Sleeping bags and standardized tests. Hmmm … the thought of standardized tests conjures up bad memories of SATs and that time you accidentally answered question 2 on the question 3 line, and subsequently answered the next thousand questions on the wrong lines as well.
In some cases, though, a standardized test can really come in handy. Say your old sleeping bag bites the dust. You get a new bag with the same temperature rating but made by a different brand. Then you go camping and spend all night shivering in your tent. It wasn’t any colder out this time, so what’s with the goose-bumps?
Your old and new bags might both be rated at -15F, but since the companies didn’t use the same test to rate the bags, your new bag might comparatively be more of a 0-degree. WTF, right?
Yeah. So, European companies have been using something called the European Norm rating system since 2005, and luckily some US companies have already jumped on board. The European Norm (you might see it abbreviated as EN) uses a standardized test to rate the bags so all companies are on the same page degree-wise. Sweet.
How does the EN rating system work?
There are different ratings for men and women. This makes sense, since most women tend to run on the cold side.
The Ratings:
- Upper Limit: the highest temp in which an adult male can sleep comfortably without sweating his eyebrows off
- Comfort: the temp in which an adult woman can sleep comfortably
- Lower Limit: the lowest temp in which an adult male can sleep without shivering
- Extreme: the lowest temp a woman can survive in (you could still get frostbite, but you probably won’t die from hypothermia. Lovely, eh?)
The ratings you’ll see the most are the Comfort and the Lower Limit, so just keep in mind that the Comfort rating generally applies to gals, and the Lower Limit to guys. For example, check out the Tech Specs of the Mountain Hardwear Lamina 35. A woman will sleep comfortably down to 41F, while a man can grin and bear it down to 32F.
Of course, no rating system will be exact for everyone. If you have the heat on in your apartment and you still hang out in your down sleeping bag while your roommate sweats in a tee and shorts, you should probably err on the warmer-bag side. Conversely, if you’re the sweaty roommate, you probably want a slightly cooler bag.
How’s this EN test done?
The test is called EN 13537. Scientists take two heated mannequins and stick them in sleeping bags (zipped all the way up with the hoods cinched). Then they put the bags in a climate-controlled room. The mannequins have heat-sensors attached to them so when the scientists do their science, they can see how cold each mann’ gets.
The guy mann’ is based on a dude who weights 80kg (176lb) and the gal mann’ is based on a woman who weighs 132lb (60kg).
Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, Exped, and The North Face are all on the EN bandwagon, so you’ll see EN ratings for their sleeping bags. Know of any other companies that use EN to rate their bags?
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Tags: backpacking, camping
GoLite also uses EN ratings, and makes excellent bags.
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To go along with Sophia., its true Golite uses the EN ratings along with REI and Kelty.
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