The Therm-a-Rest Parsec 0 is a VERY light-weight cold-weather sleeping bag appropriate for year-round use. It’s a really heat bag with premium field baffling and 60% of the insulation positioned over the chest and 40% on the underside with the intention to present enhanced heat when used with an acceptable sleeping pad. It has a draft collar and zipper draft tube to carry in your physique warmth with a two-way zipper so you may vent the bag for those who really feel too heat. The Parsec 0 has beneficiant girth measurement to accommodate additional clothes layers and to allow you to retailer gear inside like boot liners or water bottles which you don’t wish to freeze in a single day. Special sleeping pad straps assist stop you from rolling off your pad at evening, whereas exterior loops allow you to layer appropriate quilts or blankets on high to spice up the Parsec’s temperature ranking so that you don’t want to purchase a separate sleeping bag for colder situations.
Specs at a Glance
- Gender: Unisex
- Temperature Rating: 0F (-18C)
- EN Tested Lower Limit: 0F
- EN Tested Comfort Limit: 14F
- Insulation: 800 fill energy goose down
- Water-Resistant Down: Yes, Nikwax Hydrophobic (PFC-free)
- RDS-Certified Down: Yes
- Construction: Box Baffles
- Shell and liner: 20 Recycled Nylon
- Zipper: YKK Snag-Free, 3/4 size
- Weight: 2 lbs 6 oz / 1077g
- Down Fill Weight: 26 oz / 738g
- Length: 72 inches examined (66″, 78″ additionally obtainable)
- Girth: Shoulder (63″), Hip (58″)
- Compression Sack Weight: (included)
- Storage Bag: Included
Sleeping Bag Features
The Parsec 0 has the entire customary options you’d anticipate on a premium cold-weather sleeping bag, together with a draft collar, two-way YKK snag-resistant aspect zipper, zipper draft tube, taped zipper stiffeners, spacious dimensions, and a really heat hood. But among the issues that set this bag other than others embrace field baffling building with lets the down loft absolutely whereas stopping downshift, a 60/40 distribution of goose down insulation with extra on the highest and fewer beneath, and equipment loops built-in into the shell that allow you to connect Therm-a-rest quilts or blankets. While I haven’t used this layering performance but, it’s a really compelling function for winter use when tenting in minus 10F to minus 20F climate.
Continuous Draft Collar and Zipper Draft Tube
The draft collar is a dow-filled tube that wraps underneath your higher again or shoulders for those who lie in your aspect, and continues and not using a break to cowl your higher chest. It prevents heat air heated by your decrease physique from escaping once you transfer round at evening. The collar is definitely a steady extension of the zipper draft tube operating alongside the aspect zipper, so there aren’t any gaps between the 2 the place leaks or drafts may happen.
You can’t stress the draft collar to tighten it on this bag, which is a plus as a result of it makes the bag less complicated and much more snug to make use of in comparison with sleeping luggage which have extra elaborate velcro and or cordlock tensioning, nevertheless it may also be a destructive if the bag quantity is simply too massive to create a draft-free seal. It is simple to compensate for, nonetheless by looping a sweater or light-weight insulated jacket round your neck to create a tighter seal.
Two-Way Zipper
The Parsec 0 has a 3/4 size zipper that ends round your knees and has two sliders. Both sides of the zipper are taped with grosgrain to stiffen the zipper and forestall snags. The high zipper has additionally a particular YKK zipper cowl designed to stop snags and whereas it’s not foolproof, it’s fairly efficient. While snags are annoying, their greatest hazard comes from ripping open the shell material alongside the zipper and leaking the insulation. I’ve accomplished it earlier than on different luggage and it actually sucks.
There is a snap on the high of the zipper at chin top that it is best to shut earlier than pulling the zipper up, once you’re mendacity within the sleeping bag. This helps take the strain off the zipper whereas serving to it to trace extra simply. When the snap is closed it’s also possible to vent the chest space by knocking down the highest zipper whereas maintaining the hood snugged round your head. As acknowledged above there’s a thick draft tube operating alongside the zipper, which slides over the zipper when it’s closed, and blocks chilly air from leaking by means of the zipper and chilling you.
The backside zipper slider doesn’t have the identical YKK zipper cowl, since there may be a lot much less strain on the zipper and the perimeters keep effectively aligned. That backside zipper is sweet for venting the foot space of the bag and helps lengthen the bag’s vary in hotter climate.
Pad Straps
The pad straps complement the 60/40 high and backside distribution of the goose down within the Parsec 0 by guaranteeing the correct ulilization of an approirately rated sleeping pad. When you sleep in a sleeping bag, the insulation beneath you may’t lure heat air since you’re mendacity on high of it and stopping it from lofting. Called Synergy Links, these pad straps are detachable for those who don’t wish to use them, however they do assist preserve you on the pad, particularly for those who roll round quite a bit at evening.
Therm-a-Rest has been supplying sleeping pad straps or sleeves like these Synergy Links with their cold-weather sleeping luggage for a few years. They use the identical strategy with their quilts, together with the superior Vesper 20, Vesper 32, and Vesper 45, which I additionally extremely advocate.
Wide Girth
Dimensionally, the Parsec 0 is reduce vast so you may put on additional clothes layers, and retailer additional gear, your boots, boot liners, or water inside with you once you sleep to stop them from freezing. That additional width additionally permits you to sleep in your aspect or transfer round at evening with ease. If you need to spend 12 hours in a sleeping bag in winter, you’ll respect the additional room!
Mummy Hood
The Parsec 0 has a closely insulated mummy hood with a reasonably typical form that favors again sleepers. There is an exterior cordlock that controls the scale of the hood opening and might be cinched down fairly small for optimum heat retention. However, for those who’re a aspect sleeper, the hood won’t rotate along with your head just like the jacket-style hood on the NEMO Sonic 0. This signifies that the within of the hood will get moist as you exhale at evening, which might get nasty and uncomfortable for those who’re out for a number of nights in a row and don’t have an opportunity to dry the bag out within the solar.
External Chest Pocket
There can be an exterior pocket on the aspect of the higher chest which supplies good place to stash a headlamp so you’ll find it for a nighttime rest room break. It’s fairly massive truly, nevertheless it’d be an entire lot extra handy for those who may entry it from contained in the bag, with out having to unzip the higher half of the sleeping bag to achieve it. I want placing my headlamp within the pocket of the hoody I put on to mattress in chilly climate as a substitute. If you’re a aspect sleeper or roll round at evening, I’d warning towards placing a smartphone into this pocket except it’s in a sturdy protecting case.
Comparison desk: 0-degree sleeping luggage
Recommendation
The Therm-a-Rest Parsec 0 is a cold-weather down-insulated sleeping bag with premium options together with a box-baffled building and body-mapped 60/40 down insulation. In addition to being heat. I prefer it as a result of at 2 lbs 6 oz, it is without doubt one of the lightest-weight 0 levels sleeping luggage obtainable at the moment, which is an actual win for chilly climate or winter use when your skin-out pack weight is edging near 40 kilos. With glorious options and good air flow choices, the Parsec 0 is versatile sufficient to be used throughout a wider temperature vary than simply winter, ranging into autumn and spring when nights drip near freezing.
Note: The temperature ranking for the Parsec 0 is predicated on the ISO sleeping bag temperature ranking customary, in order that 0 diploma Fahrenheit temperature ranking is sweet for males and heat sleepers. If you’re a chilly sleeper or a lady, the temperature vary be nearer to 10 levels Fahrenheit. The distinction is because of the truth that ladies aren’t typically as massive as males and don’t generate as a lot physique warmth.
Disclosure: Therm-a-Rest donated a sleeping bag for evaluation.
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