Cycling UK Forum

Hi guys,

I recently pulled an old Lowe Alpine down jacket from the loft. It is a large puffer jacket full to the brim with down. The idea has been bouncing around my head to take all the down out of jacket and carefully swap it for some of the synthetic material in my sleeping bag. I don't actually know if I could do a very good job of stitching the sleeping bag up but I do know that I will likely never have the spare money to actually buy a down sleeping bag. I've hardly ever worn the jacket and think I would be lucky to get £20-30 for it on Ebay.

Would you attempt such a task?

PS: If this is a really daft idea then I ask you in advance to be gentle!

It's not a daft idea The only caution I would offer is that the covering material may not be closely woven enough to hold down in. Down typically requires close woven stuff, and even then some escapes from time to time. Synthetic sleeping bags can use looser woven material

Almost certainly the construction of the synthetic sleeping bag will be not suitable for down. Down needs to be held in channels either with stitch through or box construction, (Google for details). A synthetic fill bag will not have this expensive construction as the synthetic filling is held in place by stitching the filling directly to the outer and/or inner. You could put some of the down into the sleeping bag and hope it stays in place (assuming the fabrics are down proof), but more likely you will put a lot of work into it and end up with a sleeping bag which is no warmer than it is now, a house covered in little bits of down and a ruined jacket. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I have a business making outdoor clothing and equipment and I wouldn't even contemplate it. Whatever the cost of a new down bag is, (I bought a Marmot Never Summer -20C last winter for under £200), it is much less than the effort you will put into this project. Sorry!

Being more positive, if you have a nice down jacket, then just get a lightweight 2 season down bag and wear your down jacket inside if it's not warm enough. Or if you really don't want/need the down jacket, you could make a simple down liner for your synthetic bag using stitch through quilting. Feel free to pm me if you want to give it a go.

Down sleeping bags have separate compartments that keep the down more or less in place. Synthetic sleeping bags generally don't have compartments in the same way, so it's likely that the down would move about and any extra warmth would be in the wrong place.
The material on a synthetic sleeping bah is unlikely to be down-proof, so you would likely end up leaking feathers and having to pluck them out of your hair and off your clothes in the morning.
The other point is that down isn't a very strong spring, and needs a fairly light material over it or it just gets squashed. A synthetic bag may not be light enough.

I wouldn't bother to try it.

Adding extra stuffing to an existing down bag would probably be more successful, though over-stuffing doesn't make the compartments any thicker so there is a limit to how much extra warmth you can get.

Synthetic bags usually have the insulation sewn in, where down floats free, so you'll have an "interesting" job removing all the synthetic insulation, not to mention another even more interesting job of closing all the baffles afterwards. Those baffles won't have been designed for down so unlikely to suit its use.

It's also the case that even a well-filled jacket will have rather less down in it than a typical sleeping bag, plus Vorpal's note about downproof fabrics.

So personally I'd think it's likely to degenerate in to a rather frustrating exercise in getting a second-rate bag at the expense of a good jacket and a decent synthetic bag.

Jimstar79 wrote: I do know that I will likely never have the spare money to actually buy a down sleeping bag. I've hardly ever worn the jacket and think I would be lucky to get £20-30 for it on Ebay.

Link the two ends of that... if down jackets can be bought for not-too-much second hand, then so can down sleeping bags, and indeed I've bought 3 very good down bags online (actually on Outdoors Magic's classifieds section rather than eBay) for very sensible prices. Two were for the kids (£125 the pair, one North Face, one Marmot, both 3 season) and the other was an ME Frostline which was £80 rather than the ~ £250 it would have cost new, and it was in as-new condition.

You could keep the jacket and go to bed in it if you're camping in the cold: probably warmer than trying to recycle the down from it...

Pete.

or you can use the down to make a small duvet/quilt to tuck inside the sleeping bag? or put on top of it?

Thanks for all your advice and suggestions. I had to run this past the community to see what others thought of this scheme of mine! I forgot to mention in my first post that I only intended to use the down to insulate around the chest, upper back and possibly around the hood rather than tackling the whole sleeping bag. I'm quite relieved that I didn't get lots of encouragement to go ahead and carry out this idea.

I think I might as well just keep the jacket for when I develop some winter camping madness and head off into the hills!

Cheers - have a good week!