Coleman  Kompact 20 Rectangle Sleeping Bag

Having gotten cold on our last two (car) camp outs, I went looking for a rectangular sleeping bag that could unzip and keep us both warm overnight. Probably this 20° bag or the 30° version would have worked, but I went for the warmer version since the extra size and weight aren’t an issue for car camping. (Our other sleeping bags are all mummy style from our backpacking days and would be hard to get in and out of when zipped together.). Judging from the thickness of the insulation, the 20° rating seems appropriate. As backpackers, we know that the secret to keeping warm at night is an insulating pad/mattress underneath. (Sleeping on an air mattress or in the back of your car with rear seats folded down will NOT work). I splurged on the highly recommended Exped Duo self-inflating mattress for both insulation and comfort when it went on sale last year. It fits almost perfectly in the back of our car, as shown in the first picture. I’ve also shown the air mattress and the unopened sleeping bag, so you can see the sleeping bag is more than wide enough. There are three nice, unusual features of this bag. The one I noticed first is the large, flat, red zipper. (pictured) Often, traditional zippers snag on the storm baffle, so this variation seems much less likely to snag as you open or close the bag. Secondly, the cord system used to secure the rolled up bag is a little nicer than traditional tie straps. Last was a hardly noticed pair of black toggles on the zipper side of the bag (pictured). I realized there were loops on the opposite side of the bag. So these toggles will keep your bag folded in half when you’re ready to roll it up! I withheld one star due to the stuff sack. The provided stuff sack design is used for bags that are designed to be stuffed into the sack, like down bags. Once in, the compression straps reduce the LONG dimension of the bag while the bag’s circumference remains fixed. However, this type of bag is designed to be rolled up. I was able to quickly roll up the bag and fit it into the stuff sack without too much trouble. But when breaking camp, who wants to hassle with packing your bag? The right kind of stuff sack should compress along the CIRCUMFERENCE of the bag, not lengthwise.

The bag is very warm. It kept me quite toasty in the low 30s. However it meant for a child or an extraordinarily tiny adult. If you sleep with your arms at your side all night then this is the bag for you. The cords to wrap around the bag are ridiculous. I will be returning this bag.