Buying the Right Sleeping Bag

When your looking for a sleeping bag it can be difficult there are just so many choices and options to choose from the best place to start is figuring out what conditions will you be using your sleeping bag in most. If your a avid hiker your going to want a compact bag but you have to know how cold it may get at night since they dont have alot of insulation to keep you warm. A good sleeping bag will hold your body heat in, now if your hiking with your honey you can invest in a double sleeping bag and that extra body warmth will most likely be enough to keep you warm thru out the night.

SLEEPING BAG STYLES

The rectangular style bag is the most common style, with these you can unzip them and use them like a quilt or zip them together with another rectangular bag and make it a big enough for 2 people. Now if you don't like to zip 2 bags together you can buy a 2 person bag pretty cool huh? The next style is a hooded bag, these bags retain more of your body heat and fit your head for a comfortable sleep, much like a pillow. The last style is a mummy sleeping bag, mummy bags have better heat retention properties since the mummy bag's foot end is narrower than the head. The mummy usually unzips part of the way, thus, leaving the feet permanently secured. This is a beneficial feature when camping in colder temperatures since the feet are more prone to heat loss than other parts of the body.

TEMPERATURE RATINGS

Temperature ratings are very important in determining which sleeping bag is right for you. There are typically four bag ratings: warm weather (efficient for temperatures down to around +32F/+0C), three-season (efficient for temperatures down to around +15F/-9C), cold weather (efficient for temperatures down to around -5F/-21C), and extreme weather (efficient for temperatures colder than -5F/-21C).

DOWN AND LOFT INSULATION

Down used in most sleeping bags ranges from 550 Fill Power to 800+ Fill Power. A 550 down fill bag, utilizes insulation that occupies 550 cubic inches per ounce of down. Therefore, a 750 Fill Power down occupies 200 more cubic inches of space per ounce! When choosing a down bag go for higher fill numbers, they result in lighter, more insulative bags.

SYNTHETIC INSULATION

Synthetics like lite-loft, primaloft, polarguard, hollofil, microloft, etc. are superior for wet conditions. They retain a great deal of their insulating ability when wet, so in damp environments like the US Pacific Northwest, a synthetic bag may be the best choice. They're relatively easy to clean, resistant to mildew and rot, and they dry faster than down. In most cases they are cheaper. That's about the extent of their advantages over down !

Many of the newer synthetic bags are made of the new Polarguard 3D. It is softer and lighter and just as durable as its older Polarguard siblings, and reviews say that it is more compressible than other synthetics.

Hope this information helps you choose your next sleeping bag.
Happy Camping.
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