Synthetic overquilt questions for supplementing down quilt in winter

[Don Burton]

I’m wanting to make a synthetic quilt with 2.5 Apex, Argon 67 on the inside and Argon 90 on the outside. I’m wanting to make this primarily to supplement (on top) my 10 deg EE Revelation for winter use.

1. How much warmth do you think it would provide? What would the combined rating of the 10 deg EE Rev and a 2.5 Apex quilt be? 0 deg F? -10 deg F?

2. What would the typical rating for this quilt be? 40F? 50F?

3. Any specifics for this quilts construction if its primary use if an a supplemental over quilt? I’m wondering if it should be a few inches longer so the foot box fits over the down quilt so it still reached my neck.

I’m imagining the synthetic quilt just fitting over the down quilt and attaching in the normal way. I have no idea if this is correct.

 

[William Chilton]

With regard to 2: I got a 2.5 oz Apex quilt from Zpacks. They reckoned it would be rated a 50 degree quilt and, though I haven’t used it as a stand alone quilt, I think that would be about right.

Personally, I feel it adds about 10 degrees Celcius to our 20 degree (F) down quilt.

With regard to 3: Obviously, you want to size it so that it doesn’t compress your down quilt. “…attaching in the normal way.” You don’t say what your normal way is; I assume you mean attaching it to your pad. We attach ours directly to the down quilt; i.e. the attachment points on the synthetic quilt are attached to the attachment points on the down quilt. This is because we don’t attach either quilt to the pad, but I also think it is less likely to compress the down in the lower quilt.

[James holden]

1. just under 0F … providing you have sufficient head insulation (not just a beanie and jacket hood)
2. 50F
3. it needs to be longer and wider … if you have a normal sized quilt the dimensions should be wide or extrawide … and long …  having the quilt long enough to pull over yr head is not a bad idea (you can breath in synth) as it prevents the “frozen face” effect when it gets cold, and adds to the head insulation

of course making the overquit oversized makes it heavier …

;)

[Paul McLaughlin]

Made one with .67 argon/2.5 Clima/.67 argon to fit over my Marmot Hydrogen. I think it gives me about 15 degrees as an overquilt and I’m happy with it. I have only slept in in it by itself  at a beach house in probably the low 60’s; but clealy it could go lower than that; for me I’d guess mid 50’s. I made mine with the footbox sewed closed up to about 36″ from the bottom, and for that distance it has no insulation for about 10″ wide, as I felt I didn’t need it there with a nice warm pad below. I used a tiny little buckle that had been on a pair of glove liners (to clip them together) at the back of the neck. sometimes I use the clip, sometimes it’s just draped. When I use the clip I don’t unclip it to get out – I just pull it over my head.

I worked out the size to fit over my bag without any compression so I get full loft on both, and long enough to get up over my chin. That does mean that it’s rather oversized for use on its own, but for the few times I am likely to do that it’s going to be real mild weather anyway so extra room is kinda nice. I suggest cutting everything out a little longer than you think, and then you can fine tune after you have all the layers together and can try it over the other quilt or bag.

I made a conscious decision to go for breathability over water repellency for the outer since my snow camping experience has always been that most nights I have more moisture on the inside of the shell of my bag than the outside. Had a bad pitch on my Duomid one night and ended up with fair amount of spindrift on the outside of the thing; no problem, and dried out real quick the next day.

[Don Burton]

Thanks everyone! After reading the comments and looking on EE’s site I’ll make a prodigy clone and buy some of their Sub-Zero Straps for quilt layering. EE’s chart says a 10 deg quilt layered with a 50 deg will gives a -10F rating. From their chart and the comments, it looks like I’d get a combined rating of my 10deg and a 2.5 apex myog quilt of 0 to -10F which is what I was looking for. Much colder and I’ll stay at home. ;-)

[James holden]

using apex 3.6 might be a bit more flexible in terms of usage …

youll suffer and additional 4 oz or so … but a 40F quilt is a very usable summer quilt, and with a good down poofay might even bring u down to freezing

it all depends if your looking for something with a more usable range, or are really just looking for an overbag …

;)

[Don Burton]

Eric,

i think that’s a good idea. I can also use it as a summer quilt for on of my kids. I’ve decided to buy 3 yds and make some booties too.

[R]

My summer quilt is Argon 0.67 inside and out, 2.5 Apex, w/ a second layer of insulation on the torso (one square yard in size).  Works for me down to 45F.

You can calculate what an over quilt will do to your lower range if you consider that room temperature is 70F.  If a summer quilt is good to 50F, it will add around 20F to anything you layer it over.

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