How to clean a sleeping bag

[HumidMS]

While thinking about my next camping trip, I started thinking about how to freshen up our sleeping bags and the best way to keep them clean. The first thing I usually do when I get back from a trip it to hang up all the sleeping bags on a line and air them out. Hanging them out also helps make sure they are dry before storage. No one wants a musty sour smelling sleeping bag.
Sooo, I appeal to the experience campers for tips on how to clean your sleeping bags.

[renodesertfox]

Re: How to clean a sleeping bag

Excellent post HS! And excellent thread HMS!! One pet peeve of mine is, if wife & I are camping for more than a weekend, I'll string a line between to trees, un-zip our zipped together bags and air them out. That's about all I could add to the great advice of HS! I too agree, before we climb into our "crash sack" we both either shower if water is plentiful or sponge bathe and wear weather specific pajamas every night - absolutely makes ya feel better! I can't agree more with Hogsnapper here! Caring for your sleeping system & the body are one of the most important elements in having a successful campout! We use flannel liners for cold camping & old sheets sewn together for warm weather camping. I also agree to hand wash your bag when one returns home even though some directions state that you can machine wash! Treat your equipment good so your equipment will last for decades! Dang, really gettin that itch to camp with all the excellent topics being started! Just seems that we both sleep better camping!

[Mike]

Re: How to clean a sleeping bag

Using sleeping bags makes them dirty and washing them makes them old. That's just the lifecycle of sleeping bags.

Like Hogsnapper said, the best thing you can do is to keep your bags clean by only putting clean people inside of them, but eventually, you will have to wash them as oils and other grime start to get into the fibers of the fill. If you want to know what happens to old bags, buy a used bag at a thrift store and cut it open. Yuck

Of course, you should always wash sleeping bags with soap/detergent and water and NOT send them to the dry cleaners. When I wash my bags, I go to the laundry mat and use the biggest industrial washer I can find.

You can tumber dry in a dryer too, but this is where the bags start to get old because the spin cycle and the dry cycle tend to felt the fill fibers. Forget about the old wives tail about putting a shoe or tennnis ball in the dryer to bang the bag around and fluff it up - it actually helps felt and compact the fiber fill.

Hanging sleeping bags in the sun during the trip and after the trip and storing the bags open as well as consiously keeping the bag clean in the first place are some of the best things you can do to keep your sleeping bag alive.

[Mike]

Re: How to clean a sleeping bag

BTW, you can freshen up your bag and disinfect it (even from fleas, etc) if you add four cups of white vinegar to the rinse cycle when you wash your sleeping bag.

It might smell a little like vinegar when you take it out of the washing machine, but the vinegar smell will go away and your bag will be very fresh after you line dry it in the sun. This is absolutely the best way to get rid of smoky smell as well.

Hanging your sleeping bag in the sunlite where UV light can get at it will also help disinfect it and chase off bed-bugs.

[terasec]

Re: How to clean a sleeping bag

I treat my bag like my other outdoor gear
I wash it with baking soda. On a gentle cycle
Then put it in the drier on air fluff, make take a few cycles in the drier on air fluff.
I may hang it when damp, but I never hang it when its fully wet

[HumidMS]

Re: How to clean a sleeping bag

Great information everyone, thanks alot.