If you are an adventurous person or you like to travel a lot, sleeping bag is a must gear for your little adventurous trip. Because i'm one of that kind of people who like to travel and always try to get the best gears to accompany me during my trip, i'll carefully research my gears before i buy them. So this article is based on my finding how to choose the best sleeping gear for my own trip.
There are many types and categories of sleeping gears which when you try to find the right one it may confuse you as you look at many types of sleeping bag. Hence, i hope this post may be a little help for you to choose the right sleeping bag. Your dream sleeping bag.
Before you try to find one, there are few categories you must consider. the list below are the categories based on their priority. After that. i will explain it one by one with a simple language so that you will not need any dictionary. so please bear with me. Four aspects you need to consider are
- Temperature/comfort rating
- weight size and shape
- insulation type
- Quality and Features
Temperature and comfort rating
lets start with the first one. I'm sure that you already knew where would you want to use your sleeping bag. This is the first consideration you must know in order to determine the best way to choose the temperature and comfort rating of the sleeping bag. Try to ask this to yourselves: Where are you going? Antartica? Sahara? once you know which direction you wanna go you can comfortably choose the right temperature for your sleeping bag.
Next question after you found out the places you wanna go, it is best to choose the right temperature rating. Usually the temperature rating can be easily identify in the products name such as "mountainsmith Poncha 35 degree synthetic sleeping bag". That "35 degree" implies that it will be comfortably used in 35 degree Fahrenheit and above. Below than that temperature you will not feel comfortable. Table below is the best range of temperature rating in Fahrenheit to consider when you choose any type of sleeping bags
Weight, Size and Shape
Secondly when you consider to buy sleeping bag try to answer this question: How are you going to go there and what is you body size? you may answer this question by decided to go there by driving a luxury car or by taking train or even by walking/hiking. The weight of sleeping bag all depends on the shape,insulation type and the size of the sleeping bag. I will further discuss about the weight to choose in the next category.
For the size of sleeping bag you can identify it by using the information on the sleeping bag(length, wide and so on). This all depend on your body size. too small you can't fit into it and too large it can't properly insulate you. So choose based on your body size and your preference.
The bag shape is largely depend on your preference. But be careful because the shape matter if you are considering size and weight. Basically there are 3 types of sleeping bag.
- Mummy shape
- Rectangular shape
- Semi rectangular
The mummy shape usually looks like mummy. if you wanna know how mummy looks like, you may consider to watch any mummy movie. But it'll take a longer time to figure out how the mummy looks like. So i'll help you figure it out by showing you an example of mummy shape sleeping bag. Below is the picture.
mummy shape
Mummy shape will cover your whole body and usually has a very good insulation. Plus, if you were backpacking, this is the best type of sleeping bag you wanna buy because it is lighter and can be compressed. So if you consider lightweight sleeping bag, this is the right choice.
The second type of shape is rectangular. It usually has an extra weight and space. In return you get a nice extra room. heavier and bigger size for your sleeping bag. Usually it can't be compressed. So it is best to use when you are travelling by car with your family. Ahh, a nice comfortable family trip i would say
rectangular shape
The last one is a semi rectangular shape. it is a hybrid of mummy and rectangular shape. Usually broad at the top and getting slimmer to the bottom of the sleeping bag. In return you get a nice combination between space and weight. This best use in any type of trip as long as you are not strict on space or weight.
Semi-Rectangular shape
Insulation type
Next you need to consider is the insulation type. There are usually 3 types of insulation in the market. Cotton, Synthetic and down. However, if you find any cotton type of insulation, please just throw it in your garbage can. Because it is useless!The type of insulation can usually be find out in the name of product.
Synthetic materials is best to choose when you have a budget constrain. It is well insulated, lightweight and dry fast when wet. It usually works fine in easy/warm temperature. It is best when you go backpacking as it can be compressed.
There are two type of synthetic materials: short staple and continuous. Short staple is a dense insulator. it good in warm weather and has a great compressibility. In addition it is soft and flexible. Thus it is a regular choice in the market. Continuous, usually a filament fills with thicker insulation but less lofty which it is less compressible. However, it is strong and durable.
The next type of insulation is down. it is not a downgrade but it prefer term used to categorized type of insulation for sleeping bag. i may try to find out why they called it down later on. But for now i will explain what is down type of insulation. Down usually lightweight, warmer, longer lasting comparable to synthetic. Sound good so far, but when you see the price you may be disappointed. It is too expansive for poor people like me. so i will only consider synthetic insulation for my backpacking trip for now. However, if you decided to go to tropical island it is better buy a synthetic type as down will get heavy when it is wet.
Same as synthetic, down also has it own categorizes: duck and goose-down. duck type much cheaper and widely used in made in Asia(especially China). while goose-down is much durable, less fill and extraordinary warmer. So if you decided to buy goose-down better to buy from western country. Down type is best to choose when you decide to go to backpacking in Sahara when you need a compact and good insulator for sleeping bag.
Quality and Features
It really hard actually to determine the quality of sleeping bag by just looking at the sleeping bag. The best way is to try first hand on the material, design and features of the sleeping bag. So in order to determine the quality it is best to try before you buy it. Decide what do you want and how much money do you have. The best quality of sleeping bag when the zip easily slip out and down and it will not stuck when you try to close or open the sleeping bag. You can actually feel the quality of the materials by try to touch it using your hands and compare it with more cheaper sleeping bag.
There are many information on the bag that will tell you the features of the sleeping bag. Usually, the manufacture provide you the diagram of the sleeping bag, either it has taper, hood, color of sleeping bag or the zip location. You can decide what type of feature do you like most. However, as you try to buy PC, the more features it has the more expansive it becomes.
So I already finished explaining the aspects that you need to consider when you wanna buy a sleeping bag. I hope it can help you to find your dream sleeping bag in the near future. You may find out that you need a different type of sleeping bag for different type of trip. So remember this well: Choose your sleeping bag wisely so that you will not regret it later.
If you wanna know more please refer to this articles
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