The Zpacks Zip-Around Sleeping Bag is a hoodless sleeping bag insulated with 900 water-resistant goose down. It has a two-way full-length zipper that wraps around the footbox so you can open it up fully like a blanket or just vent the footbox while keeping the zipper closed along the side. Down baffles oriented horizontally over the foot box and vertically over the torso keep the insulation in place and help prevent down migration. This bag is available in multiple temperature ratings (10F, 20F, 30F), in different lengths including short (5’6″), regular (6′), long models (6’6″), and in different widths (55″, 60″) to accommodate a multitude of body sizes and shapes. It does not have a draft collar however in order to save weight, as this is something easily compensated for by wearing a hooded down jacket for sleeping, something that you’re probably already carrying on colder weather trips.
Specs at a glance
- Model tested: 10 degrees (F), regular size, medium width
- Mfg Weight: 26 oz (738g)
- Actual Weight: 27 oz (765g)
- Down fill power: 900, water-resistant goose down, includes 30% overfill
- Down weight: 18.7 oz (531g)
- RDS-certified down: Yes
- Zipper: two-way
- Draft tube: Yes
- Draft collar: No
- Shell fabric: PFC-free, 7D ripstop nylon with C0 DWR to shed moisture inside and out
- Stuff Sack: DCF Roll-top dry-bag included, adds (0.9 ounces /25.5 grams) to weight
- Packed size: 7″ x 31″ / 18″ x 33″
- For complete specs, visit zpacks.com
Overview
The Zpacks Zip-Around Sleeping Bag incorporates many best-of-breed design concepts that have been developed by other hoodless sleeping bag and quilt manufacturers over the years, including Zpacks, into a very nicely packaged hoodless sleeping bag. If you don’t like the confines of a quilt, you struggle with the pad attachment straps required to keep a quilt over you at night, or you simply want a very warm but lightweight hoodless sleeping bag, the Zpacks Zip Around Sleeping Bag is a sound choice.
While I do own backpacking quilts (without backs), I mainly use them when I sleep in a hammock. For ground use, my preference is to use a hoodless sleeping bag because I hate messing with quilt-pad attachment straps and the weight and volume difference of a high fill-power hoodless sleeping bag vs a down quilt is so minor. I also find quilts noticeably colder in temperatures under 20 degrees unless used with a bivy sack. When you add up that extra bivy sack weight (about 5-8 oz extra), you might as well just get a hoodless sleeping bag.
Features
The Zip-Around sleeping bag has vertical baffles positioned over the torso and horizontal baffles positioned over the legs and feet in order to keep the down from shifting or creating cold spots with use. The baffles are overstuffed with an extra 30% down insulation which also ensures excellent warmth. The seams are not sewn through the inner and outer fabric eliminating any chance of cold air squeezing through the needle holes. That is good.
The Zip-Around has a full-length zipper on one side and a drawstring to cinch the top of the bag closed on the opposite one, so you aren’t forced to choose between a bag with a right-hand zipper or a left one: you can just flip the bag over to orient the zipper on the side you prefer. The only downside with this is that you can’t sleep with the zipper on top of the bag, which is possible on the Feathered Friends Flicker, because that would put the drawstring behind your back and impossible to reach.
The zipper is backed by a down-filled draft tube that drops down over the inside of the zipper and prevents cold air from leaking in through the zipper teeth and needle holes. There’s also a piece of grosgrain running alongside the zipper that prevents zipper snags that can tear the delicate 7D shell fabric. It works great.
The zipper extends all the way down the side of the bag and around the rectangular footbox. It has two sliders, so you can unzip the bottom of the bag to vent your feet if they’re too warm while keeping the rest of the bag shut or vice versa. One really nice feature on the Zip-Around bag is a small down plug, sewn into the bag’s draft tube, behind the spot where the zipper terminates in the footbox to seal out drafts.
The interior of the Zip-Around is a black fabric to promote drying when you open the bag and place it in sunlight while you eat breakfast. The interior and exterior shell is a silky soft 7D ripstop nylon that feels wonderful against the skin.
The Zip-Around is not available with a draft collar, which is a tube of down insulation that’s usually sewn along the head end of a hoodless sleeping bag or quilt. A draft collar wraps around your neck and upper shoulders, sealing warm air inside the sleeping bag, so it doesn’t escape at night when you move around inside, sometimes called the bellows effect.
This is a deliberate omission designed to reduce the weight of the Zip Around sleeping bag as much as possible. While a draft collar is a nice luxury, there are plenty of other ultralight hoodless sleeping bags that have made the same weight-saving omission including the zipperless Feathered Friends Tanager 20, which is an 18.6 oz hoodless sleeping bag I’ve used a lot in recent years, or the 10F – 30.38 oz Enlightened Equipment Convert sleeping quilt which does have a full-length zipper.
While a draft collar is convenient, you can replace it functionally with other clothing like a hooded down jacket, an insulated hood that covers your neck and the top of your shoulders like the Katabatic Gear Windom Hood, or by simply wrapping a fleece sweater around your neck and wearing a fleece beanie. Chances are you’re carrying one of these anyway.
Quality
Zpacks manufactures its own gear in Florida in the United States. While their quality is pretty good, we’ve reviewed several of their garments in the past two years where the sewing could be improved. While it’s functional, the finishing isn’t nearly as good as you’ll find with other vendors’ products. If you’re going to pay close to $500 for a down sleeping bag, I think you deserve one where the quality of the ingredients is on par with the quality of the fabrication.
Comparable Hoodless Sleeping Bags
Recommendation
The Zpacks Zip-Around Sleeping Bag is a very warm and comfortable hoodless sleeping bag that’s very lightweight (27 oz in a 10F) and loaded with premium features including 900 fill-power water-resistant down, a luxurious 7D ripstop nylon shell, a two-way wraparound zipper w/draft tube, and spacious footbox. It’s available in a wide range of temperatures and sizes with a very short wait time, on the order of just a few days, from Zpack’s high-volume Florida-based manufacturing facility. While there’s nothing terribly revolutionary about the Zip-Around, it’s definitely a premium sleeping bag that’s simpler to use than a quilt and by its very nature less drafty to use in colder weather. We only wish the appearance of the sewing was neater and reflected the premium quality of the bag’s component parts.
Disclosure: Zpacks donated a sleeping bag for this review.
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