The care and cleaning of outdoor gear

So you just spent the better part of a paycheck on a bunch of backpacking gear. Now, how are you going to take care of all this gear so it will give you years of use?

Backpacks:

Clean your backpacks like you would your dog – by hand in the bath tub. Open all the pockets on your backpack and make sure everything is out of the bag. If your pack has a removable frame, feel free to take it out for ease of cleaning. While you’re at it, find your old toothbrush or ‘borrow’ your roommate’s.

Get a bottle of Nikwax Tech Wash and fill your bath tub with enough luke warm water to submerse the pack. Add 2 cap fulls of the Tech Wash and put the backpack in the tub. Slosh the pack around (while wearing gloves) making sure to agitate every surface of the pack. Use the toothbrush for any stubborn spots.

Once the pack has been washed, remove the pack and drain the tub. Clean out any residual dirt and refill the tub with a couple inches of luke warm water. Rinse the pack in the water and repeat a second time.

Now remove the pack from the water and make sure there aren’t pools of water in any of the pockets. Hang upside down to dry in a cool place.

Tents:

Before you pack up your tent at your camp site, turn the tent upside down and shake out any dirt inside the tent. This will make cleaning the tent significantly easier. Also, try to dry the tent before you pack it up so it doesn’t start growing mold. If it’s a wet day and you can’t dry the tent ahead of time, be sure to dry the tent as soon as you get home.

Cleaning a tent is the same basic process as cleaning a backpack. Be sure to clean the rain fly and the tent separately and be careful to not rip any of the fabric. Before you clean the tent, make sure you open all the doors to allow the water to clean the inside of the tent. Be sure to support the entire tent when taking it out of the tub as they tend to trap water inside and may rip if the fabric isn’t supported. To dry, either hang dry it or set it up in a room with plenty of airflow.

Sleeping Bags:

Every time you’re done using your sleeping bag, be sure to air it out to make sure all the moisture has evaporated from the bag. Once you’re back at home, take the bag out of its stuff sack and store the bag in the storage sack that it came with. While storing a bag in a stuff sack may save space, it will make the bag lose its loft and thus its insulating properties.

Don’t wash your bag after every trip. Every time you wash a bag, it will lose some of its loft. Instead, wait for the bag to become stinky and dirty before you wash it. For your average camper, this means washing the bag once a year.

For an easy way to wash a sleeping bag, leave it to the professionals. Places like Rainy Pass Repair will launder your bag professionally for a nominal price.

Should you want to try your hand at washing your sleeping bag yourself, head to your local laundromat and find the largest front-loading washer available. Before washing your bag, unzip the zipper and turn it inside out so the detergent can get to the oils easier. For a synthetic fill sleeping bag, use a very mild detergent. For a down sleeping bag, use the down detergents from manufacturers like Nikwax or ReviveX. Put the bag in the washer and set it to the delicate cycle with warm water.

Once the washer has completed, now comes the difficult part. The bag will be very wet and significantly heavier than usual. Depending on the age of your bag, the fabric may be fairly delicate and could tear. Gently take the bag out of the washer (supporting the entire bag) and transfer it to the dryer. If you have a down bag, put half a dozen tennis balls in the dryer with the bag to break up any clumps of down that may occur as the bag dries.

Turn the dryer on the coldest setting possible and get ready to read a good book. A wet sleeping bag will take anywhere between 3 and 6 hours to dry. Check the bag once an hour to make sure everything is drying properly.