Sleeping bag temp rating - need advice!

[kellytc45]

Buy a exped 9 pad and you'll sleep way warmer. All buddies have switched after letting them try it one night.

 

[Kevin Dill]

^^This^^

There is no better way to maximize the temp rating of any sleeping bag than to place it on top of a suitably insulated pad. I tend to think many folks blame their bag for not being warm enough, when the actual problem is lack of insulative value in their pad.

I sleep elevated on a LuxuryLite cot...meaning cold air can circulate beneath my bed. It matters not...as long as my bag is rated for the night's temps and my pad is suitably warm. In colder temps that means I'll always be on a DownMat 9 (LW). I've never once felt the cold penetrate from below with this system.

 

[Dameon]

What’s better for backpack hunting, the Exped 9 or Xtherm? My insulated Klymit Static V isn’t cutting it for me and I am a cold sleeper.


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[BrushyHillGuide]

Well, I picked up a EE 20° quilt in the classifieds at a great price. Since y wife and kids could all use some new/ better bags, I’m going to pick up a variety to test out this winter here in Texas. Our January and February weather will be roughly similar.

Another question I’m trying to wrap my head around is the fill power. I’ve always thought that the higher fill power the warmer the bag would be; but I see companies (like EE) offering a bag in a temp rating with several fill powers to choose from. Wouldn’t a given bag filled with 950 down have a lower temp rating (in other words, keep you warmer) than the same bag filled with 850 down? So how/why is a bag given - temp rating for 3 different fill powers? What am I missing?

just double checking.. 30deg is not warmer..unless your talking about the ambient temp and not that bag anymore.

i did the archery hunt in ID..it was effen freezing. i used a 20 deg western mountaineering bag and it was downright chilly. that first "sit up" in the morning inside the bag would cause ice to crunch on the outside of my bag. it was kinda unpleasant and had me dreaming of a 0 deg bag.

i might be the only human on this site that HATED my slick bag. i had the first generation and it soured me so badly, i would never buy any of the new generations..i dont care what pixie dust they fill it with.

if i had to pick ONE bag..it would be a 10 deg sleeping bag from Western Mountaineering. great bags, great features..and if it's warmer you can use it like a blanket and stick a leg out to be the radiator. if it got colder, you could get buy wearing some more clothing..

Yeah, sorry, I didn’t really phrase it right. I meant: should I get something in the 0°-15° rating range or something for warmer ambient temperatures, like a 30° rated bag. Sorry for the confusion!

What did you dislike so much about the Slik?


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[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

What’s better for backpack hunting, the Exped 9 or Xtherm? My insulated Klymit Static V isn’t cutting it for me and I am a cold sleeper.


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I have the xtherm large (I didn't like the width of the regular and sold it, large is a lot nicer and I'm not a wide guy) its 20oz. Which is half the weight of the exped 9 of the same width/length. I'm perfectly happy with it for comfort and warmth and it packs down pretty small. That exped has a bit more R value if you think you need it but the xtherm & 10F WM bag I slept fine at 10F in terms of warmth (the discomfort of sleeping on my water supply to keep it thawed is another gripe all together ).

 

[Kevin Dill]

Another question I’m trying to wrap my head around is the fill power. I’ve always thought that the higher fill power the warmer the bag would be; but I see companies (like EE) offering a bag in a temp rating with several fill powers to choose from. Wouldn’t a given bag filled with 950 down have a lower temp rating (in other words, keep you warmer) than the same bag filled with 850 down? So how/why is a bag given - temp rating for 3 different fill powers? What am I missing?

Think of 'fill power' as 'down quality'. 950 down is superior to 850 down and so on. The number refers to the amount of space in cubic inches an ounce of down will occupy. An ounce of 950 down = 950 cubic inches...which means it offers more loft (and that's warmth) than an ounce of 800 down. The warmth of a given bag will be a combination of which fill power is used and how many ounces of it are inside the bag. You can be just as warm with lower quality down but it will require more ounces and overall greater bag weight.

Sleeping bag companies sometimes do provide actual total ounces of down fill, but a better indicator is loft. If you go with the highest fill power down you can afford (800+ is superb) and have enough measured loft for a given temperature, your bag will be as warm and light as reasonably possible.

 

[stratofisher]

I run a 20 deg Enlightened Equipment quilt with a thermarest Sol closed cell foam topped by Neo air xtherm. When it looks to be below freezing I add my sea to summit reactor bag liner to the mix. I sleep comfortably down into the teens with this setup on top of my thermarest luxurylite cot.

 

[sneaky]

Hard to go wrong with any of the suitably rated bags from WM, Feathered Friends, Valandre, or if you can find them, the old Integral Designs bags. They are all pretty much spot on with their temp ratings, when you pair them with a suitable pad. Some guys don't like the Xtherm because they say it's noisy. I'm usually so tired it's a non issue. It's one of the lighter insulated options, along with some of the NEMO pads. The Expeds are warm, but it comes at a pretty substantial weight penalty. Depends on how much weight you are wanting to pack.