wash and care your down jacket
Some bullet points about wash and care your down products
- Down is remarkably tough, when properly taken care of
- Wet down has no insulation properties, though getting it wet doesn’t hurt the down.
- Washing a down jacket is not much harder than washing a pair of jeans.
- Remember you don’t need to wash you garment often, a couple of times a year is enough, preferable at the end of the season.
- If your garment gets a dirty spot, it’s better to remove the stain than wash the whole garment.
- Use specific detergent for down garments and follow the washing instructions on the label carefully. We recommend Toko ECO Wash Down
- While you can use regular detergents, they can strip away the natural oils in down and don’t always rinse out cleanly.
- Don’t add more detergent than necessary because residual soap can prevent the down from lofting completely.
- To ensure all residual soap is rinsed out, you can run the garment through an additional wash cycle with no soap at all.
What about repairing your down jacket?
- Down garments are incredibly popular insulation pieces and for a good reason; they’re warm and so comfortably light you almost forget you’re wearing one.
- Most down garments use lightweight fabrics to keep the garment light and packable, unfortunately, there is a downside to the fabrics being so lightweight.
- Since nature itself doesn’t always come with soft surfaces, there’s always a chance that you might end up with a small tear in the shell fabric.
So, what do you do then?
- While many hardcore mountain guides patch their clothes with duct tape, it’s not really the best option, especially if you want to repair it later.
- Instead, head to your nearest outdoor shop and pick up some nylon repair tape.
- Cut a piece at least 1,5 cm bigger around the hole, round off the corners, peel off the backing and stick it on. Repair tape is a super easy fix for small holes, and it will last for years through many washings.
- With larger rips it’s probably best to send it to our repair service.