Sleeping Bag ratings

[Stew63]

I'm very sorry if this has been brought up before but I'm in the market for a new 4 season quilt or bag but I'm not sure how to compare the temperature ratings of some against those of the US brands.
As I'm sure most are now aware that the EU13537 standard gives a rating for UpperLimit, Comfort, LowerLimit and Extreme - however in the US only one temperate is given - what is this temperature?
Is it a comfort rating/temperature? Am looking at a number of bags and quilts including the WesternMountaineering Versalite (-12C) and the EE Revelation quilt (-12C) - but what does -12C actually mean - is that a comfort rating or an extreme rating or something else?

[Strider]

Generally it's nearer to the Limit rating. I can say that my 20F EE Rev definitely isn't a comfort rating.

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[Chezza]

Each manufacturer has their own loft to temp curves, but whether it's intended as a comfort or limit rating is anybody's guess.

Western Mountaineering and Katabatic Gear are conservative in their ratings, according to most reviews.

For example, WM and EE both use a 2" single-sided loft to arrive at a 30F rating, and KG use a 2.25" single-sided loft for the same rating. So an EE quilt will be colder than both the KG and WM stuff.

I find my Katabatic quilts to be absolute furnaces, but I sleep very warm. For me theirs is a comfort rating.

If you need to compare to an EN rating, there is a chart in this thread with the EN rating vs loft curves.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/top ... /#comments

[undercling-mike]

As someone who's offering quilts I can tell you I was pretty anxious about the task of giving them temperature ratings as there are always a lot of individual factors. A loft measurement can be useful but in my experience it's tricky to get a good consistent and realistic measurement in practice, most quoted figures are probably based on theoretical loft (maybe with some factor included) and then only roughly verified in the real world. I ended up going with a combination of my own experience and comparison with other products on the market to come up with my ratings.

Interestingly there was recently a Massdrop own label quilt available on Massdrop that is to be manufactured by EE and they have had it tested to the EN standard (with some modifications to make the test applicable to quilts as I understand it) and the limit rating came out to be 20f (-7C) with a comfort rating of 31f (0C). The quilt was being marketed at it's limit rating of 20f, as are most EN tested bags. If I analyse the Massdrop quilt I'd say it should have very close to the same warmth as my -2C rated quilts, in comparison the Massdrop quilt is a wide version (58" max width) with 14oz (~400g) of 750 fill power down while my -2C quilt is regular width (52" max width, although it's cut differently so it's not a direct comparison) with 12oz (~340g) of 800 FP down. If you do a straight width and fill power conversion then the loft comes out to be basically identical. Actually, knowing more about the cut of my quilts, I think my -2C quilt should actually have a tiny bit more loft.

Anyway, I hope that gives you a bit of insight into how the ratings work and how an experienced user with a bit of knowledge can do an estimated comparison between different products. The EN test has been an advantage for consumers in that it gives a good reference for comparison and should make even those manufacturers not using the test to present more realistic ratings. It's not without issues of course, it's generally too expensive for cottage manufacturers to get the tests done (at least not on all the variations offered) and from what I've read the allowable uncertainty between different test runs or different labs can amount to a few degrees, which can make a substantial difference in the spec comparison game.

[Hermione]

I tend go less by the EN rating and more on the loft and actuall fill weight (how much down is the bag) and the cut. I sleep very cold so I always choose a warmer bag, but if you sleep hot this would be uncomfortable. It's good if you've got some idea about what you personally find comfortable. The Versalite would be good 3 season bag even for this cold sleeper) quilts I have no experience with. There are lots of previous threads somewhere on here about this exact topic you might just need to spend a bit of time trawling through them.

[Gadgetgeek]

My experience with buying bags in Canada is that they were all listed with a comfort rating, as in, that's what they called it. I came here and was surprised to find bags listed with what I had to assume were lower limit bags since they held the same rating as canadian bags for half the size and cost. (no offense, but I couldn't imagine Aussies knowing more about cold weather than Canadians.)

I think you have to make a best guess based on what you think the temp will hit, and others reviews. At the end of the day, I'm more and more thinking its the individual that is far more of a variable than the gear. I cannot sleep cold. I don't know if its that my body has been trained that way (I grew up in a house with wood heat, if the fire went out, waking up was not optional) or if its just that I'm a skinny little rat that can't keep warm unless well fed and insulated. (hypothermia and I are tight)