TETON Sports Polara 3-in-1 Review

Even the most casual observer can see the thoughtful care and effort that went into designing and constructing the Polara 3-in-1. It's large and roomy, well-crafted, warm, and chocked full of features that allow campers to customize the bag to their personal sleeping preferences.

Performance Comparison

Warmth

Boasting a layering system on par with your favorite ski jacket, the warmth level of the Polara can be customized by an integrative design that allows it to adapt to many types of users or climates. This dynamic feature, along with its 0-degree rating, resulted in top scores for the Polara in this metric.

If temps are warmer than expected, simply unzip and remove the toasty fleece liner and sleep in just the main bag. Still too warm? Grab the removable liner and zip it together to create your own fleece bivy (we then suggest sleeping on top of the main bag for added comfort and padding). You can even leave the fleece unzipped to be used more like a blanket. For colder mountain temps, zip the liner back in place, anchor it with the bag's interior velcro tabs — and voila — you're ready for some of the coldest air Mother Nature can blow into your camp.

In addition to this bag's layered design, the Polara also offers one of the most impressive shoulder baffles we've ever seen. The baffle is attached just below the bag's heavily insulated opening, and both the main opening and baffle have separate drawstrings, which allow them to be cinched tightly around the shoulders and neck. This double-cinching system is very effective at retaining body heat, and we found it particularly useful during a cold-weather camping trip in Bryce Canyon National Park, where nighttime temps were 20 degrees.

During our controlled tests, we used a laser thermometer to observe the interior temperature of our Polara. After lying inside it in a controlled environment for 5 minutes, we scanned the bag's interior liner just above our stomach. Our Polara registered 91.5 degrees, one of our top readings.

Comfort

Stuffed to the hilt with SuperLoft Elite Hollow Fiber, we found the Polara 3-in-1 to be quite thick and cushy. Its tough taffeta exterior, thick insulation, and soft PolarLite Fleece liner create a sleep system that some campers may find comfortable enough to use without a sleeping pad or camper bed. This bag is excellent for a wide variety of users, from young children to teens to adults. The only area of limited use would be for campers who are tall or larger-bodied. The Polara could feel too narrow or confining due to the nature of the fleece liner.

We flopped the Polara down on a hard-packed, gravel campground road and climbed inside for 10 minutes to feel firsthand just how much natural padding the bag has. It goes without saying that we were quite impressed. This bag received one of our highest scores for its natural padding.

We did find one potentially negative aspect with the fleece liner: When layered inside the bag, it tends to grab onto other fabrics like underwear, nightshirts, longjohns, and socks. Although providing a very noticeable increase in warmth when attached as an added layer, the fleece liner is less accommodating to movement when compared to polyester, poly-cotton, or flannel. The grabby nature of the liner created a more constrictive space for our taller or larger-bodied testers. Some users felt overly cocooned or knotted by the fabric, even a little claustrophobic at times.

Features

Cool features are definitely a strong suit of the Polara, and it has the score to prove it. In fact, it has more features than nearly every bag we looked at.

Some of our favorite tidbits about this bag are a limited lifetime warranty, excellent zipper quality, a full-length draft tube, velcro zipper closure, and a water-resistant shell. During our water tests, our Polara performed exceptionally well, keeping an entire cup of water neatly pooled on its surface for more than 5 minutes.

After months of use, we fell in love with the outstanding zipper system on the Polara. Although it has more zippers than any bag in our lineup, each set glides smoothly and rarely snags on the exterior fabric or interior liner.

One defining feature of the Polara is its zipper closure. This simple addition is increasingly omitted by most manufacturers, so when we see one, it stands out. The Polara's velcro zipper closure is wide and sturdy and firmly fastens the end of the bag together, preventing the zipper from accidentally separating during a chilly evening.

The Polara also boasts a very plush, full-length zipper draft tube, which is complemented by its thick shoulder baffle. Both provide excellent protection from cold air. Specifically, the draft tube runs the entire length of the zipper to the end of the foot box. It's wide and very well insulated, allowing it to effectively block cold air from sneaking through the micro gaps that naturally occur in zipper teeth.

The Polara has two storage pockets, one on the liner and one inside the main bag, so regardless of the combination of the sleep system you choose, you will always have a place to store keys or a cell phone. On the flip side, we disliked the Polara's cleaning instructions. Tags on the bag specifically require the bag to be hand-washed and placed flat to air dry. This bag is very bulky, and being easy to clean is a very desirable feature. We feel these washing directions are a drawback. Luckily, the bag's removable liner can be washed separately, making it easy to do a simple refresher.

Packed Size

While not the smallest packed size on the market, it's also not the largest. For the quality, warmth, comfort, and features this bag provides, we feel it packs up relatively well, all with a stuff sack that has compression straps to condense the size a little more. Overall, we don't feel the compression straps are necessary. They make for great handles but really don't reduce the size all that much. Additionally, we feel a little more than average effort is required to stuff the bag into its storage bag. If we had our way, we would have the manufacturer make the stuff sack just a little bit larger.

Should You Buy the Teton Sports Polara 3-in-1?

Avid campers who spend time in a wide variety of nature settings and climates will love the Polara 3-in-1. Its layered system makes it extremely versatile. When fully configured, this bag is also very warm. So, if your camping plans involve cooler temps, we think this bag is a great option. The Polara is great for die-hard campers, boaters, hunters, or RV enthusiasts who want the ability to customize their setup based on the temperatures they are sleeping in.

What Other Camping Sleeping Bags Should You Consider?

If you want a nice warm bag but don't need all of the layering options, we think you should check out the The North Face Wawona Bed 20. If staying super cozy and warm is your main goal, look no further than the Alps OutdoorZ Redwood. Its soft flannel interior and heavy canvas shell will swallow you up and keep you toasty warm all night long. If you'd rather have something big enough for two, take a look at the Kelty Tru.Comfort 20 Doublewide or Nemo Jazz 30 Double.