What is the Jazz Duo?The Jazz is an ultra-comfortable, roomy, soft two-person sleeping bag capable of rivalling your bedding at home. Thanks to a super warm Stratofiber synthetic insulation, it features a comfort limit of -7°C. This particular bag is the Luxury version, meaning it'll fit those up to 6ft 8" tall.
What is it made of?Insulation: The Jazz is insulated with Stratofiber, a versatile synthetic insulation designed to provide warmth in all conditions. This insulation is distributed around the bag in a varied selection of baffles — diamond-shaped baffles for the bottom and tube-shaped on the top; this provides the ideal balance of warmth and compressibility.
Fabrics: The outer of the Jazz is made using a tough 40D ripstop nylon with a durable water repellent coating — especially useful for condensation or if you spill your morning coffee over yourself. The inner uses a mixture of a softer taffeta nylon to provide comfort next to skin and the same fabric as the outer in the footbox for added durability.
What are its features?Inside the bag you'll find a sleeve specifically designed for a sleeping mat; this keeps it securely in place no matter how much you move. Just like striking a tent and leaving the inner in, the Jazz can be compressed down with the sleeping mat still inside — even the stuffsack has been designed to accommodate one! When you unzip the bag, you'll notice there's an integrated sheet paired with some additional baffles which zip right up to your neck for a warm, cosy fit. This sheet can be removed entirely and washed, leaving the rest of the bag fresh.
How does it fit?It features a relaxed, rectangular fit with a slight taper to reduce dead space inside. The Jazz has been designed specifically for comfort, so it's definitely not a super-slim alpine bag! This particular bag is the Luxury version, meaning it'll fit those up to 6ft 8" tall.
- Stratofibre synthetic insulation
- Super soft fabrics
- Sleeping mat compartment
- Internal removable sheet
- Built-in pillowtop
- Slightly tapered
- Two-person
How warm a sleeping bag do you really need? We’ve tried to help you by grouping our sleeping bags by their recognised comfort ratings. These are the ratings supplied by the brands that indicate the temperature at which you will remain comfortable whilst sleeping on an insulated sleep mat. After all, comfort is what you want when it’s cold and wet outside, and you’re all tucked up in your nice warm sleeping bag.
We always recommend that you choose your bag according to the coldest conditions you will experience; you can always unzip a bag if it is too warm, but trying to sleep when you’re too cold is just miserable. Bear in mind that we are all individuals, so we all feel the cold differently and that our own resistance will fluctuate depending on a whole load of factors, including how much we have eaten, whether we have consumed alcohol, whether we need a wee or what kind of mood we are in!
Sleeping bags do not generate heat; they only trap the heat we produce, so it is vital that you get into your bag when you are giving off warmth, don’t go to bed when you are cold, have a hot meal or a hot drink or do some brisk exercise to get you nicely warmed up.
Traditionally sleeping bag manufacturers provided their own temperature ratings based on their experience, the product's intended end-use and the perceived environment. However, each brand tested their bags in different ways, and it was hard to find a fair comparison between models. So, in 2005 a European standard for sleeping bag temperature ratings, EN 13537, was introduced to give consumers a comparable guide to sleeping bag performance across a range of brands and models. The ratings have four different temperature ratings to give you an indication of the bag's performance.
Comfort Rating: This is the temperature at which an average female should experience a comfortable night’s sleep. On average, women sleep colder than men, so this rating is some degrees above the "comfort lower limit" for a man.
Comfort Limit Rating: This is the lowest temperature at which an average male should experience a comfortable night’s sleep whilst laid down in a curled up position.
Extreme: This is a survival rating where the user is likely to suffer health damage such as Hypothermia. It should be treated with the utmost caution and not be relied on for general use.
However, the EN 13537 European Standard does not apply to down-filled sleeping bags with a fill weight of more than 800g; for those bags, you will have to rely on the manufacturer's experience and technical expertise, which is often more accurate!
Most reputable brands still use their own rating system alongside EN 13537, for instance, Mountain Equipment's “Good Night’s Sleep” and Rab’s “Sleep Limit”. These ratings are often the most accurate guide to the overall performance of a sleeping bag being used by an average outdoor enthusiast because they are based on years of expedition heritage, field trials, technological experience, and constant feedback.
But please bear in mind that all ratings are only a guide and, as mentioned earlier, there are a huge range of factors that can affect your comfort; if you are just not sure, it is always wise to go for a warmer model.
The biggest difference you can make to your overall comfort is to use an efficiently insulated sleeping mat. Once you get inside your sleeping bag, you instantly compress all the filling beneath you, greatly reducing its efficiency. Therefore using a quality sleep mat will ensure you are properly insulated from the cold ground, and you will be a lot more comfortable... Basically, there is no point in buying a top-quality sleeping bag if you are just going to lie down on the floor.