Stuff or roll sleeping bags

[JensBusyDays]

I have always rolled my sleeping bag, made in the 70s by Sonata, and it has coped well for obviously a long time. It is fairly compressed but that is the way it has been for a long time in my memory. It was my bedding for a couple of years when we lived in a caravan. But the zip works well every time.

In haste the other day a synthetic bag, circa late 90s, we had was stuffed into its bag. When we bought it out the zip was horribly distorted and took a bit of effort to straighten out so that when we used it it didn't catch on the inside liner.

Now we have two modern bags and one says to cram it back into the bag and the other has no instructions. One is a Big Man Hooded sleeping bag by Roman with no specific instructions and we have lost the bag. And the second is a Pilbarra -5 by Coleman and it says to cram it into the bag which we do still have.

I always like to follow the instructions but after my bad zip experience I am a little wary of the cram/stuff method. Any suggestions or experience to offer?

[Al M]

Down feather bags when not in use always store outside of bag uncompressed to reduce feathers collapsing from material memory.

Same for synthetic fill bags but less issue. These are also easier to put back into stuff sack when rolled.

For trips on the go never had issues with zips retaining position memory for both methods of stuffing them in.

[Mark F]

The usual advice is to stuff rather than roll. I feel this is true for synthetics as one of the arguments is to prevent creasing the bag in the same place each time it is rolled up although this is less obvious for a down bag. On zips I would always advise to fully undo the zip before packing as this removes any stresses that may arise on the zip.

[Huntsman247]

Stuff. Never store sleeping bags compressed. Even though synthetic bags don't usually come with storage sacks like down bags. They really should be stored uncompressed as well.

[Warin]

On zips I would always advise to fully undo the zip before packing as this removes any stresses that may arise on the zip.

The advice when washing cloth is to fully do up the zippers .. as that removes stress from the end point caused by the larger area of fabric flapping about.
When packing could not that extended area of fabric cause a similar strain on the end point of the zip without t he packer realising it? I have not really though about zip unclosed/close when packing .. I think I probably pack them unzipped from pure laziness.

[Biggles]

My vintage (16 year old) Snowgum Coloir 660 loft down bag has never been not-in-use stored in its compression shack; probably the last time it was compressed was on a 5-day walk in November 2010! It is stored rolled in its mesh storage sack. I used it last weekend (car camping), and quite a few times when I was based in Alice Springs, and once out of its mesh sack it lofts beautifully and stays like that. When purchasing a sleeping bag from a store that has been compressed for however long, it is best to hang it out on the line, out of hot direct sunlight or rain, and allow it to loft naturally, then roll it up lazily and store it in its mesh sack (not compression sack). Sounds simple, but unfortunately a great many people don't look after down sleeping bags -- not rocket science, just common sense.

[Petew]

I have had many sleeping bags over almost 40 years, all but one have been down. Always stuffed, never had a problem with the zippers distorting.