Honestly, for camping gear this is a reasonable approach. Combine "buy a cheap sleeping bag and see how it goes" with "take a short trip and see how it goes". A basic piece of camping gear from a discount sports store will either a) let you understand what you hate about it in detail, so that you can then decide for yourself how much money it's worth to you to not experience those downsides and shop accordingly, or b) actually work just fine for the limited purposes you have for it.

This is an important point. A lot of manufactured stuff is designed to spec out well, without regard for real-world utility. The best temperature ratings in combination with total weight can be achieved in a very narrow bag with a short zipper. This *might* work well for a very narrow person who also happens to be perfectly content sleeping in one position all might, straight as an arrow with hood drawn and hands at sides. If this is not you (as it's definitely not me), you might need a much wider bag with a full zipper--it'll show up with a much higher temperature rating for the same weight, or a much heavier weight (and larger packed size) for the same temp rating.

Score this one in favor of brick and mortar shops, where you can measure your own loft and by all means try the bag out yourself before buying. If your first bag costs an extra ten or twenty dollars/pounds/Euros, consider it money well-spent.

Narrow bags are just awful to sleep in - in my experience anyway. There was a trend some years back to make bags that tapered from the hips downwards so that both legs were held tight together. The idea (presumably anyway) was to cut out 'dead space' and so keep everything warmer. It sounds great in theory and I even bought into it with my own money. That was the only bag I've ever gotten rid of; the psychological effect of feeling like your legs have been bandaged together made sleep impossible.

Experience has also taught me that sleeping bags don't just have minimum temperature specs; they have ranges. That is, a given bag is (more or less) usable between a temperature where it's too warm and and one where it doesn't keep you warm. If you buy a bag with better low temperature performance than you're likely to need 'just in case', it means you've bought one with a lower high temperature performance - and higher temperatures are where most bags are actually used. My worst experience has been using a bag rated to -25C when the night time temp didn't fall below +25C. It was absolutely unusable - and likely to become permanently so with the amount of sweat involved in try to use it.

Imho, if you save money in spending for your sleeping bag and mats you will never get an expression how it`s possible to get a comfortable, warm and relaxed sleep. If you want to find out if you are a camping person it maybe works. Better try this in an area not too cold.

If you go alone think about the security aspect a well relaxed body and mind will provide when you are in a remote area. Accidents or mishaps are often caused by exhaustion! Sleeping well and relaxed plus adequate food is a basic requirement to resist safe and powerful in extraordinary circumstances!

This should be enough value not to be to price focussed when buying gear you will use daily and which will last long times if it is the right quality. But ok, everybody has a different sight of this...



What about shapes and isolation?
I like the mummy shape with a built in neck warmer area in cold areas. If I am going to hoter areas or zones with high air humanity, I prefer egg shape with synthetic fibers because of fast drying and less needed isolation.


Mummy:
+ shape balances isolation ratio, space, comfort and weight.
+ follow body contours
+ Less pack size
- less space for moving sleepers

Egg:
+ more space for moving sleepers
- less isolation
- compromise of isolation/comfort

Comparision of down feathers or synthetic fibers:

Down feathers:
+ best isolation in volume/weight ration at duck/goose feathers mix 50/50
+ lighter in weight compared to synthetic at same isolation level
+ smaller to pack
+ absorb/give moisture -> better sleeping climate
+ long life span
- sensitive against moisture/wetness
- longer drytime
- higher price

Synthetic fibers:
+ will warm if wet
+ drys faster
+ better/easier to handle in climate zone with huge air moisture
+ more rugged than down feathers ones
+ simple to care/easy to wash
+ cheaper
- heavier
- less compressible/bigger pack size
- sythetic takes less moisture -> different sleeping climate
- less life span



My tips as general advice for those who don`t know:

- Take out your sleeping bag before you start to sleep and shake it up. This will give your sleeping bag time to puff up down feathers/synthetic fibers and isolation will work better.

- Add an illuminating (shoe) band or similar thing to the slider of the zipper. Provides a safe, easy and fast pull if circumstances needs this

- Always wear dry cloth, never wear sweaty ones.

- If it`s cold, do some warm up exercise before step in the bag. A "preheated" body warms the bag easier.

- If it`s cold use an inlet of silk or merino wool. Keeps you warmer and bag`s sleeping life time expands / dry time in the morning will be reduced because of less moistures given to downs/feathers

- Fill your water bottle with hot water when your cooking and place it it in feet end of bag before sleeping.

- Give your sleeping bag time to dry in the morning

- Don`t roll or folt the sleeping bag. If you do this everytime the same way, you will break and compress the compartments of filling/downs in same place. This ends in loosing isolation through less denseness.

- Start packing sleeping bag with the feet end first. Stuff it into compression bag than air inside the bag can easier pass off. Smaller packing!

- If your sleeping bag is equiped with a membran/covering impregnation, stuff it inside out to avoid compressing inside air.

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Hello

Yes, every bag has a range, like a jacket.
If you wear a jacket, that keeps you warm in a cold skandinavien winter at -25°C, on a nice summer day with +25°C you will sweat.
A bag rated for -25°C is big and expensive, buy and use equipment for what it's built.

sushi

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My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

Hello

Yes, you have to buy your first bag and figure out what you need.
But, just don't buy anything, go to a store that is specialized on quality bags and has sales personal with knowlegde above reading what's on the price tag.

Youtube can be a good help if you find the right channels, stay away from influencers and "survival-guys".

sushi

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My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

One should always let sleeping bags lie, in my experience.

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Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

One of life’s lessons we all learn in time

Well,
I have had an expensive sleeping bag with feathers for long,long time.
Always very nice. I have often been sleeping well in temperature below freezing temp. The water was frozen in the morning.

Finally, the bag was flat. Feathers were leaking. So I was white in the morning.
It was far from as good as decades earlier.

So I went to buy a regular 3-season bag. With comfort temp of some degrees over 0 Celcius. And I froze so much.... Even when it was not really cold outside. The new bag was nothing to have compared to my very old bag.

So I invested more money. In a better bag. Still far from what I was used to.
So maybe I have to invest a third time in something really expensive. And than I will have good comfort, for the rest of my life.

Lesson learned:
It is expensive to buy cheap stuff. Because it will not work OK. And then I had to buy "real stuff". And the money that I spent on cheap/medium stuff was wasted. Better if I had invested more direct.

And I have done the same mistake also for tent, sleeping mat and riding gear. Not that I have bought the cheapest. But what I thought was "good enough". And than I needed to replace it with better equipment. I still use the medium equipment during warm summer periods, for weekend trips.
(It was painful enough with a sleeping mat with broken valve => flat for one night during a weekend. But for a long trip....)

Even if it ends up to some cost, it will soon be cheaper than hotel rooms.
at least when I travelling in Europe. And comfort is worth its price.
(And I like sleeping in tent. I have tried Hammock some nights this summer. When wild camping. And I liked it)

I think mine is rated to -10 or something like that. On a recent trip round Scotland I was sleeping half unzipped with my arms out to try and maintain a comfortable temperature. My wife, with a cheap "2 seasons" bag, reported she was cold. On balance I reckon it's better to have a bag that is "warm enough" on a cold night than to wear every scrap of clothing and still be cold. It's less weight and bulk to carry (as is a bag liner to protect it from sweat, pros and cons).

Silk liner was mentioned, I tend to use this most of the time for three reasons— (1) it increases the warmth factor on cold nights, (2) because the liner is easy to regularly wash, it extends the period between washing the bag, and (3) in warmer weather I'm inside the liner and I then unzip the bag, stick my feet in the end to 'anchor' it and then drap it as a duvet. It helps with the latter if your sleeping mat has a nice top surface.

For cold nights in Morocco when on the motorbike I've taken a fleece covered hot water bottle. Heat water to close to boiling, the fleece prevents burning on the skin and remarkably, it's still warm in the morning.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Whatever your choice of bag will be, my take:
1- silk sleeping bag liner (added warmth and hygiene)
2-Merino one-zee or a two piece if expecting cold spells
3- a plastic one litre Pee bottle to use as a hot-water-bottle
4- a good sleeping mat which can be slipped into the sleeping bag so you don't slide off and get cold spots.
5- and critically, have a nice and filling pasta meal before bedtime. That is what is going to keep you warm; the sleeping bag, mat etc are all about insulation not heat generation.

Of course someone may chime in with night time activities (ahem...) with a girlie will help create warmth as well but be warned that this seriously increases condensation problems in tents!

p.s my bag of choice is Rabs' Neutrino pertex 800. Coseeeeeeee!!

Sleeping bags are quite a personal thing due to how and where they are used. I'm always sceptical of the figures manufactures place on their products but I have an old Mountain Equipment down bag that has never let me down even when sleeping outside and above 4000 meters.

The man behind Mountain Equipment was Peter Hutchinson and he then went on and started PH Designs. I have a few bits and pieces from them - https://www.phdesigns.co.uk - and I find their products accurately described, dependable, customisable and well made.

If I was looking to purchase another sleeping bag, PH Designs would be my goto manufacturer - https://www.phdesigns.co.uk/sleeping-bags. Their products are expensive but you get what you pay for. I have no links with the company.

Thank, I like the PHD kit. Booked Oct flight to Delhi for three week trip, some camping at high level and some hotel.

Going by my own experience using bags from the mid-'90s to recently, the temperature rating is probably overrated by about 20°F unless you're wearing pretty warm clothes to bed.


Something that I found makes the bag a lot more effective is using it as a blanket rather than being being zipped-up in it. I think that allows it to loft more and provide more insulation than being compressed against my body, especially at my feet and bends like my hips and knees.

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Round & round & round the world in super overdrive.