Price Comparisons for Sleeping Bags
People sometimes go for the most
expensive thing in the market. They
think that what they are buying is automatically the best product out there.
That may be so, but with sleeping
bags it would be crazy to buy a $350 arctic mummy bag, when all you need is
a $30 product for use during a summer camping trip.
You see, there are a number of things
to consider when buying a bag.
If one product suits your purposes just fine, you could save your wallet
from potential spontaneous combustion.
For damp but not necessarily cold
weather, synthetic bags are good enough and quite affordable.
These are great when out in driving
rain and humidity, as the material is better at repelling water.
Comfort may take a backseat but they can be so cheap that you can buy
two and use the other as ground cushion. In
warm weather, you can open up the bag inside a tent to form one large
sleeping area. These bags can go for 30 to 50 dollars at the cheapest, but
can be quite heavy. It would be
advisable to spring a hundred dollars more for a two pound bag for hikes and
climbs. Look at it this way; you will
not be happy with a $30 bag that weighs 13 pounds, though your chiropractor
will rejoice.
Now, down fill sleeping bags are more
expensive, but these last much longer and are more comfortable.
What makes these bags expensive is
the filling. The filling dictates how
comfortable and warm a product will be. Down
bags are the best when it comes to extreme cold.
There are three weather bags that you
can use down to zero degrees, but the lowest temperature a down bag can
protect you from is 40 degrees below zero.
One
can get carried away with these bags as they can be highly expensive.
The lowest price for these is around
$150. You might be better off
however, with a synthetic one for the same price, since the fill rating will
not be that high. A $250 bag with a
fill rating of 600 down is the lowest one should go for.
Construction methods will also make a
bag more expensive. V-Baffle and
trapezoidal stitch methods are more time consuming and costly to execute.
Bags with such construction and
higher down ratings can cost as high as $500 dollars.
The only downside (pun not intended)
is that these bags are harder to clean and weak against water.
One might want to invest another 15
to 30 dollars for a dry bag.
There are other simple considerations,
like functional pockets to keep watches and other things, pillowed hoods,
and cool designs. In the end however,
it is still insulation that trumps all other concerns.
A cheap synthetic will do for quick
hikes and summer weather. If
challenging the abominable snowman is on your to-do list, however, then down
is the way to go.
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