Mountain Hardwear Speed 32 Sleeping Bag Review

[Stephanie Jordan]

Companion forum thread to:

Mountain Hardwear Speed 32 Sleeping Bag Review

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Great review. Your comments seem bang on. Good suggestions for improvement.

[Jim Sweeney]

Doesn't it seem like the boxed-in compartments on the underside are counterproductive? Since, when we're sleeping, any down under us gets squashed to uselessness anyway, wouldn't conventional quasi-circumferential tubes allow it to escape sideways, out from under us, to where it could expand and do some good?

[Ryan Smith]

Good review. I've read other complaints about the zipper on this bag, which is a shame. Other than that, everything looks awesome. Hopefully they tweak the design in future models.

Ryan

[Konrad .]

Good review Brad, and great job on catching the little superflous features. Hopefully they will take your comments to heart if they decide to release a v2.0 of the bag.

If each zipper-ribbon were half it's width, would it be out of the way enough so that the zipper wouldn't snag?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I presume the grosgrain ribbon prevents it from snagging on the 7D fabric – which would eventually be cut open (my wife had this on one bag). They likely need a stiffer stiffener to both protect the 7D and not snag itself.

[Konrad .]

Good point Dan. I'm wondering if it would be a fix to to take each ribbon, fold it on itself and sew across, effectively cutting the width down to half, while simultaneously stiffening it. Take a look at the pics in this blog:
http://greenecasey.blogspot.com/2012/05/mountain-hardwear-mtn-speed-32.html

It looks like the zipper has a tendency to eat the ribbon while being zipped up. If the ribbon weren't as wide, would it no longer be in path of the zipper's devouring jaws?

Brad, how does this bag compare to your summerlite? I think that would have been a better comparison, given that both bags use 9-9.5 oz of 850fp down. I'm thinking the Speed 32 would be warmer because of its narrower cut, yet it might be colder because of the draftier sewn through sides and sewn through bottom. Would love to hear your opinion.

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

Absolutely spot on. Zippers need to work. Summer bags need to open fully. Sewn threw summer bags don't need a draft tube.

Mtn HW go and ditch the draft tube, extend the zipper!

[M B]

Good review.
This bag has been on market quite a while now. Overpriced for much of it, but its starting to appear on sale now for reasonable prices , IMO.

One of my frequent complaints as well. Mfg chasing low wt, at the expense of making their bag unuseable for the intended purpose.

I agree, a summer bag has to have a full zip so it can ventillate well.

WM highlight has similar issue.

I went to quilts because were lighter, cheaper, and ventillated better , for summer use.

[Michael Cheifetz]

@Brad – thanks for the review…I have been looking at this bag (and indeed all of the Ulei inspired stuff)
I agree with some of what was said here….but what i dont get is:
1) why oh why is the bottom quilted? what does that achieve. I could get if it was all quilted (like a WM highlite) since that would give it a "no fuss" attribute since the down cant move anywhere….but why the bottom???
2)zipper – i disagree RE summer bag…what does it have to do with summer? its all about temp range. If you had a 0F bag with no or very small zipper or none at all and would try to sleep in it at say 30F im sure that would be a challenge as well..
3)zipper again – I had Tom@nunatak make me 2 custom Alpinist bags with a short center zip (you can see my review here ) As I state in there I feel that the center zip does two main things as opposed to a side zip:
Firstly the ventilation is more efficient as you can vent the core and not just your shoulder
Secondly I feel that in mild temps (my lighter bag is rated prob circa 28~25F) I could easily slip out of the bag partially wearing my LW puffy and hat etc and could thus regulate the temp quite well up to around 50~55F which IMO is a fine range.
Obviously if you want to sleep with one bag at 25F and at 70F that is a bit much to ask without a full zip

AS side note – my bag is made up all in 7D fabric and dimension wise is even slightly narrower than this one (while i am much larger than Brad being 5'10" and 210#) but i feel quite fine with that

Mike

[Brad Groves]

Konrad, I wouldn't bother folding the zipper ribbon and sewing as you suggest. Frankly, if I tried the bag on, loved it, loved everything about it, and had to have it… I would just cut the zipper out and start fresh.

There's almost no comparison to the SummerLite. Maybe I'm getting older or grumpier, but I'm finding that my lower legs need a little room to move in the night or I get stiff… not a problem with the SummerLite. I prefer the circumferential baffling on the SL, because I regularly shift the down to an even 50/50 distribution and use it as a quilt. I feel like there is more than the spec'd extra inch of chest width in the SummerLite; I can easily layer up in the SL, but didn't feel like I had that kind of room in the Speed.

The footbox of the Speed 32 is sculpted more nicely, but I'm not sure I noticed any functional gains. I liked the depth of the Speed hood better, but prefer the drawcord arrangement of the SL. I don't feel like there's a ton of difference in warmth between the two, but if someone put data in front of me showing that the Speed is a few degrees warmer, I could believe that. I actually prefer the shell fabric of the Speed. Would love to see WM do an uberlight bag, maybe sewn-through baffles on 5" spacing, full-length #3 zip, and a ~0.65oz shell.

[Jim Sweeney]

I picked up one of these on eBay, reasonably.

FWIW, mine weighs 16.55 oz

Found that the zipper worked a bit better if I ignore the pull tab, and just pinch the body of the zipper. That way my thumb, which is toward the inside of the bag, clears the grosgrain ribbon before it, in each direction. But even when the zipper is not tangling with the grosgrain, it's still a bit balky on its own. Being careful, I was able to avoid snags, but zipping and unzipping still a slow process, requiring unusual attention.

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