TERSUS Supercritical CO2 cleaning for Down gear

[mcimes]

I stumbled across Patagonia’s recommendation that their 1000 fill jacket never be cleaned with soap and water (even down-specific soap). Their instruction mention they send the jacket to Tersus for cleaning, which uses ‘liquid CO2’ , although my guess is they really mean Supercritical CO2 as I know SC is used in the oil extract industry, among other things. Seems like SC C02 would indeed be ideal for removing body oils and funk from down.

Service
https://cleanwithtersus.com/

More info - indeed confirms they use Supercritical CO2. Pretty sweet. SC CO2 is a premium extraction method with some super cool properties. Its both a liquid and gas at the same time, has nearly 0 surface tension, and nearly 0 viscosity. Supercritical is a really cool area of material science if you're into that at all.
http://e3tnw.org/ItemDetail.aspx?id=512

More info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_fluid

Patagonia's official statement -
https://www.patagonia.com/on/demandw...l_cleaning.pdf


I see their jacket cleaning service is only $35 and a sleeping bag is $45-65 which includes 2 way shipping. That’s not bad in my book. I have a 1 year old Plasma 1k that I’ve been contemplating cleaning, but am definitely not doing it myself or getting it wet. Same with a Hammock Gear quilt, it will be due for a cleaning in a year or so.

Anyone use this service? Any feedback on how well your garment was cleaned and if you noticed re-lofting after body oils were removed? Any of you genius science-y people have thoughts on SC C02 cleaning on down? From what i know it seems like an ideal application.

I like this idea 10000x more than washing with water. I choose not to have a dryer so have been pondering how I clean my down gear. When it needs cleaning, I'll definitely try CO2 cleaning out.

Its interesting that Patagonia says conventional washing, even with tec wash soap, will damage their ultra high fill down (1000fp in the case of their Encapsil parka), but I wonder/would wager some of that guidance applies to 950 down, and probably to a lesser degree to 900 and 850.

The Montbell 1000fill down clusters are insanely large. my HG 950 are almost as large (which makes them much easier to pull back into the baffle). I bet the benefit diminishes as the down cluster size falls. as 800 o 850 clusters are noticeably smaller and thus may be less fragile and damaged by washing. But im definitely trying their service when its time for a washing.

Anyone use this service and have feedback?

[OlTrailDog]

This is some really cool information. Thanks. I have several Feathered Friends items, and one Western Mountaineering bag, that I want to take care of, for me anyways which probably leaves much to be desired. I hope I will remember this thread and methodology when the time comes.