Two nights out last weekend, low was 38F by my thermometer, and I was cold enough by 3am that I sat up and put on my puffy inside the quilt. It's a 20F rated 850fp quilt, less than a year old, stored uncompressed in the big mesh bag. Sleeping pad is a closed cell foam, R value 2. I'm a cold sleeper but 18 degrees of margin feels like a lot to be missing.
Second thing to check: quilt attachment. If you don't have the pad straps snugged, cold air pumps in and out along your sides every time you roll over. Mine went from marginal at 40 to fine at 30 with nothing but tightening the straps and clipping the footbox shut properly.
The draft collar matters too. I tuck the top edge under my shoulders rather than letting it sit on top of me, which is the single thing that changed cold nights for me.
Ate dinner early? Going to bed with an empty tank means your body has nothing to burn overnight. I keep a couple of hundred calories of something fatty in the tent and eat it if I wake up cold. Peanut butter, a cheese stick, whatever. Works surprisingly well.
Check the loft. Lay it out on a bed and see if it puffs up evenly or if the down has migrated to one end of each baffle. Even a year of storage in a slightly damp basement will flatten it. A wash with proper down soap and a long low tumble dry with dryer balls brings a lot of them back.
Loft looks even and honestly enormous, so I think it's the pad. Will keep this in mind for year three.
Wear more layers to bed and it'll be fine at any temperature.
@litercount_lou · 3mo ago · 3 replies
Your pad is the problem, not the quilt. R2 foam is a summer pad. The insulation under you is compressed flat by your body weight so it does almost nothing, which is why the pad's R value does the actual work below about 45F.
For 30-40F nights you want R4 minimum, R5 if you sleep cold. An inflatable in the R4.5 range weighs about the same as the foam you're carrying. Cheapest interim fix is to put the foam pad on top of a cheap closed cell one and stack them — R values add.
Temperature ratings on quilts are also survival-ish numbers in some cases, not "sleep comfortably in a t-shirt" numbers. Read the fine print for whether it's a comfort or limit rating.
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@easy_pace_ellis · 3mo ago
Never occurred to me that the numbers stack. Borrowed a friend's R4.2 inflatable for a 35F night and slept through, same quilt.
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@carryon_only · 3mo ago
Also worth noting that most R ratings you see now use the ASTM standard, so comparing across brands is finally meaningful. Older pads with vague marketing numbers were often generous.
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