If you want to use the Big Bay to test out backpacking on a one- or two-night trip, it’s manageable. If you plan to camp a lot and see backpacking in your future, the Nemo Forte is a worthy upgrade for a synthetic sleeping bag. If you plan to camp a few times a year, and mostly at campsites, the Big Bay will save you money and keep you as warm.
For the extensive sleeping bag review, I also interviewed experts who could speak to what makes a great sleeping bag and how to choose the right one for your needs. I talked to an assistant professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Preeti Arya, who’s an expert in technical fabrics and sustainability. Positive Promotions would like to support your event by providing FREE SAMPLES. Enter the quantity you are looking to purchase and add the item to your sample cart for easy checkout. The reason we feel the Brazos is award-worthy is because it perfectly balances cost with basic necessities.
It’s a suitable choice for someone who wants to start camping but doesn’t want to shell out a ton of money for a more performance-oriented sleeping bag. Coleman Brazos sleeping bag is designed for outdoor camping in moderately cold temperatures. You don’t need to wash your sleeping bag after every camping trip, but you should clean it once or twice a year, depending on how much you use it. Using a front-loading washing machine (never use a top-loading agitator-style machine), wash your sleeping bag with a small amount of mild liquid detergent on a warm, gentle cycle and rinse it with cold water. Coleman recommends using a fabric softener, but do not use bleach.
Based on our most recent testing, it appears the latest version of the Brazos is significantly more watertight. We poured a cup of water directly onto our bag’s shell, and it stayed pooled on top without permeating the interior during the entire 5-minute test. We gave the Brazos a moderate score for its features.
The full-cover construction locks in the heat by eliminating quilting cold spots, making it perfect for extreme weather sleeping. You’ll stay comfy with lightweight Coletherm® hollow polyester insulation and the Thermolock™ draft tube coleman canopy helping to keep your body heat in the bag. The soft flannel lining and pillow gives you extra warmth and comfort from head to toe, while the Comfort Cuff™ design makes sure you only have soft fabric around your face while you sleep.
We found it easier to just keep the bag unrolled and randomly shove it into other places in our camp kit. Bursting at the seams, this bag’s packed size when we did commit to the bag is 16.5 x 10 inches. In the end, the Brazos scored the lowest for comfort out of all the bags we tested, mostly due to its smaller size and fabrics.
However, close-fitting mummy bags, like those designed exclusively for backpacking and alpine pursuits, can feel claustrophobic for most people because there’s not a lot of room to toss and turn. The open footbox design adds space, and the bag has enough room for me to side sleep and bend my knees. Coleman Sun Ridge sleeping bags are designed for outdoor camping in moderately chilly temperatures. The Coleman Big Bay 20° mummy bag emerged as the best value pick in my sleeping bag coleman air mattress review, and the Nemo Forte Synthetic Sleeping Bag (available in men’s and women’s) was given the top overall spot. The Nemo Forte is a more luxurious-feeling synthetic sleeping bag—the fabric is more supple and the insulation loftier—but the Big Bay doesn’t feel as slick as many bags around the same price do. It’s a little slippery on the inside, which makes getting in and out easy, but the outside isn’t slick, so it doesn’t slide around on a cot, sleeping pad or air mattress.
Once you’re done, scroll down to select the item quantity. We’ve tested several versions of the Brazos over the years, and we were impressed with this latest model’s ability to resist water. In the past, the Brazos performed very poorly in our water tests. Despite a synthetic outer shell, we were surprised to see it soak up water rather quickly.
The one legit feature on the Brazo is its No-Snag patented zipper plow. This keeps the zipper head perfectly aligned and allows it to smoothly glide the full length of the bag without snagging. We like this bag’s interior pocket, especially because it has a Velcro closure, but it is a little too small. We also like the density of the bag and found that the manufacturer’s Fiberlock Construction really does prevent insulation from shifting and moving after the bag has been extensively used.