Kids Sleeping Bag Comparison Chart
Choosing the right sleeping bag for your child
Not all sleeping bags are the same and differ in materials, insulation and shape design. To insure warmth in any bag it is important to size it correctly to your child's height. A bag that is too, big leaves too much dead space for your child to heat and therefore they will be cold. The rule of thumb is that a sleeping bag should have no more than 12 inches of dead space.
There are two choices when is comes to sleeping bag insulation, Down and Synthetic.
Down Insulation: Made up of goose feathers and are rated as the warmest sleeping bags. The more down fill in a sleeping bag, the warmer it will be, an average fill is 600 for a 20 degree bag and 800 for a zero degree bag.
Benefits of Down Insulation: Down is the warmest, softest and lightest sleeping bag insulation.
Drawbacks of Down Insulation: Down is more expensive and loses its loft over time making rating of the sleeping bag rise. If your down bag gets wet it takes a long time to dry out and loses all of its insulation properties. Down Bags are good for winter time, and in areas that see little rain. They work great in the western states.
Synthetic Insulation: Synthetic fibers are usually made from hydrophobic polyester or nylon fibers.
Benefits of Synthetic Insulation: Dry quickly, keep their thermal properties when wet, keeps their loft preserving thermal properties of the bag and can be made for warmer temperatures.
Drawbacks of Synthetic Insulation: Heavier than Down, less compressible, less softness.
Types of Synthetic Insulation:
Polarguard HV Insulation: Water resistant, dries quickly and has a feel similar to down. Polarguard spins their insulation in a way that gives it a hollow core. This hollow core traps warm air keeping you warmer while preserving pack ability and weight.
Climashield: High Loft synthetic insulation that is made from thousands of continuous strands of polyester spreading them into an interlocking insulation that is durable and stretches.
M3 Polyester: Hollow Core Synthetic Fiber, hollow core technology gives more warmth with less fibers making your bag lighter and compressible.
Spirafill 120: consists of 3 denier conjugated spiral hollow fibers for loft and 1 denier polyester fiber giving bag warmth, softness, and compressibility and is lighter in weight.
Synthetic Sleeping Bags work well in wetter climates such as the eastern US where the possibility of your bag getting wet is higher.
Most kids sleeping bags are made with a durable nylon or polyester shell. Some are treated with a water resistant coating and most come with a draft zipper baffles to keep cold air from entering through the zipper. Mummy style bags are warmer than the rectangular bags because there is less dead air space for your child to warm. Heavy Cotton sleeping bags are a thing of the past and only used indoors these days. If your are taking your family into the back country and looking for a lightweight durable bags consider the above options when making your choice. Give Upside Over a call and ask one of our gear consultants if you have any more questions about kids sleeping bags. 888 377 8203
0 comments:
Post a Comment