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Montbell Sleeping Bags – Heavy/Pricey?
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › Montbell Sleeping Bags – Heavy/Pricey?
- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by John Brown.
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Mar 24, 2017 at 10:45 pm #3459263
Was just doing a little sleeping bag comparison shopping and noticed something that seemed strange to me, wonder if I’m missing something. Check out this comparative list of Montbell, WM, and Feathered Friends sleeping bags, with an EE quilt thrown in for good measure. I picked wide bags from WM and FF, because a) that’s what I might want, and b) seemed to be more apples to apples with the Montbell stretch. Even still,
A) The Down Hugger 900 #2, costs a full $100 more than the WM Megalight, despite having same fill and total weight. The #2 also costs $120 more than the FF Kestral UL, which is by all accounts conservatively rated at 30, and has 3.7 oz more of fill, while only weighing 3 oz more.
B) The Down Hugger 800 #1 is by far the heaviest of the 20 degree bags, is it commensurately the warmest? Weighs 3oz more than the identically priced FF Swift Nano, despite having only 1.2 oz more fill.
C) The EE quilt has 2.7 oz more fill than the Down Hugger #3, and 1.7oz more than the Down Hugger #2. I know this is a bit apples and oranges, but still made me wonder if the Down Hugger’s are underfilled.
What am I missing here? Is the whole premium about the stretch? Seems like a wide bag would be a more cost effective way to get tossing and turning room. I’ve seen Will R’s glowing reviews.
Mar 24, 2017 at 11:06 pm #3459266If I could edit my posts (ahem), I’d add, that I was kind of surprised by this b/c my main experience w/ Montbell is that they’re a super value. Wondering if somehow my calculations/comparison is off.
Mar 25, 2017 at 6:51 am #3459292The Montbell bags use differential cut, which accounts for the extra expense (harder to sew) and perhaps the extra weight. To compare the Montbell bags to another differential cut bag, check out Katabatic Gear’s Elite line. I don’t know if differential cut is worth it (I have an EE Revelation) but it seems like it might be.
Mar 25, 2017 at 7:39 am #3459298The MB#3 stretches up to 81″ at the shoulders vs 65″ for the Megalite.
Mar 25, 2017 at 7:57 am #3459301Montbell’s bags will always be a bit heavier than the top competition due to the stretch, which adds some weight.
As bag makers raise prices at different times it seems that it goes through phases on who is the best value. I remember several years ago (I guess 8-9 now….how time flies), when I was shopping for a 0* bag, Mountain Hardwear seemed like the best value, not long after they raised the price on all of their bags by nearly 20% and were probably the worst value top tier bags.
Marmot seems to be a pretty good deal at the moment, though if you are OK with a 60″ girth, the REI Magma discussed on here a day or two ago seems unbeatable, especially with REI’s 20% discount right now.
Mont-Bell has historically been great values, but they have inched their prices up on their top tier pieces and since they only sell direct, sales are harder to come by.
Mar 25, 2017 at 7:59 am #3459302The stretch part is hard to do according to mtn equipment (who shares that tech with montbell). (They developed it togetherish)
Mar 25, 2017 at 8:23 am #3459305I have a 20-year old Mountain Equipment bag with it in.
Mar 27, 2017 at 3:08 pm #3459826Checked out some of these bags in the flesh at REI and the Montbell store on Saturday. Impresssions:
REI Magma seems like a solid bet, but too tight a fit for me.
Downhugger #2 seemed underfilled. Big sections w/ no down in them. Granted, you could move it around, and it was a floor model that’s been hung up repeatedly, and thus probably had down shifted to bottom of baffles. But, for $550, it’s gotta be perfect.
Downhugger #1 seems like a solid bet, and the stretch thing is very real, pretty wonderful for an active sleeper. But heavier than I needed/wanted at this time.
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