Dino rover wrote:For $350 on wildearth there are s2s ember 2 long quilts new
am I missing something about the zpacks advantagehere?
Like Benjinot said there are quite a few differences.
if we compare with the sts Ember 2 as you mentioned.
Zpacks weighs 349g whereas the ember 2 weighs 718g for the large. That's double the weight.
The zpacks bag has a zip that can be done all the way up in colder weather, the ember has straps, but no zip.
The zpacks bag has vertical baffles, the ember has vertical baffles just for the top half of the bag. Sewn through baffles might help keep the shell weight of the bag down, but compromises the warmth of the bag, even adding more down to compensate doesn't resolves the cold spots issue, and ends up weighing about the same anyway.
The Zpacks is rated to 5°C, the ember is rated to 2°C. Take what I say next with a grain of salt because this is purely my own opinion based on nothing but my own experience, but I have used zpacks bags (not this one) down to 3-4°C below it's rated temp and with a baselayer and beanie, been fine. But I had the STS Micro 2 sleeping bag before that and I found it cold at it's comfort rating, which aligns with my experience of other bags with EN13537 rating, so I believe zpacks are a little more conservative. Again just my experience. Also on that note the Ember's aren't EN13537 ratings anyway, so it's hard to compare.
The Zpacks uses 900 fill power treated down compared to the ember's 750 fill power.
So for me the deal breaker is the weight, I was looking for the utmost lightest bag for weight, and so I chose the Zpacks.