Considering Vango Sleeping Bag - Please help!

[A-K-09]

Hello all!

I need the advice of some experienced tassie trekkers.

At the end of this month (feb) I'll be heading down for a few months of trekking a general backpacking around the natural state and I need a new sleeping bag.

I'm 180cm

is this pushing it? (maximum length)

Vango -18 ultralite 400 extreme sleeping bag Suggested Usage: -2 to +20oC
Performance: 3-4 season
Maximum User Height: 190 cm
Dimensions: 215 x 80 x 50 cm
Total Weight: 1260g
Fill Weight: 2x 80 top/ 2x 80 base / 1x 120 thermic loft tubes g/m2
Pack Size: 27 x 20 cm
EN13537 Limit Comfort: -2/3 oC
Extreme: -18 oC


Would this bag be sufficient.

Vango Summit ASC 5000 -16° C Sleeping Bag.


And last.

Vango -9°c Ultralite ASC 900 Sleeping Bag
Temperature rating (0C): to -9 C
Total Weight (g): 1.250kg
Length (cm): 220
Chest Width (cm): 80
Foot Width (cm): 50
Pack Size (cm) L x Diam: 30 x 15



thanks in advance.

AL

[Nuts]

..

Last edited by Nuts on Tue 09 Nov, 2010 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

[corvus]

From what I can disseminate Vango Bags are overstated please check out others Marmot.Warmth Unlimited .One Planet , et all.

[Son of a Beach]

(note that "please help" is not a suitable topic title. I've changed it to give some idea of the actual topic content.)

[A-K-09]

Thanks for the input.

Checking the other bags now.

[Joe]

I just bought 2 Stoney Creek Black Stag 750 bags. They are widely available (Allgoods carry Stoney Creek...if they don't have stock they should get it in) and rival the top bags for a fair bit cheaper. They are water proof outer, quality down bag. They are made for burly hunter types too so will fit bigger taller guys.

[Speculator]

Before I bought my bag last year I considered lots of Vango stuff. I've got a Vango pack and it's not bad for the money. In the end I decided that I didn't trust them because of the way they market the bags using the extreme ratings, which are kinda pointless given that once things get to that temperature it's getting dangerous. I also found most of the bags use synthetic fill, are you finding that? I opted to go for something with down, I figured I could place more trust in feathers.

L8r.

[roba9988]

Hello AL, Speculator is totally right about vango marketing to their extreme rating. I would go by the comfort rating and suggested usage. I am not sure how the bags are tested to the EN13537 standard however i suppose at least you can be confident that there is some basis to their claims.
I've used a few vango bags that are 215 long and i'm 183 cm so you shouldn't have a problem
You didn't really say what season you were planning to go,it wouldn't be a good idea using bags like the ultralite 400 in winter in tasmania and you wouldn't want to bulk of a summit 5000 unless you weren't going to need it in winter.
All the vangos you listed there are synthetic ones I am guessing thats because of price, its worth looking at the Vango Viper 500 which won ''best value" in a recent review that wild magazine did for down sleeping bags so it shouldn't be half bad.

Viper 500 Sleeping bag

http://adventureexpert.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=32
Suggested Usage -5° to 20°C
Comfort / Limit / Extreme 3°C / -2°C / -18°C
Overall Length 215 cm
Total Weight 1200g (Excluding stuffsac 1100g)
Chest width 80 cm
Foot width 50 cm
Fill weight 1 x 300g top / 1 x 200g base
Pack Size (Uncompressed) 34 x ø18cm

[ninjapuppet]

I bought a $200 vango down bag stated to be -10C and was pretty Peeved off about after freezing my butt off at around -1C even with a down jacket.
I will never trust a vango item ever again.

its ok as a summer bag i guess because it weighs only 750 grams. However its not going to be used no more because I just got a quilt that weighs half as much and has been used down to -1 comfortably.

[roba9988]

Yeah sounds like this one
http://www.vango.co.uk/sleeping-bags/venom-225.html
the comfort rating was actually 9 which is why you froze your *&%$#! off.
I just found a wiki page about the EN 13537 standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EN_13537 its interesting reading

Extreme — the minimum temperature at which a standard woman can remain for six hours without risk of death from hypothermia (though frostbite is still possible).

So yeah use the comfort temps, not really vangos fault they are just using the ratings from the standard. They should change the standard really as it is misleading to customers!

[Speculator]

I bought a $200 vango down bag stated to be -10C and was pretty Peeved off about after freezing my butt off at around -1C even with a down jacket.
I will never trust a vango item ever again.

its ok as a summer bag i guess because it weighs only 750 grams. However its not going to be used no more because I just got a quilt that weighs half as much and has been used down to -1 comfortably.

Thanks for doing the hard yards and testing this for us NP, even though you didn't intend to, at least you know that your experience will help guide the rest of us. This was what I was concerned about, and why I avoided a Vango synthetic bag in the end.

L8r.