Curious....adding water to down

[UncleMJM]

I think the problem with wetting down is that it then seems to stick to everything, so it would stick to the inside of the plastic packet - I think you would find it difficult to get it all out.

I dont find working with down so difficult that I would consider going to such lengths, it just has so much potential to backfire.

That could be a problem.

Nope, freeze the whole mess. Insert ice cubes. ...

Problem solved.

[JohnSawyer]

Ice cubes... Nice.

+1 on messy down when wet. Sticks to everything...

[Frost]

I just used this sort of method to recover down from an old quilt. It works in a pinch, but it is a grade A PITA. Here are the issues you'll encounter:

1) Down doesn't really want to get wet. You're going to have to massage it pretty well to remove the air naturally trapped in the down clusters. In addition, the natural oils make it somewhat naturally water repellant. It takes some effort to get it to saturate.

2) Once it is saturated, it sticks to EVERYTHING. It's about the consistency of really sticky bread dough. It prefers to stick to itself more than anything else, which can help, but it will stick to your hands extremely well, and less well to plastic and fabric.

3) It compacts a lot when wet. 1oz of down when completely soaked is a little bit more than a handful with 550fp down. It makes it a real bugger to estimate just how much needs to go into a given baffle, and with the water added in, weighing it becomes nigh on impossible.

It works in a pinch, but there are definitely better methods. The vacuum cleaner hose with a piece of pantyhose or noseeum mesh works way better IMHO.

[Aardvark]

Check out Fronkey's method he posted video for about 1 week ago, almost no-mess method I will try in about 1 month.

[WV]

Hope this isn't off-topic. My vacuum overheats when I use the mesh on the tube method. Anybody have a link to the "down carburetor" (Venturi device) used to suck down out of a bulk bag without stressing the sucker?

[Frost]

WV, Shopvacs are better about it than regular upright vacuums. The trouble isn't that the effort of sucking up the down is more than it can take, the problem is that the vacuum uses the air it draws in to cool the motor. Shopvac motors are a bit better positioned to be cooled by ambient air (not completely buried in the heart of a plastic vacuum body), and they also are a little overbuilt to tolerate such abuse.

If you absolutely must use an upright vacuum, after you draw the down into the hard attachment, pull it off and just let the vacuum actually draw air in through the hose for a minute. Mine is nice in that regard as it has a Floor/Tools switch at the top that lets me switch it back to the floor after the hose is full, so it can cool itself for a minute.

[TiredFeet]

How do you measure the proper weight of down for each baffle???

Doesn't this assume that you have the proper weight of down in the bag already?

How do you get the proper weight into the bag?

Seems like you are just substituting getting the proper weight into the bag for getting the proper weight into the baffle??

[Ramblinrev]

IIRC Stormcrow sells down packaged by the ounce in whatever increments you want. So you decide how much goes in each baffle and order the bags accordingly. If it's not Stormcrow some one else is doing it. I haven't bought down so I don't have the latest information at my fingertips.