Rant: People keep storing sleeping bags compressed and it drives me crazy

I work at a busy outdoor gear shop part time and I see so many folks bringing in their 3 season down bags that have lost all their loft because they kept them in those stuff sacks for months. A $250 bag like the Marmot Trestles 30 will lose about half its insulation value if you don't store it loose in a cotton or mesh sack. Has anyone else noticed their bag getting cold even though it's still the same model from 2 years ago?

2 comments

2 Comments

sageburns15d ago

Right, the_logan nailed it with the flat pancake thing. I see it all the time too, people think a stuff sack is for storage when it's really just for carrying. Leaving a down bag squished for months kills the loft slowly but surely. Once those down clusters get matted and compressed for that long, they don't want to puff back up. A loose cotton sack is like a hundred times better, even a mesh laundry bag works. It's just physics, you can't compress air out of feathers forever and expect them to still trap warmth.

the_logan15d ago

Lost all their loft" is exactly right. I had a buddy who kept his bag vacuum packed for a whole season and it came out looking like a flat pancake. Took like 3 days of fluffing to get it back to normal.