Cumulus Quantum Models – Pretty Impressive On Paper

But if you go down the DIY route and change nothing (or better still choose all the obvious defaults) you end up with the bag weighing the same as the 'off the peg version' advertised with the same grade of down being advertised and are then privy to the weight of the down being used. It also cost's nothing more to do this. Surely this is sufficient evidence or am I falling for more corporate deception?

I was enquiring about their down jackets…

> So do I need to steam condition my bag before each use to get it to loft? This whole system of measuring loft seems like a farce to me.

Not really. The problem is that raw down from a supplier comes extremely compressed in huge bales and may have been stored that way for 6 months. It needs to 'relax' – which is actually a technical term and not just casual speech. Steam conditioning accelerates the relaxation process by … 1000x?

The big argument is about the stages after the steam conditioning. That's where things get … hostile.

Cheers

For the record, my understanding is that most manufacturers of continuous-baffled bags use the same 60:40 distribution. Specifically, I know that Western rates their bags with 60% of the down on top and 40% of the down on the bottom. Cheers-

>I know that Western rates their bags with 60% of the down on top and 40% of the down on the bottom

Except for the UltraLite series with the continuous baffles, this is true.

Actually, Allison, the 60:40 split I got from Western was specifically for their continuous baffle bags, including the ExtremeLite series… I had inquired because it occurred to me that perhaps they were rating a bag at 30*F w/all the down on top, or maybe only 50% of the down on top. At any rate, WM told me 60:40 distribution to determine rating; shifting the down will, of course, change both the temperature rating along with the distribution.

hello,
i've just bought my new cumuls panyam 450 – and I'm going to test it within next few days in Tatra mountains (temperature between 2-10 celcius degrees below zero), so if anyone's interested, I can send my opinion here.
About EU/US norms – take a close look at their website – they give EU ratings first, and then US in bracket). I checked it out, because I thought I was conned somehow ;)New diamond down has 850 cuin according to EU sandards
http://www.sleepingbags-cumulus.com/Panyam-450,down-sleeping-bags,5.html
cheers
joanna

From my experience as 3 different Cumulus bags user (I owned Alaska 1100 (termic terror as my coleagues say), and still own Quantum 450 and X-lite 200, and will own Quantum 350 in an hours (actualy my wife will own it) I can say their temperatures ratings specified as "comfort" are quite real. I tested each of listed bags in conditions exactly described as their "comfort" range temperatures and they were comfortable. I am so satisfied with their quality that as you can notice have more than just one bag from Cumulus.

I will not write about my experiments with Cumulus Quantum 450 in -17 degrees Celsjus but I am still alive ;)

By the way nice to know there are more Polish on BPL Asiu ;)

The difference is the baffle construction… The WM bag use straight H baffles and the Cumulus use Trapzodial-baffles. Trapezodial baffles are more efficiant than standard boxwall baffles.