The Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is a mummy model sleeping bag and suitable for 3 seasons and it is filled with recycled down. Read the review or watch the video!
- Weight: 1368 grams
- Pack size: 20 x 27 cm
- Size: 220 x 80 cm
- Price: € 230.00
The Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is a completely newly developed mummy sleeping bag within the Vaude range. A special feature of the Marwees 500 DWN is that it is filled with recycled down.
Vaude and environment
At Vaude, the environment has been at the heart of everything they do for years. The main driving force is the current owner and boss of Vaude Antje von Dewitz. This year is the first time that Vaude also uses recycled down in their products. Recycled down comes from consumer waste – post consumer waste – and you have to think of down beds, pillows, but also old down coats. These items are collected by companies that collect textiles for reuse. Where the product is no longer reusable as a whole, the valuable raw materials such as down are extracted. All this is done according to the guidelines of the Global Recycling Standard Guidelines.
Down standard
For their products that contain new down, Vaude only uses down from animals that have been slaughtered for consumption. Not even the animals that are kept for the production of foie gras. All Vaude’s down comes from Poland and the production chain is subject to strict quality control. With this recycled down, Vaude has no idea of where this down originally came from. This could go against Vaude’s own down standard, but reuse is better than new down regardless of the source in my eyes.
After the down is removed from the clothing, it is washed and sterilized at high temperatures. This process regenerates the insulating properties of down. Here too, Vaude claims that it takes into account the energy that this costs and that it also comes from a responsible source. Okay, till so far the background with the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN. Over to the sleeping bag itself.
Materials and weights
The Vaude Marwees 500 DWN has an outer cover of 50 Denier 300T ripstop polyester. The inner lining is made of the same material but is not a ripstop. The sleeping bag is not provided with a water-repellent layer on the outside (Durable Water Repellent DWR). The filling is as said from recycled down: 75% duck down and 25% duck feather.
The sleeping bag has a pack size of 20 x 27 centimeters and a weight according to Vaude of 1200 grams ex and 1300 grams incl. the compression bag. I weigh the sleeping bag with compression bag on my calibrated scale at 1368 grams. Once rolled out, the sleeping bag is 220 cm long and 80 cm wide at the shoulders, making it suitable for people measuring around 185 meters.
CUIN value
The down has a CUIN value of 550. CUIN says something about the quality of the down and the degree to which it insulates. The higher the value, the higher the quality and, unfortunately, the price. 550 is a good average for a sleeping bag that is mainly used from late spring to early fall. Something that is also confirmed by the insulation values. These are measured in a laboratory according to a European test, making sleeping bags comparable to each other. The comfort temperature is 2 degrees, the Limit -3 degrees and the Extreme -20 degrees.
Compression bag
The compression bag of the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is of good quality. It is very large so I can easily put the sleeping bag in it. Compressing is also easy: just roll the top of the bag. The closure with two aluminum hooks and a daiseychain on the sides of the bag give it a nice technical appearance. I think it’s a bit of a shame that the compression bag is not waterproof. Once out of the compression bag, the sleeping bag needs less than half an hour to get really beautiful. Do this well before you crawl into the sleeping bag.
Zipper guide rails
The sleeping bag has a nice long YYK zipper on the left. It is a two-way zipper. You can zip it completely to the top, but if you get warm feet, you can still open the zipper there. The zipper has a zip garage on the top so that the metal zipper cannot touch your face. The zipper has a great pull tab; handy with cold hands. Behind the zipper is a well-stocked draft hose. Nice detail is that the zipper is equipped with a kind of guide rails on both sides. The usefulness soon becomes clear to me: when the sleeping bag is zipped shut, the zipper never gets stuck in the draft vent. That is sometimes different.
Hoodie
The hood is quite spacious so you can choose to put a pillow in your sleeping bag instead of underneath. The hood has a drawstring and therefore fits well around the head. However, the plastic cordlock sometimes gets in the way when you sleep on your right side. The part of the cord that you are lying on is flat while the rest of the cord is round. A clever idea, but it is unfortunate that the flat part soon shows fraying by pulling it into the cordlock.
Heat collar
The Vaude Marwees 500 DWN has a very thick heat collar with drawstring and snap button around the neck. You will certainly not lose any heat here! On the inside you will find a small pocket with zipper for your passport or a pair of ear plugs. The sleeping bag has two loops on the outside at the foot end. This allows you to hang it on a hanger if you do not use the sleeping bag for a long time.
Practice
I was able to test the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN during camping in the winter and spring of 2019. In the beginning it took some getting used to the air of the sleeping bag. It has a peculiar fragrance, but that disappeared after a few nights of sleep. The outer cover is strong and flexible. The inner cover strong and soft. In terms of material, it is a 100% “plastic” sleeping bag, but that is not how it feels. The inner lining in particular reminds me strongly of that of a nice cotton cover. With my height of 169.5 cm, the sleeping bag was quite spacious and long, but because you can tighten the hood and the draft vent I had hardly any problems with heat loss. At the feet, the sleeping bag has a box shape that gives feet plenty of room.
Nice and warm but…
With 550 CUIN and a comfort temperature of 2 degrees, the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is certainly not a sleeping bag for days with freezing cold. In fact … I think the 2 degrees are a bit too positive. Now this is a lab value, but a few nights of 5 degrees still gave a somewhat cold feeling in the morning. A set of thermal underwear is the solution. The daily ritual of packing and unpacking yielded no surprising insights. Are you going to go camping? Keep in mind that the sleeping bag does not have a water-repellent layer. Feet against the wet tent cloth results in a wet sleeping bag.
Verdict
The Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is in my opinion a great sleeping bag for three-season use as long as the temperatures do not drop below five degrees. And if they do: use long underwear. The sleeping bag is pleasant to use and sleeps extremely comfortably. So far the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN does what you expect from a good sleeping bag. That Vaude adds an extra purchasing argument to it thanks to the recycled down, is very nice! A disadvantage is the lack of a water-repellent layer on the outside. There is no environmental reason for this because Vaude proves in other products to have environmentally friendly versions. The price of € 230.00 is competitive with sleeping bags made from non-recycled down and I think the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN is worth this. I rate the Vaude Marwees 500 DWN at 8.1 out of 10 points.
Information: www.vaude.com
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