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Warning: My old sleeping bag's fill weight was way off the spec sheet
I was cleaning out my gear closet last weekend and decided to weigh my old down sleeping bag on a kitchen scale. The tag said it had 24 ounces of 650 fill power down. When I put it on the scale, it came in at just over 19 ounces. I was pretty surprised, so I looked it up and found a whole thread on Backpacking Light where people were testing their own gear. Turns out, a lot of manufacturers use something called 'total fill weight' which includes the down plus the tiny bit of fabric dust and oil that's always in it. The actual 'clean fill weight' can be 15% less. I never knew that difference existed, and it explains why my bag never felt as warm as its rating promised. Has anyone else weighed their bag and found a big gap like that?
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allen.oscar18d ago
Yeah, that's a classic move from some brands... the total fill weight trick. Found the same thing with an old jacket of mine. What you can do is fluff it in the dryer on no heat with a couple of tennis balls, it helps redistribute what down is left. Might get a bit of that loft back, but it'll never hit the spec sheet numbers. Kind of makes you want to weigh everything before you buy it now.
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sam_anderson18d ago
Tbh I had a Patagonia puffer that did the same thing after a few years. Took it to a dry cleaner that does down and they actually added a couple ounces of fill for like twenty bucks. Made a huge difference, way better than just fluffing it.
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