Verdict
If you want a long-lasting sleeping bag to keep you safe, warm and very comfortable during autumn, winter and spring caravan holidays, the three season Robens Appalachion 1500 will certainly fit that brief. Buy it if you need a top performance sleeping bag, for instance if you’re going to stay somewhere in your caravan without an electric hook up. In that scenario this sleeping bag is perfect; you’ll hardly ever need to use the caravan heater at night if you buy tit. You might find it a bit hot in the summer when the night time temperatures rise above 11°C, though it might be worth unzipping to catch a draught in order to enjoy sleeping on the squishy filling, if your caravan bed is a bit hard. Tent campers will appreciate the warmth and comforts even more than caravanners.
You get what you pay for, and this is the most expensive sleeping bag we tested. We’ll understand if you decided to buy cheap sleeping bags for use all year round, instead, and take a few blankets for chillier nights!
Pros
Lovely and warm
Very comfortable
Ideal for winter camping
Keeps you safe down to -24°C
Excellent materials
Robust construction
Top performance sleeping bag
Cons
It’s expensive compared to the rest
It’s too hot for summer camping holidays
This is aimed mainly at tent camping holidays
You could buy this or two cheap sleeping bags
If the Robens Trailhead 1500 sleeping bag seemed a bit much for normal camping, then the Appalachion 1500 takes the concept to the extreme. Comfortably warm sleep is guaranteed even if the ambient temperature drops to –1°C, and the bag is rated to keep you safe if the mercury falls to –24°C. If night temperatures rise above 11°C you’ll be unzipping it to cool down!
As you’d expect at this price, everything here is top notch, including the micro polyester lining and the durable shell. Like its sibling, the Appalachion is roomier than most mummy sleeping bags. The increased levels of filling also give a more padded, snug feel.
Now for the technical details. There are three sleeping bags in the Appalachian range, and they are all designed for ‘demanding outdoor enthusiasts’ who are undaunted by the challenges of winter weather, whether they are tent camping or sleeping in the comfort of a touring caravan or campervan!
You probably won’t need the caravan heater if you use an Appalachian 1500 sleeping bag at night because the materials used are designed to help you cope with the cold and damp. The bags are filled with water resistant, anti-microbial siliconised MicroThermo filling, an 0.7D polyester microfibre. The outer shell of the bag is made of 50D 210T 100 per cent nylon ripstop material. The lining is made of 290T micro polyester, which is 100 per cent polyester. There’s a double layer on the top part of the sleeping bag and a single layer on the bottom part, with horizontal stitching, to enhance your comfort.
The Appalachian 1500 also features two-way opening zip, with anti-snag zip guards, full-length zip baffles and a tag to help you pull the zipper up and down. There’s also an internal pocket to help you keep track of your valuables. There’s a mummy hood with a draw cord to keep out the draughts, and face and neck baffles for the same reason. At the foot end, the construction is called a ‘shark fin foot box’ shape, which is designed to allow you to move your feet within the bag at night.
Packed down, this sleeping bag will fit into its compression carry bag measuring 41 x 22cm. It weighs around 1500g. Opened out, this mummy shaped bag is 220cm x 80cm x 50cm and is 195cm long.
If you buy two of these three-season sleeping bags, you can buy them with zips on different sides so that you and your partner can zip them together to form a cosy double sleeping bag.
Robens is a German manufacturer, but there are plenty of camping shops that stock the sleeping bags in the UK. For instance for camping shops near London Robens suggests branches of Cotswold Outdoor in Piccadilly W1, High Holborn WC1, Brompton Road SW3, Islington N1, Kingston upon Thames, Shepperton, Orpington, Romford and Watford. To find your nearest camping shop for Robens sleeping bags click here and enter your postcode.
The main down side of this sleeping bag is that at £75 it’s the most expensive product in our test, followed by the human shaped Musucbag Lite at £69, rectangular Coleman Vail Comfort at £53, mummy shaped Robens Trailhead 1500 at £50 and human shaped Summit Motion Sac at £50 when tested.
Mid-priced sleeping bags we tested were the rectangular Kampa Single Layer Citrine at £43, SunnCamp Deluxe King Size Expression at £40, Vango Serenity at £41 and Kampa Double Layer Garnett at £35.
If you’re looking for cheap sleeping bags, the good news is that we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the bargain sleeping bags on the market. We especially liked the mummy shaped Argos 144/1895 at £25, Halfords Urban Escape Tahoe at £20, Argos 927/6378 at £20 and Easycamp Cosmos at £23.
Astonishingly enough, when we tested all 14 sleeping bags, with prices ranging from £20 to £75, the one that stood out as our overall winner was one of the cheapest sleeping bags – and we gave five stars to the roomy rectangular shaped Outwell Campion sleeping bag, at £25!
Comfortably warm sleep is guaranteed even if the ambient temperature drops to –1°C
