Do seams allow the majority of water ingress?

[Pigeon]

I read an old sleeping bag report where the testers did a water puddle test. Every bag, all down, held water and stayed dry on the fabric’s face but failed at the seams.

So I’m guessing synthetic insulation pieces with a solid surface fabric have an additional wet weather advantage over their quilted synthetic counterparts. Any ideas how significant this advantage would be?

[Franco Darioli]

Some of the water ingress is due to the change in the surface tension when it comes into contact with a hard surface.

That is the reason why a tent fly can be considered waterproof at 1200/1500mm however a rain jacket needs an HH rating several times higher than that.

Tents that have the poles pushing against the fabric can suffer from that .

Apart from that , the stitching holes are typically a bit larger than the thread in them so yes that is where you can expect water to come in , that and the zip.

 

[lee kingry]

Yes ,seams would be the weak point but unless you have a tent failure, a poorly set up tarp, or you cowboy on a night that the rain snuck in, it shouldn’t ever be an issue so technically if the material was the same a non stitched synthetic might have a slight advantage but in all cases it’s user error not the bag

[Pigeon]

Thanks. I’ve had a wet sleeping bag pretty frequently. There’s been user error, tent shortcomings,  moving in my sleep, and just using a small single wall tent during heavy prolonged storms.

I’m curious about synthetic jackets as the popular models around here are split between continuous insulation and quilted.

I do have a quilted Apex mummy bag and the seams bother me a little.

 

[Author]

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