Maintaining and repairing an MT 500 sleeping bag

REF: 8513486, 8513485, 8737675, 8737676, 8737677

ARPENAZ SLEEPING BAG

2022

Do you own one of our Arpenaz sleeping bags and have a question about its maintenance or repair?

We give you all the information you need to keep it as long as possible!

First use

How to fold up my sleeping bag ?

Good news! You don’t need to fold your sleeping bag to store it in its cover!

If you always fold your sleeping bag in the same way, there is a risk that the wadding will always be compacted in the same place. Your sleeping bag will then be less insulating.

The golden rule: store your sleeping bag unfolded. You’ll save time and energy and extend its lifetime!

Maintaining and repairing an Arpenaz sleeping bag

How to twin and untwin my arpenaz sleeping bag ?

Would you like to share your sleeping bag with your camping partner?

All Arpenaz sleeping bags except the Arpenaz 20°C polyester sleeping bag can be combined.

To combine the bags, you can use the zips on the sides. Follow each step in the video opposite.

Maintaining and repairing an Arpenaz sleeping bag

How to properly engage the zip of the sleeping bag

Before talking about repairs, we are going to talk about how to use your sleeping bag correctly. A lot of customers contact us saying that the zip on their sleeping bag looks broken. Most of the time it is simply an issue with cursor alignment.

Indeed, most Forclaz sleeping bags are designed to be twinned. This is a clever way to share a sleeping bag with your trekking partner (with explicit consent from both, of course). But, given that the zips are fully open, properly aligning and nesting the sliders can be tricky.

Also take the time to close your sleeping bag completely to avoid getting fabric caught in the zip and having to force it.

Zips can also break: if this happens, we recommend you bring your sleeping bag back to the store or ask a seamstress to replace the zip.

Properly engaging the zip of the sleeping bag

What is the temperature rating?

The comfort temperature is the lowest outside temperature at which a person in a relaxed posture feels comfortable and does not feel hot or cold in their sleeping bag.

The comfort temperatures are tested by an independent laboratory (AITEX) according to the European standard ISO 23537-1 of 21/01/2017.

How to avoid feeling cold in your sleeping bag

The temperature rating of the sleeping bags are defined using standardised European tests. But sensitivity to cold also varies from person to person and on the weather conditions.

The golden rule: wear dry clothing! Much of your body heat escapes through your head. Don't hesitate to wear a hat or use the hood of your sleeping bag to limit this effect ;)

Check out several tips on how to avoid feeling cold when camping:

Caring for my arpenaz sleeping bag

Cleaning my sleeping bag

Here are the steps to follow to properly clean your sleeping bag:

- Close the zips of your sleeping bag tightly. Zips are sensitive to washing and may lose their original shape if they are not kept closed during washing.

- Place your sleeping bag in the drum of the washing machine. Pay attention to the volume of your machine, a machine of 8 kilos is often necessary.

- Add two or three tennis balls. These balls will allow a better beating of the sleeping bag and its filling - and therefore a better washing.

- Launch a 30°C program with a delicate spin cycle.

- Dry your sleeping bag in a tumble dryer, always using tennis balls to give it some fluff. A cotton sleeping bag will need to be dried for a longer period of time (although you should not increase the drying power as this will damage your bag). Drying your bag in the open air may cause it to lose its loft.

But don’t hesitate to take it to the dry cleaners, that works very well too!

Storing and packing my sleeping bag

No matter which sleeping bag you have, it’s best to store it uncompressed. .

Although sleeping bags filled with wadding are less delicate, wadding, like down, does not react well to being compressed for long periods of time. Keeping the sleeping bag compressed in its storage bag can damage the filling, which will lose its fill power.

There are two solutions possible:
- use the storage bag without tightening the drawstring
- use a bag with the least amount of compression possible (e.g. a large shopping bag)
- use a storage bag

Repairing a snag or hole in my sleeping bag

Sometimes, your sleeping bag may have a snag. It is then important to repair it quickly with a patch to prevent the thermal performance of your sleeping bag from being impaired.

The Decathlon store workshops can repair the snag in your sleeping bag. Check out below the service that you can request from your nearest store.
NB: not all stores are equipped to carry out the repair locally. In this case, your product will be sent to a regional workshop and will be kept for a longer period of time before you can recover it.

To apply the patch, our workshops carry out an iron-on process. The resulting high-quality patch will extend the lifetime of your sleeping bag and preserve the warranty. However, if you decide to repair your sleeping bag yourself, the product warranty will no longer be valid.

Repairing a snag or hole in your sleeping bag by yourself

When camping, a tear in a sleeping bag may occur. And the good news is that it can be repaired!

In fact, you can apply a patch to prevent the tear from getting bigger or the synthetic fibres from escaping. This solution is preferable to sewing, which risks creating thermal bridges.

The sticky repair patch comes to your rescue. Cut a round-edged rectangle one or two centimetres larger than the size of the snag, glue it to the clean, flattened fabric and that’s it - you’re good to go!

You can also get an iron-on patch from a haberdashery. You can apply it with an iron according to the instructions on the patch.

Giving a second life to your sleeping bag

Have you stopped using your sleeping bag and are wondering what to do with it?
Instead of throwing it away, don't hesitate to resell it second-hand using the Decathlon Second-hand platform!