Therm-a-Rest Parsec 0 Sleeping Bag Review

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 in an effort to present enhanced heat when used with an applicable 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 in case you really feel too heat. The Parsec 0 has beneficiant girth measurement to accommodate further 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 forestall you from rolling off your pad at night time, 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 circumstances.

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 out there)
• Girth: Shoulder (63″), Hip (58″)
• Compression Sack Weight: (included)
• Storage Bag: Included

Sleeping Bag Features

The Parsec 0 has the entire commonplace 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 a number of the issues that set this bag other than others embody field baffling building with lets the down loft totally whereas stopping downshift, a 60/40 distribution of goose down insulation with extra on the highest and fewer beneath, and kit 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 below your higher again or shoulders in case you lie in your aspect, and continues with out a break to cowl your higher chest. It prevents heat air heated by your decrease physique from escaping while you transfer round at night time. The collar is definitely a steady extension of the zipper draft tube working alongside the aspect zipper, so there aren’t any gaps between the 2 the place leaks or drafts might 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 easier and much more snug to make use of in comparison with sleeping baggage which have extra elaborate velcro and or cordlock tensioning, but it surely may also be a destructive if the bag quantity is just 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 stop snags. The high zipper has additionally a particular YKK zipper cowl designed to forestall snags and whereas it’s not foolproof, it’s fairly efficient. While snags are annoying, their greatest hazard comes from ripping open the shell cloth alongside the zipper and leaking the insulation. I’ve performed it earlier than on different baggage and it actually sucks.

There is a snap on the high of the zipper at chin peak that it is best to shut earlier than pulling the zipper up, while 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 flattening the highest zipper whereas retaining the hood snugged round your head. As said above there’s a thick draft tube working alongside the zipper, which slides over the zipper when it’s closed, and blocks chilly air from leaking by way 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 edges keep properly aligned. That backside zipper is nice 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 making certain 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 in case you don’t wish to use them, however they do assist preserve you on the pad, particularly in case you roll round so much at night time.

Therm-a-Rest has been supplying sleeping pad straps or sleeves like these Synergy Links with their cold-weather sleeping baggage for a few years. They use the identical method with their quilts, together with the superior Vesper 20, Vesper 32, and Vesper 45, which I additionally extremely suggest.

Wide Girth

Dimensionally, the Parsec 0 is minimize large so you may put on further clothes layers, and retailer further gear, your boots, boot liners, or water inside with you while you sleep to forestall them from freezing. That further width additionally helps you to sleep in your aspect or transfer round at night time with ease. If you need to spend 12 hours in a sleeping bag in winter, you’ll recognize the additional room!

Mummy Hood

The Parsec 0 has a closely insulated mummy hood with a reasonably standard form that favors again sleepers. There is an exterior cordlock that controls the dimensions of the hood opening and may be cinched down fairly small for optimum heat retention. However, in case you’re a aspect sleeper, the hood won’t rotate together with your head just like the jacket-style hood on the NEMO Sonic 0. This implies that the within of the hood will get moist as you exhale at night time, which might get nasty and uncomfortable in case you’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 also be an exterior pocket on the aspect of the higher chest which offers good place to stash a headlamp so yow will discover it for a nighttime lavatory break. It’s fairly massive really, but it surely’d be a complete lot extra handy in case you might entry it from contained in the bag, with out having to unzip the higher half of the sleeping bag to succeed in it. I favor 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 night time, I’d warning towards placing a smartphone into this pocket until it’s in a sturdy protecting case.

Comparison desk: 0-degree sleeping baggage

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 likely one of the lightest-weight 0 levels sleeping baggage out there immediately, which is an actual win for chilly climate or winter use when your skin-out pack weight is edging near 40 kilos. With wonderful 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 commonplace, in order that 0 diploma Fahrenheit temperature ranking is nice for males and heat sleepers. If you’re a chilly sleeper or a girl, the temperature vary be nearer to 10 levels Fahrenheit. The distinction is because of the truth that girls 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.

SectionHiker is reader-supported. We independently analysis, check, and fee the most effective merchandise. We solely earn money if you buy a product by way of our affiliate hyperlinks. Help us proceed to check and write unsponsored and unbiased gear critiques, newbie FAQs, and free mountaineering guides.