The NEMO Kayu 15 is a down-insulated mummy sleeping bag designed for three-season backpacking and tenting. Weighing 2 lbs 3 oz, the Kayu will not be the lightest weight sleeping bag in its class, but it surely has a number of options that differentiate it from comparable sleeping baggage with the identical temperature ranking. Chief amongst these are particular thermo-regulation gills on the chest that allow you to vent it in hotter climate with out having to crack open the facet zipper and let in chilling drafts. It additionally has waterproof/breathable material on the hood and footbox to stop tent condensation from degrading the bag’s insulation, since these are the components of the sleeping bag most certainly to be affected.
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Specs at a Look
- Gender: Males’s
- Examined Decrease Restrict: 17F / -8C
- Examined Consolation Restrict: 27F /-3C
- Insulation: 800 fill energy
- Water-Resistant Down: Sure
- Weight: 2 lbs 3 oz / 992g (Precise weight is 2 lbs 4 oz)
- Down Fill Weight: 17 oz / 480 g
- Size: 72 inches examined (78″ additionally obtainable)
- Girth: Shoulder (63″), Hip (55″), Footbox (46″)
- Compressed Quantity: 5.9L
- Compression Sack Weight: 3.3 oz (included)
- Storage Bag: Included
- Material: 20D nylon ripstop with DWR on the shell, 30D nylon taffeta lining, and a 40D nylon ripstop waterproof/breathable footbox.
Sleeping Bag Options
Not like NEMO’s spoon-shaped baggage that are designed for facet sleepers, the Kayu is primarily designed for again sleepers who don’t roll onto their sides or curl up once they sleep. To that finish, the bag is lower considerably slim within the chest, though roomier within the hips and foot field, to cut back the quantity of physique warmth required to warmth it up and maintain it heat whilst you sleep.
Function-wise, Kayu 15 (additionally obtainable in a 30-degree mannequin) has the entire normal options you’d count on on a premium sleeping bag, together with:
- a beefy draft collar that covers the higher chest and again to stop warmth from popping out the highest if you transfer round contained in the bag
- a 3/4 size, bi-directional zipper to save lots of weight, however permit versatile venting of the legs impartial of the chest
- a two-way facet zipper with a draft tube and taped zipper stiffeners. The draft tube prevents chilly air from leaking in between the zipper enamel whereas the stiffeners scale back the prospect of a zipper snag and ripping the inside material.
- a jacket-style insulated hood, which turns with you when you roll over in your facet at evening
- an exterior zippered stash pocket to carry a headlamp at evening
Thermo-Gills
However the factor that basically units the Kayi aside of the therm-gills on its chest, that are zippered down baffles, that when opened launch warmth trapped contained in the bag to chill you off. They’re the equal of pit-zips on a rain jacket though the again of the thermo-gill will not be open however lined with a skinny piece of nylon. Nonetheless, when the thermo-gills are unzipped, a few of your core heat is launched by means of them. Once they’re zippered closed, the insulated sides of the thermo-gill fill within the area underneath the zipper, trapping your core heat as soon as once more.
However the actual worth of those Thermo-gills is that they enhance the efficient temperature vary that the Kayu 15 can be utilized in by about 25-30 levels, so you should utilize the identical sleeping bag from 15F as much as 40F, with out having to purchase a second hotter climate sleeping bag. That’s a giant deal when sleeping baggage price a few hundred {dollars}.
Waterproof hood and footbox
The Kayu 15 has waterproof material on the foot field and the again of the hood to stop tent condensation from compromising the insulation. This can be a neat characteristic that makes loads of sense on multi-day journeys within the spring and late autumn when tent condensation is most certainly to happen and could have the best affect on bag efficiency.
Comparable Down Sleeping Luggage
Suggestion
The NEMO Kayu 15 is a down-insulated sleeping bag that has a a lot wider temperature vary than its title would recommend. Whereas it’s designed to maintain you heat in 15-degree climate, it has a temperature regulation characteristic referred to as Therm-Gills that allow you to vent heat as much as about 40 levels. That provides a level of flexibility that’s uncommon in a mummy sleeping bag.
Regardless of that, I’m on the fence about this bag. The Thermo-Gills are a pleasant characteristic to have and so they labored for me, they’re simply not as compelling a characteristic on the Kayu 15 as on a chilly climate bag just like the NEMO Sonic -20 and even the Sonic 0 the place cracking open the facet zipper isn’t a really snug different. That mentioned that Kayu 15 is a superbly respectable 15-degree mummy sleeping bag and a viable choice if you wish to spend lower than a costlier and lighter-weight sleeping bag for a similar temperature vary.
Disclosure: NEMO donated a sleeping bag for assessment.
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