I recently got a price for cleaning a down sleeping bag £35 + £10 return postage and I presume
it will be £10 to send it. Your thoughts gents.

If its the company in Rotherham who bought the machines from franklins then probably worth it.

I've not seen their work but have seen many resurrected jackets that franklins had done. The were like new in appearance and loft. I will certainly get my bags washed there when they need doing.

I've no idea if that is good value or not but PHD seem to think it is pretty easy to clean your own down stuff and that its harder to mess up than people think (and I guess they should know), see link to instructions below. I should say that I haven't tried this so can't say how well it works, but supposedly it is not drying things well enough that causes the most problems. This seems to make sense as I found the instructions when looking to clean a down bag that had gone clumpy after some useage. After reading the link I decided to try and dry it out more before committing to washing it. I hung it up for a week and it was good as new.


http://www.phdesigns.co.uk/cleaningdown.php

ianfitz wrote:If its the company in Rotherham who bought the machines from franklins then probably worth it.

I've not seen their work but have seen many resurrected jackets that franklins had done. The were like new in appearance and loft. I will certainly get my bags washed there when they need doing.

Do you happen to know the name of said company Ian ?

Thanks guys and heres the company in question.

http://www.mountaineering-designs.co.uk/

I dont doubt they do a good job but its the total cost £55

I bought a bag from MD in 1998 and it's still going strong. When they wash a bag, iirc, they take out the down and remove any manky bits and replace them. They then wash the bag separately. I washed that bag myself and it it literally took hours in the tumble dryer and even then it require frequent stops to break up the clumps. Next time I will stump up the £50 for them to do it. For my cheaper bags, with much less filling or synthetic, I'd try DIY again.

Why wash, I like my man-funk. Embrace the tramp lifestyle

The guys that bought franklins machines are http://www.elitecleaningandaftercare.co.uk/duck.html