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.
Most of the picks on our list are geared toward three-season use, but for campers who like to get out year-round, a cold-weather bag is essential. In this category, REI Co-op’s Frostbreak 5 stands out for its excellent warmth at a very reasonable price. Other coleman canopy functional additions include a well-insulated hood, draft tube, and differentiated drawcords (one round and one flat) that make it easy to adjust the aperture in the dark. Added up, the Frostbreak is an excellent value for casual winter adventurers.
Below we rank our top picks for 2023, and if you need some background information, our comparison table and buying advice dive into topics like fill type and temperature rating. To complete your camping kit, we’ve also tested and written about camping mattresses and camping tents. Our annual family camping trip does not involve hiking and then camping so we weren’t looking for tiny sleeping bags. We take day hikes and do outdoor activities from our drive up camping spot in the Smoky Mountains.
I’ve laundered the Big Bay once, and the insulation has stayed in place. This bag should last you for many years, and to ensure it does, it comes with a 5-year limited warranty against manufacturer defects and workmanship. We believe in offering the very best value, quality, and selection. In the event you wish to send a product back to us, you may return most unused items for a
refund or exchange, minus shipping, within 90 days from the date of purchase unless noted below under
exceptions and exclusions.
The rest of the design is equally premium, including a water-resistant YKK main zipper, roomier-than-average hood, and fleece-lined compression sack that can pull double duty as a pillow. For most, the primary weight and packability consideration for a camping bag is whether or not it can be carried from the garage to the car, squeezed in with the rest of your stuff, and then moved from the trunk to the tent. That said, we still recommend checking the weight and stuffed size that will be listed in the product specifications to get an idea of just how large and heavy the bags are.