I understand that the common (UKC) wisdom for washing down sleeping bags and jackets remains thus: fine if you've a dryer to resurrect the loft of the down, use of tennis balls in the dry cycle still up for debate.
What about with these new-fangled "eco" washer/dryer (and dry-only) machines that seem to be the readily available things, today?
My wife and I are moving to Allgäu (F*CK YEAH!) which has many benefits, including being 20-minutes away from a selection of nearby Alps and not-a-whole-lot-further away from more Alps than a dedicated weekend warrior could climb in several years. One draw-back is that we now have to buy a washing machine for our new place. Being able to wash and subsequently dry our down gear in our own machine is the number one feature we're looking for.
All the new machines on the market, now, seem to be boasting "eco" cycles: i.e. very long, austensibly with less energy use in total -- think 8-hours for a full 8kg wash and dry. I believe that these machines also offer expedited wash or dry programmes, too. Would these "eco" cycles be better or worse for drying down? Has anyone any experience with "eco" labelled machines and, if so, do you know if their programmes (expedited or eco) are any good?
As far as brands go, being in Germany, we're looking at Miele because they're the only brand that claims to test their stuff for 20 000 cycles. I judge that one needs a washing machine for their whole life and so there's no point buying cheap and often. We're also planning to stay at our next place for a minimum of 10 years.
