Can anyone recommend a 3/4 season down sleeping, up to about £300? If/when my US tax return arrives (who knows whats going to happen now that Musk has taken ovwr the US treasury. I may or may not get the child tax credit im owed), I'd like to treat myself to something new. Under a kg ideally.

rivers wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 7:30 pm Can anyone recommend a 3/4 season down sleeping, up to about £300? If/when my US tax return arrives (who knows whats going to happen now that Musk has taken ovwr the US treasury. I may or may not get the child tax credit im owed), I'd like to treat myself to something new. Under a kg ideally.

There isn't really a season rating anymore - UK 3/4 season?; Norwegian?, Moroccan? EN13537 (now ISO 23537) is the standard way to describe sleeping bags. The standard results in four temperature ratings per bag but only the Comfort and Lower Limit are of everyday practical use.

• Upper Limit — the temperature at which a standard man can sleep without excessive perspiration. It is established with the hood and zippers open and with the arms outside of the bag.
• Comfort — the temperature at which a standard woman can expect to sleep comfortably in a relaxed position.
• Lower Limit — the temperature at which a standard man can sleep for eight hours in a curled position without waking.
• Extreme — the minimum temperature at which a standard woman can remain for six hours without risk of death from hypothermia (though frostbite is still possible).

Another way of looking at Comfort and Limit are for cold and warm sleepers. I'm a warm sleeper and find the Lower Limit rating to be about right.

So all that being said what temps are you expecting to use the bag in and are you a warm or cold sleeper?

whitestone wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 7:40 pm

rivers wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 7:30 pm Can anyone recommend a 3/4 season down sleeping, up to about £300? If/when my US tax return arrives (who knows whats going to happen now that Musk has taken ovwr the US treasury. I may or may not get the child tax credit im owed), I'd like to treat myself to something new. Under a kg ideally.

There isn't really a season rating anymore - UK 3/4 season?; Norwegian?, Moroccan? EN13537 (now ISO 23537) is the standard way to describe sleeping bags. The standard results in four temperature ratings per bag but only the Comfort and Lower Limit are of everyday practical use.

• Upper Limit — the temperature at which a standard man can sleep without excessive perspiration. It is established with the hood and zippers open and with the arms outside of the bag.
• Comfort — the temperature at which a standard woman can expect to sleep comfortably in a relaxed position.
• Lower Limit — the temperature at which a standard man can sleep for eight hours in a curled position without waking.
• Extreme — the minimum temperature at which a standard woman can remain for six hours without risk of death from hypothermia (though frostbite is still possible).

Another way of looking at Comfort and Limit are for cold and warm sleepers. I'm a warm sleeper and find the Lower Limit rating to be about right.

So all that being said what temps are you expecting to use the bag in and are you a warm or cold sleeper?

Id like a comfort limit of -5ish ideally. It's likely to be used between March/April-September/October. I currently have an old Vango with a comfort limit of 0- fine in the summer, but I get cold if it drops to below 5° overnight.

As to am I a warm or cold sleeper- that honestly depends. I'm after female in my early 40s. There are nights when it's -5° outside, and I have my windows wide open and am still overheating. There are other nights where it's 10 degrees outside and I can't get warm enough.
So something around -5° should cover everything because i can unzip if too hot, layer up if it's cooler.

I have a Robens down bag that has been very good. It wouldn't be warm enough for what you want (it's ok down to about -1c with me [male] in it) so I won't recommend the specific model (Caucus 300) but it was good bang for the buck when I bought it.

I also have a Sea to Summit quilt, which again isn't what you are looking for, but the finish/attention to detail on it is excellent, nicer than my Robens but also much more expensive at normal retail. It is set up to clip on to their sleeping bags with wee poppers, so you could maybe try getting one AND a slightly lighter sleeping bag? Might help if you are feeling temperature variability? Might be beyond budget though.


Anyway a couple of companies for you to look at maybe :)

There's a decent selection here - https://ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/down-sleeping-bags/

Along with everything else down products have gone up quite significantly in recent years - I bought a Cumulus 150 quilt for £120 about eight years ago, it's £200 now. That's pretty typical.

A higher fill power means less weight of down to give the same temperature rating. But... you tend to pay more for higher fill power down even though you are using less of it. The shell material can also significantly impact the weight and compressability of the bag, lighter materials compress better but you need to be a bit more careful in their use. Having said that my quilt is lightweight material, I'm hardly the most delicate of users and it's been fine.

I'm not expert on these things, but you could do worse than looking at criterion
https://criterion-sleepingbags.co.uk/?s ... b4H4&nab=1

Johnallan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 11:17 pm I'm not expert on these things, but you could do worse than looking at criterion
https://criterion-sleepingbags.co.uk/?s ... b4H4&nab=1

Being another year older and so seeming relatedly another degree less tolerant of the cold, I recently treated myself to a Quantum 350. Will report back after this weekend's Jennride!

I've been using the ultralight 200 and 350 for years. I've never become an expert in sleeping bags because these work well enough for me to not look anywhere else. January's bivvy was -10c so I took both. Worked a charm