Review: Cumulus Selva 600 UQ

[echinotrix]

Hi everybody,

some time ago I got my Cumulus Selva 600 and did some testing with it. Here is my report.

Materials

• The inner shell (Pertex Quantum) is lightweight, durable and has a nice, soft touch.
• The outer shell (Pertex Endurance) is even more robust, windproof and very water resistant. Yet, it is a little heavy for my liking.
• The down is great, loft is fantastic!

Design and craftsmanship

• Sewing is perfect, very high quality.
• Well made differential cut.
• The rounded corners cinch up fine.
• Draft collars would be nice, but can be ordered if wanted. But even without them the head and foot end seal up pretty well.
• As the quilt does not have a side channel you have to hang it very taut. This causes pressure from the sides and alters the lay. Hence, comfort ist lost. In addition to this, it seemed to me that when hanging the quilt as taut as neccessary to avoid gaps under your buttocks, a gap is created beneath your inner calf. You can close this gap by attaching additional shock cords at the lateral webbing loops and run this cord over the ridgeline. Yet, this causes more side pressure and additional loss of comfort. I tried the quilt at -9°C (15°F) and was very warm, yet quite uncomfortable (compared to a Wooki).

Customer Service

• I ordered the quilt on January 8th. Cumulus guarantees shipping within 10-14 working days. On request I was told that the quilt will be shipped on January 20th (10 days). I asked, if it was possible to get it by January 20th, they said they would try to send it by January 18th. In the end they shipped on January 17th an I got it two days later. Perfect!
• Due to the lack of comfort (I am spoiled by the Wooki) I asked for refund. No problem. I did not even have to pay for the original shock cord I cut in pieces.
• Cumulus was happy about my feedback on the comfort issue and told me they would consider my notes in future redesign desicions.

Conclusion: good materials, very high quality craftsmenship, minor shortcomings in design, fair pricing, very good customer service. Finally, decent under quilts for European hangers, easily available.

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P.S.: Loft is in centimeters.

[Latt]

Thank you very much for this review.

I'm still considering this quilt, but am actually considering modding it right away, and fit a clew-suspension to it. I believe this might be the ideal suspension to this quilt - Heck. I think I'll even ask Cumulus if they can make that suspension for me.

[echinotrix]

I am pretty sure they can do this. They are quite open for individual requests. You also could try to ask if they are willing to include side channels. This considerably would improve the quilt, I think.

[EmilN]

I'm waiting for one of their lighter uq that i orderd.
Would it be possible to thread a shock cord throug the loops on the sides and use that as a primary suspension, and then use the intended primary as secondary?
Would that improve the lay?

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[echinotrix]

I tried that, but it is not as good as a real channel. The quilt sags in between the loops. Yet, it is still better than just hanging it from the corners. You do not need a secondary suspension, running the primary through the linelocks will do it. You can add some cinch locks at the corner loops. Then you can stretch the quilt by adjusting the corners.

[infrastellar]

Can you explain a bit your discomfort and inner calf gap?

I have this quilt and also a pre-production summer quilt with side channels and shockcord through the channels as others do. But dont really observe any comfort difference. The quilt is still hanging on shockcord, so at least mine is pretty adjustable with my own body. And was thinking the opposite. That the so called primary suspension is pretty useless here. I just hope I will not develop any comfort issues myself now

I hang also the foot end adjust shockord to the hammock suspension. I mean the one that you close to make the gap disappear.

[echinotrix]

Actually, I think I am not that much of a reference for under quilts.

I only tried a quite limited number of under quilts: a 3/4th DIY down under quilt, one DIY Kick *** UQ, a Winter Wooki, a DIY synthetic Wooki replica and the Cumulus quilt. In addition to this, I adopted the clew suspension mod on my DIY KAQ.

Concerning comfort, I have the following rating: both of the Wooki design quilts are extremely comfortable, no pressure noticable at all, perfect diagonol lay.

My 3/4th DIY underquilt and the full length KAQ are approximate, the KAQ is slightly more comfortable an has less gaps. The KAQ even gets more comfortable with the clew suspension mod.

The Cumulus Selva 600 is very warm, but most uncomfortable quilt I ever tried.

Yet, I never had the pleasure to sleep in a HG, JRB, LocoLibre or any other professional full length underquilt. Hence, I can not say if the Selva is better or worse than these full length under quilts.

But I can definitely say that it is considerably less comfortable than the Wooki style quilts I tried and also less comfortable than my KAQ qith the clew suspension mod.

[Latt]

I managed to sell my faulty UK hammocks quilt (obviously informed the buyer of it's challenges and lowered the price accordingly) and decided, particially thanks to this thread, to go the safe route, and ordered a warbonnet wookie instead.

[echinotrix]

Personally, I think that the wooki design ist way superior to the "traditional" UQ design. The main reason to this is that the fit is close to perfect, hence there are no gaps and the lay is comparable to not having an underquilt attached. All side channel quilts create more or less lateral pressure - the heavier the quilt, the higher the pressure, the lower the comfort. The Selva 600 needs to be hung very tightly, and thus creates a lot of pressure.

Yet, Cumulus is developing quickly and offers very good customer service. I might consider buying a custom quilt from them again in the future.