will almost certainly have to keep it somewhere warm and airy for a while (days) while the last of the moisture comes out of the down. Give it a shake from time to time during this last stage to loosen the down clumps. Persist until you feel that the down is truly fluffy and free-moving again.
Allowed to dry naturally hanging in a warm and airey home, it can take a week to 10 days to dry a light weight bag completely and a full two weeks for an expedition bag. Again, if the outer is a water-resistant fabric such as Drishell or Ultrashell the bag will dry more effectively if turned inside out.

Notes of caution

The most common mistake people make when washing a down item is not drying it fully. As we said, persist. The other thing they sometimes get wrong is setting the heat too high on a tumble dryer (or using a machine with poor heat control) and melting the shell fabric. Take care.

Personally I send mine away now, Scottishmountaingear are very good. £25 I think I paid, plus some postage each way, much simpler and not that much more expensive than buying soap flakes etc IMO.
I have tried washing a cheapish gilet and wouldn't want to repeat it, I have access to industrial size machines, though I only used the drier. It is often suggested doing a few empty washes to clear the powder residue from the machine before using the soap, which is why I didn't use our machine in the end. YMMV of course.

I don't have a tumble drier, just an airing line in a warm utility room so was hoping not to need a trip to the launderette, also don't use the machine for jackets or other items like this. Don't trust it .. or myself with it.. I guess if the down's not lumped together too much during washing it and it's properly dry before being fluffed up again it'll be ok. The PHD bag will be sent off, as planned a little too long ago now.

Will report back.

U can get pure soap flakes from tesco. liquid or flake ive used both on my down stuff and on my event/gore waterproofs with no bad results. I think the hardest part is drying it properly. i do mine in the summer so i can let the hot sun dry it quickly

jameso wrote:Hand-wash with care, natural soap and lay flat to dry - any other tips? This is for a jacket but may try a sleeping bag if the jacket survives.

I did this with a waterlogged pipedream 400. Couldn't lay flat, but hung off stairs, fluffing the down occasionally and rotating the bag. Was surprised how well it turned out.