Triple Sleeping Bag Technical Details

Even at the zippers there’s no insulation loss. Parallel zippers separately close inner and outer surfaces. Separating zips on each side, and across the foot give independent venting and allow you to zip bags together on EITHER side, or join the tops together for a very wide, warmth-adjusting top. Use tops zipped together for a quilt on your cabin bed. In very cold conditions, to dress inside, or for fine tuning from -50° to +10°, using both tops, unzip tops on opposite sides to let the bag expand as needed.

In 1987 we advanced to the excellent YKK #3 zippers for bags, these provide the least weight and the least snags. Our experience with YKK #3 on bags since 1987 has been as flawless as on our tents since 1970. Heavy zippers used by other companies snag fabric which spreads the slider and makes the zipper come apart.

The standard Warmlite® Triple Down Sleeping Bag includes both the thin (1.8″ thickness= 3.6″ “loft”) and thick (3.8″ thickness= 7.6″ “loft”) removable tops (equivalent to 11.2″ loft combined), attached with parallel rows of separating zippers along each side and across the foot, so there can be no cold zipper line when thick or both tops are used. Usually the thin top is used in temperatures down to 25°F (summer range), the thick top down to -10°F, and the combination for quick warmup or winter use for temperatures down to -60° F (- 75 to -80 reported by hardy Alaskans!).

Comfort ranges are greater than any other bag of similar thickness due to controllable warmth from vapor barrier. Uniform thickness and dual zips allow you to move as you wish and stay warm, so you won’t get stiff and sore from staying in one position all night. You may have experienced cold nights in bags with separate pads where any attempt to roll over makes you cold when crushed insulation below is exposed, you soon learn “don’t move”, then wake up stiff & sore.

For the tropics, we offer the optional NET top, a double layer of fine noseeum net held 3/4″ apart with many foam spacers. Bugs on the outer layer can’t reach thru to you.

For use outside a good shelter spray on water repellent or a Warmlite® water proof cover/bivy are best for dew or drip protection. A Warmlite® Footprint works best for ground protection, as well as giving an area for your pack, boots and other gear.

We use a silicone coated nylon as the standard fabric for best Vapor Barrier, least weight, best durability, and variety of colors.

The bottom interior is Fuzzy Stuff, a comfortable, brushed-knit Nylon and tough, stretchy, urethane film. It wears better than coated fabric, is best for comfort, and provides a long life. The surface feels like soft flannel, but wicks sweat across it’s surface fast for rapid drying and comfort.

Fuzzy Stuff is used on bag bottom interior where comfort, extra wear resistance, wickability for fast drying, and easy cleaning is needed, but not on tops: it clings slightly to clothing, weighs more, and more toughness isn’t needed on tops. On top interior we use coated, water-proof fabrics, so that a vapor barrier is maintained but also doesn’t stick the user to the bag, preventing ease of movement. Colors vary, though we do our best to pick compatible interior colors. If you would like a sample of a color email us!

Fabric is the finest 30 denier Down proof rip-stop nylon with soft, water repellent finish. Used since 1958 without failure, it’s obviously too durable, but there’s no lighter Down proof fabric! Every part is cut with a hot-knife, which is the only way to keep seams together. All others hide raw knife cut edges with binding tape or flat felled seams, but that won’t keep them from pulling apart. Usual colors are red, blue, or green, but you can choose any coated fabric color we offer.

Each bag is individually sewn by a highly skilled seamstress working from home. All sewing is with 100% Nylon thread to match fabric strength, stretch, softness and super wear resistance. Cotton or polyester thread make stiff seams that don’t wear well. The highest loft most mature Goose Down available is carefully hand weighted into each pocket, in a sequence that assures designed uniform loft.

Contoured direct tension vertical baffles, closely spaced, maintain uniform loft no matter how you move in the bag, yet allow control of insulation. If too warm, pat the sides to allow the Down to fall to the sides to stop some insulation. If cold, gently pat from inside, expanding Down to fill tubes for more warmth.

The cost of a Warmlite® Triple Down Sleeping Bag may seem high, but it includes much more than other sleeping bags. Compared to other bag combinations needed to match it, the overall cost would be higher and would require multiple items such as a winter bag, a summer bag, an overbag, a VB liner and 2 self inflating pads to match the warmth and comfort of D.A.M. All of this is included in one Warmlite® sleeping bag, all while being the warmest, lightest, most durable, and most adjustable for personal comfort, preference, and any weather condition. Not only are all of these features present in one bag, but they are designed to be compatible with each other, you don’t have to try and make one item work with another, it also saves on storage space in your home and on a trip. Why buy 2 or 3 other bags to cover a range of climates and be unsure of which bag to take, or worse, find you’ve taken the wrong one, when one Warmlite® bag does it all? Many outdoor enthusiasts buy limited range single top bags to save money, but when another bag is needed for other conditions, the cost doubles. Weather is unpredictable, a non adjustable bag can leave you dangerously cold or miserably sweaty. With a Warmlite® Triple you get best materials and features, 3 bags and a pad with the weight of only 1 1/4 bags.

We’ll custom make thinner lighter Triple Down Sleeping Bags and special Single top bags if needed, but expect alternate suggestions from us if our experience indicates your stated needs will be better met with something different. We would rather you were still happy for many years from now, not just pleased with us before you get the product!

Warmlite® bags are stocked in 4 girths with standard heights, in red, blue or green. We can make them to order for any height, any girth, and any color(s) we have. When ordering give us your height, weight, girth measurement (see measuring sketch), desired bag girth (and why, if different from measurement), whether you’ll take standard height bags for that girth or want it custom made to your height, type of bottom pad (D.A.M. or Foam), and color choice(s). If rushed, call to check stock. Production may take 4 to 12 weeks.

LIFE OF INSULATION: If you lie on the insulation in your sleeping bag or parka, and then move sideways to turn over, you put shearing force on the insulation. That tears synthetic insulations, and rolls Down into pieces of “string” from which it will never recover. Stuffing your bag or parka does the same thing, as well as puting excessive loads on the seams. Prior to 1966 we had people bring 2 to 3 year old bags in to restore loft, and we found the lost loft was entirely due to “strings” of Down caused by lying on it. Since 1966 our bags with pads in them have never had that problem. If you are using a bag loose on a separate pad, put some straps on the bag bottom to hold it securely to the pad, and shift as much of the Down out to sides and top as you can so you won’t lie on it. To pack a bag, always carefully fold and roll it. Uniform end compression of the roll to fit in a sack won’t harm it. Don’t stuff anything you don’t want to rapidly destroy!

WASHING AND DRYING DOWN: Squeeze, do not wring, water out of sleeping bag and allow to air dry. Never machine wash or dry clean. Spot clean with a wet rag as necessary. A simple test will show that equal dry thickness of Down will dry much faster than synthetics. As Down dries from the surface, interior moisture wicks to the surface where it has access to dry air and heat for rapid evaporation. With synthetics the surface lofts and insulates the interior so it takes much longer to get the needed heat in and the water out. BUT, if you saturate a Down bag and let the Down all clump together, drying will take much longer: you have greatly reduced surface area and greatly increased thickness to be dried. Thus the stories of Down being slow to dry! Those stories are correct when you put them in context. Wool is similar to Down in wicking ability and moisture holding, but being available only in dense heavy woven form it doesn’t compress as it gets wet (it’s already compressed). Both Down and wool can absorb many times their weight, within the fibers, with no effect on insulating ability. Add more than about 5 times their dry weight and Down starts to collapse and lose insulating ability, while air spaces in wool fill up and you lose insulating ability. In each case people get misled, not realizing how close to total collapse their nice Down bag is after 5 or 6 nights without inside vapor barrier, or thinking their wool shirt can continue to keep them warm without rain gear.

WHY DOWN? Polyester fiberfill is usually the lightest practical insulation per inch for clothing. Good Goose Down is much lighter, but weight of extra fabric used in construction usually offsets the reduced insulation weight. Only in the very thick insulation needed for sleeping bags is the great advantage of Goose Down really important. When comparing the numbers between Goose Down and Polyester for the same insulation they are ALL much heavier than good Down bags, yet cost just as much. Poor quality duck Down can have loft as low as 200 cu.in. per pound while the best fiberfills can have an initial loft of 200 to 300 cu. in. per pound. However, synthetics lose that initial loft rapidly from regular use such as lying on and packing it. Thus, they can be as good as the worst quality Down when new, but are never anywhere near as good as good quality Down.

SLEEPING MATS: We often hear of people using short or narrow pads to save weight. When sleeping you need more insulation at your feet since you are no longer producing lots of excess heat in your legs and feet as you do when hiking. If your pad isn’t wide enough to support your arms when on your back you won’t be able to stay comfortable and won’t sleep well. It’s good to minimize weight, but you can carry much more IF you get a good comfortable night’s sleep.