How do you feel about center zip sleeping bags?

I use a rectangle bag (my arms dont like to be confined) so zipper is where ever I put it? Easier sometimes to zip it on top, when it is catching on material.

Down coamight work with . . .

On really warm buggy nights sometimes my bag stayed stuffed while I am zippered into my shelter. Sometimes as I have suffered in the heat I wished it wasn't even in the tent with me.

The bag I’m testing arrived, and it is a Patagonia down bag - rated to 30 degrees. Weighs a little less than 2 pounds. I always get sleeping bags long for some extra space in the foot box. It’s pretty roomy inside, which i appreciate, particularly at the shoulders. Good hood with drawstrings. 

The center zipper runs to a little above the ankle. It has dual draft tubes that should minimize inbound cold air. There are three zipper pulls, which I have not seen before. They allow you to create an opening in the middle of the zipper to ventilate - interesting.

My review will probably get posted online some time in July or August, after I have had time to use it.  

I have never used a quilt. I move around some and have concerns i would wake up with quilt in a ball & me shivering. 

Center zip bags seem to be increasingly available. Valandre, a French high-end provider comparable to Feathered Friends and Western Mountaineering, sells a bag rated to -15c with a center half zip. Many of Valandre’s winter bags, heat leakage is less of a concern because they’re designed to be worn while wearing a down jacket. unusually roomy from hips to shoulders to accommodate the jacket. It’s a workable concept because it helps shave weight from the bag when it’s used as a system with the jacket. Mammut offers a 30 degree center zip down bag too. A few initial observations is that a center zip is really good for sitting up in a tent on a cold morning or evening while in the bag - it’s centered, doesn’t slide off the way a side zip bag does. Also, draft tubes on either side that may or may not be filled with synthetic insulation close the gap nicely to keep heat in. If it’s synthetic fill, it’s an interesting design decision because you really don’t want down shifting around in a draft tube.

The most interesting will be New Hampshire’s White Mountains, hiking the Northern and Southern Presidentials end of June. Average temperatures for June in the mountains are highs around 50, lows in the high 30s. In reality, weather fluctuates, so anything between a bluebird day and snow is possible. I’ll be in a tent with 1 or 2 others, we’re still figuring out whether it’s two 2-person tents or whether one of us can procure a 3.

Locally, mid-Atlantic, the challenge with a 30 degree bag is getting enough ventilation due to our steamy summers. Maryland would be a good place to test-drive a quilt.

My normal 3 season bag is an old, fairly inexpensive, but perfectly capable Marmot bag - rated to 15 degrees, 650 fill power, around 2 pounds, 10 oz., standard zipper.