Re: FCW-10
Hi Copperfox, if you are trying to save a few dollars, the Kelty Cosmic Down and Kelty Ignite bags are very very good car camping bags, and OK backpacking (hiking+camping) bags. You must get a mummy bag with outside temps of 50º and below to be the most comfortable, as a rectangular bag will not protect your shoulders, neck and head from the cold!
Most important thing is to check the warmth rating. When you buy a bag look at three things: EN Rating, weight, and packed size. Each of these have a significant impact on the cost!
One other important thing is to consider down vs. synthetic. Down is more durable and longer-lasting, however you need to take precautions to keep it dry. Synthetic is cheaper and more water-resistant and great for use in wet and rainy weather. On DriDown and other flurocarbon or siliconized down treatments, so far they seem to be great with no downside and huge upsides. They loft better, dry faster, resist water better. However, general consensus seems to be that current, non hydrophobic-down bags work just fine and have done so for the past 40 years!
More interestingly is that down tends to feel warm faster whereas synthetic takes time to warm up and that down seems to feel more comfortable in a wider range of temps -- a super toasty down bag will feel less uncomfortable in warmer weather than if it were synthetic.
Through Labour Day Monday, the REI Lumen, TNF Snow Leopard, BA Bellyache SL, BA McAlpin SL, and the Kelty Cosmic Down are all on sale. These are all excellent bags.
If you are a warm sleeper (you usually feel warm or rarely cold at night) you should target no cooler than a 25º bag. A 25ºF bag like the REI Lumen is expected to be comfortable around 36ºF.
If you are a cold sleeper (you often wake up cold) you should target no cooler than a 15º bag or even a 0º bag. I will happily sleep in a 0º*bag anywhere from 50º*down to about 25º. Anything colder and I dig out my -20º*bag!!!! A bag like the 0º*TNF Snow Leopard is expected to be barely warm enough (for comfort) down to 15º and I would expect it to be happily toasty right around freezing, say 30-35º.
It's unfair that I don't talk about pads at all, but sleeping pads are super important. You can lose a ton of heat from below you, and it can make the difference between sleeping warm and cold! Check the R-value of your sleeping pads. R-values are additive (two R 3.2 pads make R 6.4). If you sleep cold, try to attain an R-value of 5. Otherwise, an R-value of 3 or so will be fine. In the winter I go all the way to R 5 or 6, and in the rest of the year I go with R3.2. For car camping, you may consider the Therm A Rest Luxurymap or REI Camp Bed, and if you are also a backpacker, you should buy a NeoAir.
Finally, you can contact me on AIM (cpfcarrot) or Gtalk (cpf.carrot gmail) if you have further questions as I am not consistently on CPF. Sorry for the information regurgitation but I'm too tired to formulate it better and too pressed for time to be concise!