Sea to Summit
Sea to Summit Ember 30 Quilt
No citable owner-review average published for this one, so no stars.
One of exactly two quilts in this catalogue with a published ISO comfort figure, and the only one where the limit lands exactly on the number in the name — 30 °F limit, 39 °F comfort. Nineteen ounces of 850-fill down that zips into a closed footbox for a cold night and opens flat into a blanket for a warm one. Sea to Summit's ratings discipline is the reason to buy it rather than a cottage quilt at the same price: you know what you are getting before you sleep in it.
Label against lab
Sold as a 30 °F bag; its ISO 23537 comfort rating is 39 °F, which is 9 °F warmer than the name suggests. Plan around the comfort figure, not the label. Why the gap exists
At that temperature the pairing table wants at least an R 3 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 3.2 oz | ~$414 | — | — |
| Long | 1 lb 5.8 oz | ~$444 | — | — |
Specifications
Highlights
Features
- ISO or EN rated
- Hydrophobic down
- RDS down
- Pad attachment straps
- Foot vent
What it does well
- Publishes both ISO figures — 30 °F limit, 39 °F comfort — which almost no quilt on the market does.
- Zips into a closed footbox or opens completely flat, so it covers a wider temperature range than a sewn-box quilt.
- 19.2 ounces with 850-fill non-PFAS-treated down.
- 5.1 litres compressed, small enough for a summer kit in a 40-litre pack.
What it costs you
- $414 puts it against the custom cottage quilts, which will build to your width and overfill.
- Only two lengths and no width options.
- 10-denier shell needs care.
- The 39 °F comfort figure means this is a warm-weather quilt despite the 30 in the name.
Those two lists are drawn from Sea to Summit’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 Sea to Summit Ember 30 Quilt yet. The pros and cons above come from Sea to Summit’s published specifications and from reviews that measured them — nothing on this page claims owners said anything. How that works.
Sea to Summit Ember 30 Quilt, head to head
Others in the same band
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Katabatic Gear
Katabatic Flex 22 Quilt
Katabatic's pad-attachment system is the thing the rest of the quilt world copies, and the Flex is the model built around it: the quilt clips to two cords that run under the pad, and it can slide and roll with you while the edges stay sealed. That is the whole answer to the standard complaint about quilts. The Flex adds a zippered footbox to the formula so the same quilt opens flat into a blanket on a warm night, at the cost of an ounce or so over the sewn-footbox Alsek. Katabatic publishes single-side loft (2.75 inches here) and exact fill weights per size, but no lab rating.
Best for: Quilt sceptics — the attachment system is the reason to try one
Full spec sheet
Katabatic Gear
Katabatic Alsek 22 Quilt
Same temperature and nearly the same fill as the Flex 22, with a sewn footbox instead of a zipped one. That saves about six-tenths of an ounce and a litre and a half of packed volume, and removes the only moving part on the quilt. If you have never wanted to open a quilt flat — and most people who own one never do — the Alsek is the better of the two.
Best for: Three-season backpacking where the quilt never needs to open flat
Full spec sheet
Katabatic Gear
Katabatic Palisade 30 Quilt
Katabatic's three-season quilt, and the one most of its customers should probably buy: 30 °F, a sewn differential-cut footbox, 19.8 ounces and a 4.5-litre packed size. The footbox is closed rather than zippered, which is lighter, warmer and smaller-packing than the Flex — the price is that it cannot become a blanket. For summer and shoulder-season trips in the mountain west it is the quilt that shows up most often on gear lists, and the loft figure (2.25 inches per side) is published so the rating has something behind it.
Best for: Summer and shoulder-season trips in dry mountain country
Full spec sheet