Feathered Friends
Feathered Friends Flicker UL 20 Quilt
No citable owner-review average published for this one, so no stars.
The Flicker answers the quilt-versus-bag argument by refusing to pick: a full-length centre zip and a drawcord footbox mean it closes into a hoodless bag on a cold night, opens as a quilt on a mild one, and lies flat as a blanket in a hut. Because the zip runs down the middle rather than the side, the closure sits over your chest where you can reach it, and there are no pad straps to fight. Sixty-two inches of wrap width is generous, and 14.7 ounces of 950-fill down sits inside a 25.5-ounce total.
Label against lab
No ISO or EN rating is published for this one — the 20 °F is Feathered Friends’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, 2 sizes. The headline numbers on this page describe the Regular.
| Size | Weight | Approx. price | Length | Shoulder girth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 1 lb 9.5 oz | ~$559 | — | 62 in |
| Long | 1 lb 10.5 oz | ~$579 | — | 62 in |
Specifications
Highlights
Features
- RDS down
- Full-length zipper
- Foot vent
- Made in USA
- Wide option
What it does well
- The centre zip and drawcord foot turn it from a blanket into a closed bag without any straps or clips.
- 62 inches of wrap width is among the widest quilts here, which is the real defence against drafts.
- 950+ fill down, 14.7 ounces of it, in a water-resistant Pertex Quantum Pro shell.
- A Wide version exists on the same pattern for anyone who needs more than 62 inches.
- Sewn in Seattle, with published girth at shoulder, hip and footbox.
What it costs you
- 25.5 ounces is heavy for a quilt — the zip and the extra fabric cost about five ounces over a strapped quilt at the same rating.
- No hood, and no pad attachment either, so a cold night depends entirely on getting the zip and drawcord right.
- $559 without a lab rating behind the 20 °F figure.
- 7-denier face fabric.
Those two lists are drawn from Feathered Friends’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
Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews, not from anything measured here.
The Flicker inspires more specific, mileage-backed endorsement than anything else in this catalogue. A 6'3" side sleeper describing 3,500 miles of great sleep in a long/wide Flicker over a thick air pad is about as concrete as owner evidence gets, and several others describe it as their entire three-season sleep solution.
The design is what people point at: a full zip and a drawcord footbox mean it is a closed hoodless bag when you want one and a flat blanket when you do not, with no straps to manage. Owners buying the long version and pulling the top over their heads as a hood is a recurring trick.
The one technical criticism is sharp and useful: the zipper draft tube is small enough that you cannot push the quilt much below its comfort rating even if you sleep warm. That is a real limit and it comes from someone who understands the construction.
What owners like
- A 6'3" side sleeper reports roughly 3,500 miles of great sleep in a long/wide one paired with a thick air pad, and could not recommend the setup more.
- Owners describe it as their whole three-season solution for thru-hiking, rather than as one item among several.
- The full zip and drawcord footbox mean it closes completely or opens as a blanket, and owners use both.
- Couples share the warmer-weather version of the same quilt over a two-person pad, which few quilts allow.
- Owners buy the long version specifically so they can pull the top over their head as an improvised hood.
Common complaints
- The zipper draft tube is small, which owners say means you cannot push it much below its comfort rating even if you sleep warm.
- It is heavy for a quilt, which is the price of the zip and the extra fabric.
- No hood, so the long-version trick of pulling it over your head is a workaround rather than a feature.
- Expensive, and with no lab rating behind the number.
Questions owners ask
Can it be pushed below its rating?
Does it work for tall side sleepers?
Can two people share one?
Feathered Friends Flicker UL 20 Quilt, head to head
Others in the same band
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NEMO
NEMO Pulse Quilt
1000-fill down is the highest fill power available at any price, and the Pulse is the only item in this catalogue that uses it. The result is a 2.3-litre packed volume — smaller than a one-litre bottle and a bit — and 18 ounces for a quilt with a published ISO lower limit of 23 °F. It is also $550, which is the most expensive quilt here, and it is the only quilt in the catalogue with a lab figure attached. Whether 1000-fill is worth the money over 900 is the sort of question a spreadsheet answers better than a salesperson does; the honest answer is that the last hundred points of fill power buys about an ounce.
Best for: Thru-hikers optimising packed volume above everything
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Zpacks
Zpacks Solo Quilt 20F
The Classic bag with the hood and the back panel removed — the same down weight, the same 900-fill, half an ounce lighter. That half-ounce difference is the most useful single data point on this whole site about what a hood actually costs, and the answer is: almost nothing, because the down that would be under your back has already been left out of the bag. What you are really choosing between is a hood and a draft-free back, versus the freedom to stick a leg out.
Best for: Side sleepers who move all night and want nothing pinning them
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Enlightened Equipment
Enlightened Equipment Revelation 20
The quilt that made quilts mainstream in America. Enlightened Equipment builds every Revelation to order in Minnesota across five lengths, four widths, six temperature ratings, two fill powers and three shell deniers, which is thousands of combinations and the reason this entry lists one representative build rather than a size run. The Revelation's distinguishing feature against the otherwise-identical Enigma is a zippered and drawcord footbox that opens completely flat, so the same quilt covers a 20-degree night and a 60-degree one.
Best for: Buyers who want a quilt built to their own measurements
Full spec sheet