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WM UltraLite continuous baffle – shifting down when turning?

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PostedApr 18, 2012 at 11:42 pm

Many Western Mountaineering sleeping bags, including UltraLite, have continuous baffles. They say that this allows user to shift the down to the top of the bag for cold nights or shift it to the bottom for warm nights. See http://www.westernmountaineering.com/index.cfm?section=about&page=Product-Details#continuous

I sleep on my side and I frequently turn from one side to other side at night. As I turn, I turn the bag with me somewhat, especially close to my head (the bag hood) and upper torso. I am worried that on cold nights down will unintentionally migrate from the top to site/bottom, leaving not much down on top and compromising insulation there.

How bad is the unintended down migration in practice when turning frequently?

Karl Gottshalk BPL Member
PostedApr 19, 2012 at 4:34 am

I have an Ultralight and sleep just like you. It was something I worried about, but it has never turned out to be an issue.

Karl

PostedApr 19, 2012 at 5:48 am

My Ultralite was a little on the light side when new (28.5oz) and this did happen to me. I'm a side sleeper and turn from side to side a lot. I've since had about 3 more ounces of down stuffed in the bag. It doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, since the down doesn't have enough room to move around. My bag is much warmer now too.

Edit: if you search, there was a thread on continuous baffles a while ago. If I remember correctly, more people didn't like the continuous ones than liked them.

PostedApr 19, 2012 at 6:12 am

I own a summerLite and it has never been an issue. the bag is now a few years old and doesn't loft up quite as much as it used to, but this still doesn't happen.

Ed, you said "I've since had about 3 more ounces of down stuffed in the bag." did you do that your self, or send it back to WM? i've been wanting to do that for awhile now but didn't know if it was even possible.

PostedApr 19, 2012 at 8:36 am

I sent the bag to them. They took about 4 weeks to get it back to me. I had to call and email a few times to get it back in that time period. The overfill was free, under warrenty, which leads me to believe my bag didn't come with enough down to start with.

PostedApr 20, 2012 at 6:09 am

cool thanks ED. i am going to look into doing that, although i don't know what i am going to do without my sleeping bag for a month when i use it every week. haha

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