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- Mar 17, 2010
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- 4,256
it's basically kifaru's take on the usgi poncho liner, using high-tech materials such as climashield. for more info, kifaru woobie product page, climashield.com. there's also the doobie - basically uses 4 oz of the climashield insulation (woobie uses 2 oz.). here's kifaru's in-action pics so i didn't bother to take my own:
i was using it every night about two weeks ago testing it when the night time highs were into the 50's. the high tonight (pretty much all week) is 70's now so it's time to stop using it and write up my opinion of it.
in summary: i think it's just as warm (if not warmer!) than the wool blankets i compared it to (more details on that later). i don't have any scientific equipment to actually test the insulative capability of climashield but i asked another person to use it and she agreed it's definitely warm/er. i think the feeling of being warmer is because it drapes so easily against the skin (thus minimizing air pockets) and so it warms up almost immediately. in my own testing, it only took about a minute after i covered myself from head to toe to peel it off down to mid-chest and expose my feet to feel comfortable. the wool blankets took a full 15 min before i felt the need to peel it down and even then i only peeled off about shoulder-level to feel the same comfort as the woobie...so yeah, giving the benefit of the doubt to the wool blankets, i'd say the woobie is at least as warm.
...the woobie wins hands down in terms of feel though. the rhinoskin shell literally feels like silk to me. blindfolded, i can't tell which one is the woobie and which is a 100% silk tie. i'll actually e-mail kifaru to see if i can buy just the rhinoskin without any climashield at all. even in the summer i can't sleep without a blanket on, no matter how hot it is...just something about covering my skin/body that makes me feel "secure". yeah, i know...here comes the teasing
look into the "dear penthouse" archives, i think i got published more on kifaru's rhinoskin here: http://www.kifaru.net/regrhinoskin.htm.
you can stop reading here but if you're curious, i'll go into insane details here like i usualy do in my reviews here's the climashield tag:
the climashield insulation is sandwiched between kifaru's own rhinoskin o.d. green shell on one side and a foliage green shell on the other (it looks silvery in pics especially with the flash on). also a stuff sack that's sewn-in is included so you won't misplace it.
it's very easy to stuff it in the included stuff sack, unlike most sleeping bags i've tried (that's a 32 oz bottle for size comparison). it's because it's way more compressible than that to begin with.
the kifaru stuff sack is 11"x18" but i have an 8"x11" stuff sack and the woobie fits in there easily too. if i use two hands to compress it down i can actually compress it down to about half that size still! okay, it's insanely compressible. any thin materials will do that but how warm is it? that's why i have two military surplus wool blankets to compare it to.
here's a swedish military surplus 100% wool blanket folded down several times to approximate the height of the stuffed woobie.
the angle is funky here but the woobie is edge to edge with the blanket - same height but the wool blanket is 4 times as wide. that's as small as i can fold the wool blanket by the way.
the 2nd wool blanket i'm using for comparison is a russian military surplus 80% wool blend (bottom one). the russian blanket is noticeably thicker and rougher feeling than the swedish one as a side note.
after i pull the woobie out of the stuff sack the thing i noticed immediately is how fluffy it gets right away despite being compressed as far as i can with two hands.
it's like one of those inflatable sleeping pads - it just sucks air. kifaru says that shell is waterproof but i have yet to test it while raining. probably highly unlikely this will see rain since i always bring a tarp even on day hikes.
another angle, top to bottom: russian blanket, swedish blanket, and the woobie.
i was using it every night about two weeks ago testing it when the night time highs were into the 50's. the high tonight (pretty much all week) is 70's now so it's time to stop using it and write up my opinion of it.
in summary: i think it's just as warm (if not warmer!) than the wool blankets i compared it to (more details on that later). i don't have any scientific equipment to actually test the insulative capability of climashield but i asked another person to use it and she agreed it's definitely warm/er. i think the feeling of being warmer is because it drapes so easily against the skin (thus minimizing air pockets) and so it warms up almost immediately. in my own testing, it only took about a minute after i covered myself from head to toe to peel it off down to mid-chest and expose my feet to feel comfortable. the wool blankets took a full 15 min before i felt the need to peel it down and even then i only peeled off about shoulder-level to feel the same comfort as the woobie...so yeah, giving the benefit of the doubt to the wool blankets, i'd say the woobie is at least as warm.
...the woobie wins hands down in terms of feel though. the rhinoskin shell literally feels like silk to me. blindfolded, i can't tell which one is the woobie and which is a 100% silk tie. i'll actually e-mail kifaru to see if i can buy just the rhinoskin without any climashield at all. even in the summer i can't sleep without a blanket on, no matter how hot it is...just something about covering my skin/body that makes me feel "secure". yeah, i know...here comes the teasing
look into the "dear penthouse" archives, i think i got published more on kifaru's rhinoskin here: http://www.kifaru.net/regrhinoskin.htm.you can stop reading here but if you're curious, i'll go into insane details here like i usualy do in my reviews
here's the climashield tag:
the climashield insulation is sandwiched between kifaru's own rhinoskin o.d. green shell on one side and a foliage green shell on the other (it looks silvery in pics especially with the flash on). also a stuff sack that's sewn-in is included so you won't misplace it.
it's very easy to stuff it in the included stuff sack, unlike most sleeping bags i've tried (that's a 32 oz bottle for size comparison). it's because it's way more compressible than that to begin with.
the kifaru stuff sack is 11"x18" but i have an 8"x11" stuff sack and the woobie fits in there easily too. if i use two hands to compress it down i can actually compress it down to about half that size still! okay, it's insanely compressible. any thin materials will do that but how warm is it? that's why i have two military surplus wool blankets to compare it to.
here's a swedish military surplus 100% wool blanket folded down several times to approximate the height of the stuffed woobie.
the angle is funky here but the woobie is edge to edge with the blanket - same height but the wool blanket is 4 times as wide. that's as small as i can fold the wool blanket by the way.
the 2nd wool blanket i'm using for comparison is a russian military surplus 80% wool blend (bottom one). the russian blanket is noticeably thicker and rougher feeling than the swedish one as a side note.
after i pull the woobie out of the stuff sack the thing i noticed immediately is how fluffy it gets right away despite being compressed as far as i can with two hands.
it's like one of those inflatable sleeping pads - it just sucks air. kifaru says that shell is waterproof but i have yet to test it while raining. probably highly unlikely this will see rain since i always bring a tarp even on day hikes.
another angle, top to bottom: russian blanket, swedish blanket, and the woobie.
