Washed my quilt yesterday per their instructions. Mine was lofting poorly and reeked.
Now it smells good and lofts better, but there are points with low or no down. I've tried their advice on redistributing the down with no success. It seems like much of it has migrated to the outer baffles. Any advice?
Posted Aug 27, 2017, 1:11 PM UTC
Disclaimer: I work for EE
I was just at PCT days and helped two or three people with this issue. Typically I see a lot of down stick in the upper portions of the baffles. Even if it doesn't seem like it, you will be surprised how small of an area that down can clump to. You will also probably find small clusters of wet down randomly that haven't dried yet, this is normal and just needs more dry time.
Since the baffles are U shaped (the two outside baffles are actually one baffle that go up one side, down the footbox, and back up the other side). You may find down has shifted all to one side.
There is a small gap at the bottom of each baffle for stuffing, but I have never seen any large amounts of down pass through these openings ever. It is extremely unlikely that the down has gone into another baffles, unless there is openings in other places of the baffling from not being picked up properly.
Washing a quilt is a very time consuming process and I usually recommending setting aside a day to do so. It has taken me anywhere from 5 hours up to 10 hours to wash a quilt, depending on the temp rating, size, and type of quilt.
Hope this helps guys! If not, definitely contact our customer service and they should be able to help you. Worst case scenario, you will pay for shipping to send the quilt to us and to get it back, and we will redistribute it for free.
What would be the turn around time for down redistribution? I called this morning and the nice lady who answered the phone pointed out the small holes up the middle of my revelation. I've had some luck so far.
Typically it takes a week. Redistributing takes an hour or less usually. Most of that time is travel time. We use USPS priority to ship domestically and that is typically 2 to 3 days to get anywhere in the US. So if your trip is in 2 weeks, as long as nothing goes wrong with shipping, it shouldn't be a problem getting your quilt to you in time for your trip.
Cool. I'll give Customer Service a call a little later and chat with them.
See this post here.
In my response, I stated the answer I got from EE.
Awesome. Are they between baffles or at the ends? I'm confused by all the different advice in that thread.
There is a small port hole that allows you to transfer down between each baffle. The inner baffles have have the hole around the center bottom of each baffle. I think the holes on the outer baffles are at the bottom and alternate left and right side. They aren't that hard to find if you feel the walls between baffles anyways. It sounds like they were intentionally put there by EE.
I'm pretty sure they are also the reason for shifting down during washing, but I'm not sure...
I'll give it a look tomorrow and if I can't figure it out I'll give EE a call and discuss it with them. Thanks for your help! Hopefully I can make it serviceable for my trip.
On my Revelation the holes run straight up the center from the bottom to the top.
You may have torn the mesh inside the quilt separating some of the baffles. Did you lift the quilt from the bottom when pulling out of the washing machine? Like scooping it or cradling it. Or did you lift it like any clothing from a washing machine? If you just lifted it like normal clothing the weight of wet down may have torn some of the mesh in the baffles and caused all the down in those two baffles to merge into one. Just an idea that no one has mentioned yet.
I used a washing tub. Put a wash basket in the tub. Cradled it into a wash basket. Brought it to dryer and cradled it into the dryer. Possibly. Won't know till EE looks at it.
I've had similar issues after washing sleeping bags and from my experience, if you wait a few days it will loft up better. Even if the outside feels dry, the down may still be a bit damp. Try manually picking apart any clumps of down to help it dry faster.
i just send mine off to be dry cleaned. they fold it nicely, no impact to loft, and put it in one of those breathable garment bags, which is great for storage. i put mine on the top shelf of a gear shelf i have (an old "cost plus world center" wooden shelf i bought from a store that was closing, it's perfect!), and they're quick to pack up with everything else on a fast getaway.
I hope that you restore the loft using the techniques outlined in this thread.
I will say, unfortunately, that I've never had a down sleeping bag (or quilt...I have an EE too) loft up like it did BEFORE washing it, in the 20 years I've owned down bags and quilts.
I feel like the unspoken and unfortunate truth about down equipment is that is DOESN't loft back up to original after washing, no matter how diligent you are.
However, it sounds like you'll be able to get your quilt back to a state that's currently better than it is.
Yea. Thanks! I'll settle for not seeing light through some of the baffles. Haha.
Haha! true.
FWIW, one of the things I've liked most about my (first ever) synthetic quilt is there are NO GAPS in the insulation. It's like a uniform blanket of heat, which is better for me than down on its best days.
Did you dry it it a dryer with a couple tennis balls?
Yes. There are almost whole baffles without down and some that are overstuffed. I might send it to EE to look at, but then I won't have it for my trip in 2 weeks.
Just gently but firmly smooth the down out of the over stuffed ones and into the empty ones. There should be some gaps between the baffles to allow this, at least there are on my quilt.
Roughly where are they on the quilt? along the edges? At the footbox? At the top? I'm pretty close to having even fill now, but there's one that's noticeably thinner than the rest.
Put in dryer again, no heat, just air and tennis balls. I think it just needs more time.
Since it's dried I've had it in the dryer with tennis balls for about 4 hours. I feel like at this point I'm only going to get it by doing it manually.
Bummer. But thanks for noting this.