Down quilt rated 30F, pad is R4.5, sleeping in a base layer and socks. Two trips now where the low was around 40F and I was cold enough at 3am to put my puffy on and still shiver. Straps are on and clipped under the pad. I am a cold sleeper generally but this is ten degrees of margin gone. Where do people usually find the leak?
Temperature ratings are frequently limit or survival ratings rather than comfort ratings, and they are measured on a manikin wearing a full base layer set and a hood. A 30F quilt being a comfortable 40F quilt for a cold sleeper is not a defect, it is the normal offset. I plan on 10-15F of margin as standard and have never regretted it.
This is the part beginners never hear. The number on the tag is closer to "you will survive" than "you will sleep well".
Two behavioural things worth more than they sound. Eat something fatty right before getting in — you are running a furnace and it needs fuel at 2am. And pee before you settle, and again if you wake, because keeping that volume warm costs you real heat and nobody wants to get out.
Also check the quilt is not compressed anywhere. If you are strapping it tight enough that the down is flattened where the straps cross, you have created cold spots exactly where you were trying to seal.
@stealth_park_stu · 2mo ago · 4 replies
Shoulders and neck, almost always. Quilt straps hold the sides down but do nothing about the top opening, and every time you roll you pump warm air out through the gap around your neck. It is not a slow leak, it is a bellows.
Cheap fixes in order of effectiveness: cinch the neck closure properly if yours has one, add a strap across the top of the quilt, and wear a hood or a beanie plus a buff pulled up over the neck opening. I went from cold at 40 to comfortable in the high 30s with a buff and one extra strap, no purchase required.
Second thing to check: are you actually cold from underneath? People misread pad cold as quilt cold constantly, because at 3am both just feel like being cold. Put a hand under your hip when you wake and see whether the pad feels warm or cold.
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@ridgeline_rowan · 2mo ago
Three seasons on an inflatable will do that. Also check inflation pressure — an underinflated pad lets your hip bottom out and you get a direct conduction path.
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@fiber_finn · 2mo ago
Checked on the next trip and my hip was cold against the pad, so it is partly that. R4.5 is the manufacturer number and mine is three seasons old.
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@fiber_finn · 2mo ago
Update for anyone finding this later: it was the pad and the neck gap together. New pad plus a buff and I slept through at 36F last weekend.
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