So i have a few bags that have this design - continuous horizontal baffles (WM versalite and two Nunataks...but really many LW bags are built this way)

I'm trying to shift all (well..most) of the down to the top before I go to sleep so as to optimize the warmth (assuming I back sleep).
I have tried two methods
1)patting down the bottom part ...essentially trying to push the down from the middle of the back towards the top from the right and the left. This doesnt really seem to work since it mainly just squishes the down and not necessarily moves it
2) holding the bag horizontally with the top of the bag facing downwards and shaking it...trying to get gravitation to pull the down to the lower (in this case the top/chest) part of the bag. this also doesnt seem to work well


How do you guys do it??? do you really see the bottom part emptying ?

Mike

I shake the bag, you need to be quite vigorous with your shaking as the down won't move otherwise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjwHUwQX3AI&feature=plcp

Wallace does it to his WM ultralite in this video if you need to see someone do it,but yes you just shake it vigorously.

Since I had my WM Megalite overfilled last fall shifting the down is no longer a problem. The bag is so full now that the down won't shift. :o) But it's also 10 F. warmer.

Just shaking it doesn't really work. A guy at Feathered Friends showed me how to do it years ago. Open the bag flat on the floor or other surface and with your hands "sweep" the down in each tube from the bag's top to its bottom ... or bottom to top, of course. You can actually feel and see the effect as you're doing it. It doesn't take much time at all to spread things around the way you want it, though it's a little bit fiddly down near the foot section. (My main bag's a FF Swallow, and I've got to say it's top notch.)

Shaking it works for me and you will see in the video it also works for Wallace.I don't live that far from Feathered Friends and I have seen them vigorously shaking bags in the store to demonstrate.

Edited by annapurna on 06/28/2012 20:15:37 MDT.

thanks..!

Indeed on the WM you can shift it easily....by bag has a short (21") center zip so i cant open it up completely and shake to one side...does anyone have experience with such a design (golite??

Mark,

That sweeping action helps explain why my down shifts downward in my Swallow while I'm sleeping at night.

My shoulders are too wide for the bag and I'm a side sleeper who changes sides every hour or so. I think that must be what "sweeps" the down downward and leaves me cold at 3 in the morning.

I gave the bag to my smaller-than-me wife and it works for her. I changed to a larger bag without continuous baffles.

Thanks for helping me understand what was going on with the Swallow.

Daryl

mine is a phd minimus phd recommend moving the down by patting it around. my technique is to hold a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the bag at the centre of the bottom and give it a Sharp shake kind of like flicking the bag repeat until complete. once the down has moved in that small section move to the next 1/4 -1/3 of the bag.