You may have seen these sleeping bags at Walmart and, like me, think there is no way a sleeping bag under $9 is going to work well, let alone keep me comfortable.
Ahead of my next weekend camping trip I wanted to grab and test it for myself. It’s a lot smaller and lighter than bringing a comforter from the house and for $8.97 I figured its worth the risk. If anything it’s extra padding.
Coming in at 2.9lbs this isn’t something you are going to take on a backpacking trip. Plus, it’s not small enough to put in a pack.
Night 1:
Night one came pretty quick and the temp got down to the mid to high 50’s. I thought this would be the perfect test since it has a comfort level of 50 degrees. Around midnight I crawled into the bag with only a t-shirt and basketball shorts on.
To my surprise, I woke up the next morning pretty comfortable. The only issue I noticed is that the zipper kept unzipping in the middle of the night when I would move. It would wake me up and I’d have to zip it back up.
Night 2:
Night two was a pretty similar case. It was suppose to only be in the low 60’s so I knew I’d be pretty comfortable since it was colder the previous night. Again, the main issue was having to zip back up the zipper multiple times in the middle of the night, but I was comfortable and warm.
The third day we packed up and headed home and I noticed while putting the bag back in the stuff sack that the draw string does not hold well and comes back open easily. Frustrating to say the least.
On the sack it says that it is “Machine Washable”. So once we got home I put the bag through the front loading washing machine (low cycle) and the dryer (low heat) with a couple of tennis balls to keep the fluff from bunching up.
After about 20 minutes in the dryer I took it out and was happy to not see or smell any signs of heat damage. Again, impressed it held up in the washer and dryer.
All in all, the bag has done what it says it will do. Besides the frustrating zipper and draw string issues the bag holds up and for $9 I think its a pretty good buy especially on a budget.
