Vango Stellar double sleeping bag review: Super soft, but too bulky?

The romantic image of sharing a double sleeping bag typically involves a snuggling couple, one's head resting lovingly on their partner's shoulder while both gaze out across an ocean of stars and watch in awe as Perseids crash through the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Vango Stellar Double’s name seems to suggest such an image, one of twinkling stars and the grand arc of the Milky Way. But is this large, square-shaped, 3-season double sleeping bag actually a stellar performer? Let’s find out. Hey boys. Hey girls. (Grab your) superstar PJs. Here we go.

One of the immediately obvious features of the Stellar is that it feels luxuriously soft to the touch, with more of an organic, home duvet feel than even some of the best sleeping bags provide.

Its zipper also goes all the way around; its twin 2-way zips meet in the middle beneath a Velco patch. This not only allows you to split it into two blanket-like sheets, it also enables you to transform it into two separate bags. However, this is quite a fraught process, which we’ll come to later.

Also obvious right off the bat is its large size when packed away. It’s heavy too, weighing in at around 4kg/8.8lbs, so not a sleeping bag to take backpacking, that’s for sure. However, double bags typically aren’t. Indeed, this is a bag designed for cosiness while car camping and it certainly fits the brief.

Shape

The Stellar is a rectangular shaped double sleeping bag, its straight sides providing camping couples with plenty of room to toss and turn in the night.

This sort of design is the norm when it comes to double bags, where space is prioritised over insulating ability and warmth to weight. After all, when you’re literally sleeping in a bag with another human, you’re sharing plenty of body heat.

The hood arcs along the top, providing space for pillows. There’s the usual drawcord for bringing everything in tight on cold nights – though this is less important than on a standard single person sleeping bag and rather less practical too (unless you and two of your mates are trying to do an impression of “Cerberus as Worm”.

In total, its rectangular footprint measures 213 x 150cm, making it a particularly wide option and, let’s face it, the wider the better when it comes to sharing a sleeping space with another person, particularly when they start practicing kung-fu in their dreams.

The suggested max user height is 190cm, equivalent to 6 foot 2 inches, so its tall enough for most. My wife and I found it to be a spacious cocoon to slumber in and both really appreciated the additional width it provides.

Materials and warmth

The Stellar derives its insulating qualities from a double layer construction that provides twin layers of fill. The more fill, the more warm air can be trapped and used to help keep you warm on cooler nights.

Horizontal stitching creates the baffles that hold the fill in place, stopping it from bunching up in some places and leaving other regions bereft, which would lead to cold spots.

The fill itself is 60% siliconized hollow fibre and 40% polyester, which Vango calls ‘Grade A Quality’. I’d question whether or not it’s possible to get this amount of Grade A Quality fill in a sleeping bag that costs less than 70 quid, so I’d suggest you take this bit of the brand’s sales pitch with a pinch of salt.

A big advantage of synthetic fill is that it retains its thermal properties when wet. This means that, even if you’re caught out by a shower while wrapped up and reading in the porch of your tent, your bag won’t lose its ability to keep you warm.

As well as the usual Comfort, Limit and Extreme temperature ratings, which we’ll come to in a moment, Vango also suggests a usage minimum and maximum. It reckons between 10oC and 20oC is the ideal range for the Stellar – about right for nighttime in the British summer.

The brand made sure that the bag was independently tested to arrive at the official, Comfort, Limit and Extreme ratings.

Comfort, the minimum temperature at which an adult won’t get cold when in a relaxed position, came out as 4oC. The Limit rating, the minimum temperature at which an adult won’t get cold when curled into the foetal position (or similar), is -1oC. Finally, the Extreme rating, which you should obviously steer well clear of, is -16oC. This is the temperature at which an individual can expect to start suffering from frostbite regardless of the bag’s insulating prowess.

I was testing the bag in early summer, so I can’t attest to any sub-zero experiences. Having enjoyed a few balmy nights, I’d go along with Vango’s 10oC to 20oC range. Any hotter and I’d be looking to open the bag up for additional airflow, a possibility we’ll consider in more detail in a moment.

It should be noted that the similarly priced Outwell Campion Lux manages to achieve comparable temperature ratings in a double bag that’s around 1.25kg lighter than this, which indicates that the Stellar’s insulation isn’t the most efficient when it comes to warmth to weight.

A real selling point of the Stellar is its relatively luxurious feel. As mentioned, its soft to the touch, more akin to a home duvet than a standard sleeping bag.

The polyester used to achieve its softness in both the lining and shell is washable, which is a real plus. It’s a shame there’s no mention of any recycled materials or recyclability though.

Design features

The Stellar boasts zippers on each side, unlike most double sleeping bags, which usually feature an L-shaped zipper that enables the bag to be opened up like a blanket. Well, the Stellar goes further.

You can, of course, leave one side closed and use it like one giant blanket – albeit one with a zipper running down its centre. You can also leave the bottom open to provide ventilation, as well as a nice breezy sensation around your toes.

However, with the Stellar you can split the bag completely in two, providing a pair of medium-sized blankets or even a duo of separate single sleeping bags. This is, that is, after a bit of jiggery pokery with the zips.

This certainly adds a degree of versatility to the product and could come as a blessing if you have a particularly heated argument with your other half and want your own space for the night.

Perhaps you’ve disagreed about Mungrisdale Common’s worthiness as a Wainwright or maybe you ate the last of the Haribos during the descent without due consultation. Just try to remember your vows to one and other and work past it.

Now then, the zippers aren’t great. Despite Vango stating that the zip guard stops them from snagging, I found that they’d still occasionally bite the shell fabric. Also, working the zips around the corners at the foot of the bag was a bit of a chore too, often a frustrating one.

It sometimes got to the point where I felt as though I was going to damage the zip – never a good sign in a product that you’d ideally want to last for years and years.

It also puts me off the thought of going through the rigmarole of converting the bag between a double and two singles, and vice versa. It felt as though the issue was even worse while trying to zip up the single bags.

One nice touch is that the bag has hanging loops for when it’s not in use. The best way to store sleeping bags is to hang them, as leaving them in compression stuff sacks can have a negative effect on the fill’s ability to loft. So, if you’ve got the space to hang it in a cool, dry place, this is the best option.

Packability and weight

Vango states the Stellar weighs 3.6kg but I measured it as 4kg. It’s a good job the target market isn’t gram counting long-distance backpackers, as they don’t miss a gram, let alone 400. The stuff sack accounts for 90g, but even without this, the bag still weighs 3.91kg on its own.

Its size is an advantage when it comes to sleeping space but a disadvantage when it comes to portability. When packed away, it’s a pretty sizeable unit, measuring 59 x 37 x 30cm by my count.

Vango says that it’s ‘perfect for any outdoor adventure’. Again, take the sales pitch with a pinch of salt people – I can think of plenty of outdoor adventures where such a massive packed size is far from perfect.

Despite the size of the stuff sack, it’s also quite an effort to bully the bag into it. In the June heat, I’d find myself cursing this fact, as sweat began to collect on my brow and I began to wish it had the easy compressibility of a down filled bag.

The sack itself is reasonably standard, featuring a drawcord closure at the open end. If only its material could have had some stretchy elastane content, it would’ve made things that bit easier.

Value for money

While the Stellar is listed at £67.50 on Vango’s website, you can find it cheaper elsewhere, though generally still in excess of 50 quid.

I’d say this is decent value considering that it’s a cosy double sleeping bag with some useful features. However, you can get better warmth to weight with the slightly cheaper Campion Lux Double from Outwell.

Verdict

This is a very cosy double sleeping bag, though there are a few instances where it could have been better. The zips aren’t brilliant and working them around the corners takes quite a bit of effort.

It’s also larger and heavier than some of the similarly priced competition, which doesn’t help its case either. While the novelty that it splits into two single bags is nice, the effort required means you probably won’t do it very often.

To paraphrase Jurassic Park’s Ian Malcolm, it seems Vango were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

If the bulkiness is getting you down, check out our roundup of the best lightweight sleeping bags.

About the author

As a qualified Mountain Leader, avid wild camper and a family man, Alex Foxfield enjoys camping in all its forms. An expert on all things outdoor gear, he’s been testing and reviewing backpacking can car camping kit for many years.