
Big Agnes
Big Agnes Torchlight EXP 20
No citable owner-review average published for this one, so no stars.
Two zippered expansion panels run from shoulder to footbox and add five inches of girth on each side — ten inches in total — which makes this the only bag here whose fit you can change after you have bought it. Zip them shut on a cold night and it is a normal mummy; open them on a warm one and it is closer to a semi-rectangular bag. That is a genuinely good answer to the problem that a bag tight enough to be warm is too tight to sleep in. The trade is 40 ounces and a manufacturer-only 20-degree rating with no lab figure behind it.
Label against lab
No ISO or EN rating is published for this one — the 20 °F is Big Agnes’s own figure, with no lab test behind it. Where a maker publishes loft or fill weight instead, those are the numbers worth comparing. What the standards measure
At that temperature the pairing table wants at least an R 4 pad underneath it.
Size run
One product, 3 sizes. The headline numbers on this page describe the Regular.
| Size | Weight | Approx. price | Length | Shoulder girth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 2 lb 5 oz | ~$370 | — | — |
| Regular | 2 lb 8 oz | ~$370 | — | — |
| Long | 2 lb 12 oz | ~$390 | — | — |
Specifications
Highlights
Features
- Hydrophobic down
- RDS down
- Draft collar
- Full-length zipper
- Pad attachment straps
- Recycled fabric
- Stash pocket
What it does well
- Ten inches of expandable girth across two zippered side panels — the only adjustable-fit bag in this catalogue.
- The PadLok system attaches the bag to a pad so you roll inside it rather than rolling off.
- 650-fill DownTek is PFC-free hydrophobic and RDS-certified.
- 20-denier recycled polyester shell is tougher than the nylon used on most bags at this price.
- Three lengths, and the expansion panels mean each length covers a wider range of builds.
What it costs you
- No ISO or EN figure at all — the 20 is Big Agnes's own number and there is nothing published to check it against.
- 40 ounces in the Regular, heavy for a 20-degree down bag.
- The expansion panels add zips, weight and two more seams that can leak heat.
- Big Agnes publishes neither fill weight nor shoulder girth, so it can't be compared on the physical numbers.
- Opening the panels means heating a much larger volume, so the 20-degree claim only applies zipped shut.
Those two lists are drawn from Big Agnes’s published specifications and from reviews that measured them. They are not owner sentiment — anything owners said appears under its own heading below.
What owners say
No owner discussion has been collected for the Big Agnes Torchlight EXP 20 yet. The pros and cons above come from Big Agnes’s published specifications and from reviews that measured them — nothing on this page claims owners said anything. How that works.
Big Agnes Torchlight EXP 20, head to head
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