Once you have that number, it’s a good idea to build in a little buffer (we like an extra degrees) to avoid getting cold. And keep in mind the temperature rating is closer to a survivability rating rather than being comfortable and warm. Other factors to consider are your age—people typically don’t sleep as warm the older they get—and whether you are a cold or warm sleeper. Most campers stick to the warmer months for their coleman tents outdoor adventuring, and as a result, most of the sleeping bags on this list are rated in the degree range. Similar to The North Face’s One Bag above, Big Agnes’ Lost Ranger 3N1 uses an innovative layering system for adapting to shifting conditions. In this case, you get two down-filled bags (the One Bag has a synthetic outer bag and down midlayer) that can be paired together on cold nights or separated in warmer temps.
And as we’ve come to expect from Kelty, the Galactic is solidly built and priced pretty affordably at $170, which is around $30 less than REI’s similarly intentioned Hunkerdown above. It introduced its sleeping bags in the 1960s and has since been a camper’s favorite. Their sleeping bags are available in a wide range of temperature ratings, designs, and colors. Coleman doesn’t provide the bag’s weight, but I weighed it in its compression sack at 4.2 pounds using my kitchen scale.
On milder nights, the Coleman Biscayne is every big and tall camper’s best friend. This best-selling sleeping bag is great for family camping with a two-way zipper that opens from the coleman bbq bottom for ventilation and allows you to zip two bags together for even more room. Choosing the right one can significantly impact your comfort, and each design has pros and cons.
In a controlled environment, I ran a heat-retention test using a wire probe thermometer and hot water bottles. I also laundered each bag at home using my front-loading washing machine and dryer. As I was testing, I considered qualities like comfort, warmth, design features, ease of use, durability, packability coleman bbq and versatility. At the outset of our review, we wrote down every desirable feature found in a top camping sleeping bag and then narrowed those characteristics into four key performance areas or test metrics. Each metric was then weighted or assigned a factor based on relative importance.
It doesn’t pack down as small as many modern, mummy-shaped backpacking sleeping bags, and it also lacks some of the extra features often provided by car-camping bags. That said, this down-filled sleeping bag packs up small and is lightweight enough for short hike-in trips with ample warmth per ounce. The Kelty Galactic 30 takes the best features of the high-performance mummy and the traditional camping sleeping bag and blends them into one. Its rectangular shape is wide and non-restrictive, and it’s loaded with 600-fill down. These two features offer a near-perfect bag for campers desiring better-performing down insulation minus the cocooning nature of narrow mummy-shaped bags. The Galactic kept us warm down to 30 degrees F, and maybe a touch colder.