TYVEK BIVY First Look: The Next Level of LIGHTWEIGHT Camping Gear!

[@humancomputerinteraction8237]

Maybe it's big so you can slide a sleeping mat in there

[@johanvanbeek7138]

How's the breathabilty?

[@travellingDAS]

Me + Tyvek bivvy on a dry night will have the same outcome as me without a bivvy on a wet night.😂 Without a sealed zip / seams it’s only ever going to work well in very dry climates. This combined with a tarp might work as an ultralight option that is way cheaper than a Dyneema tent though but without sealed seams I’d worry about water ingress from the ground. I use a Sol bivvy as part of my emergency kit, it’s always in my trekking pack.

[@lutze5086]

I don't believe the lightweight tyvek 3f uses is intended to be waterproof, before even considering the seams. It's a breathable splash and dirt guard Use a foam mat underneath as a ground barrier

[@jamesbowen5573]

You have to be smarter than the Tool you're using. Have you considered rolling over on your side to protect the zipper? I'm not saying submerged in water. But you can have it far enough on the side near the ground where rain is not pouring in the dang thing. And you can always carry some Gorilla Tape to put over the zipper if you're expecting a lot of rain. I always carry Gorilla Tape.

[@jamesbowen5573]

​@@lutze5086yeah that's my understanding too. Although it's supposed to be highly water resistant. I've heard of people spring it with silicone spray do waterproof it but that kind of negates some of the breathability too. But anything's better than that mylar crap. People get it thinking they're going to be safe and are lucky if they walk away with their lives. Like this lady thinks she could just crawl in that thing with what she has on in this video and be able to spend the night in it in fairly cold weather. That mylar is not insulation it's a reflector and when you're touching it it is not reflecting it's sucking the heat right out of you. And it creates condensation like you wouldn't believe especially when the temperature drops.

[@hanskloss1331]

Borah Bivy for me 😊

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

ground sleeping sucks, especially if you toss and turn a lot. You'll wake up "off" of the sleeping pad, with some or all of your sleeping bag wet. Seal the seams if that bothers you. I use a hammock, and have no desire at all to go where there's no trees. Lack of trees, means that there's no WATER or its WAY too damned cold and there's nothing to eat. Eff that noise!

[@richardwysocki8300]

Looks great, but... how is the breathability? Will sleeping bag or quilt retain excessive moisture? From reading reviews, people wanted this to be several inches wider and have taped seams/zipper. These upgrades would add little weight. So, room for improvement.

[@ExploreTrekAdventure]

We think it is plenty wide but having taped seams would be nice. It is more for wind protection than heavy rain in its current form.

[@jordandent2717]

Did you test this out in the field? I’m looking to add a few degrees to my sleep system. Do you think this does that job? Thanks

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

it'll add a lot more than a few. figure on adding 20F degrees, If you wrap around around a hammock. If you put dry debris between your "inside' bag and the bivy, it'll add even more warmth That's often feasible to do, but sometimes all of the debris is wet. I folded over the bottom corners of the rectangular bivy and taped them into a 'mummy" configuration. This saves a bit of heat lost from your legs. I use this bivy as my sleeping bag. I cover it with an "envelope" made out of a couple of heavy duty 55 gallon drum liners.. You have to tent the bivy off of yourself, and tent the envelope off of the bivy. So two ridgelines are needed (if you use the envelope trick. . If you sleep on the ground, youll need a very good sleeping pad or a thick layer of dry debris. If it's cold, I hang the hammock 6" off of the ground and kick debris under it, so as to stop air from flowing under me.

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

A shelter or fire can't help you when you have to get food, eliminate waste, or get and process firewood. My bivy and the rest of my kit can be worn as clothing, set up as a canopy, and I have other pieces of gear that help me be warm, even when I'm not camped-out. I use a pair of 1/4 lb each Amazon bugnet suits, Naturally, they are intended to protect me from biting insects. However, I sometimes use wraps of a couple of 1/2 lb each Amazon "cut-leaf" type of camo nets betwee the bug suits, wearing the assemblies as "longjohns". I also have real long johns, 2 sets of diffferent types of milsurp polypro. if it's really cold, I put dry debris between the bugnet suits, and between the wraps of camo net, (this time outside of my cammmies) I use both a 1.5 lb daypack and a 1 lb buttpack. That way, I can empty out the packs, stuff them with debris and use them as sleeping pads (normally up in the 1 lb net-hammock). I had to add a much wider, stiffer belt to the buttpack, and the hip pads are my spare t shirt and boxers The padding for my shoulder harness is my spare socks. If it's not brutally cold, I dont use the polypro longjohns while hiking, saving them for sleeping. They ride in a dry bag, in case all of my clothing gets wet. Then I can strip off of the wet clothing, get inside of the reflective tyvek bivy and its envelope. Then I use my shemagh to dry off, get into the polypropelene long johns and back inside of the tyvek bivy and its plastic envelope. Then I can wring-out the wet clothing and either make a fire on the spot or move to where i can do so.. Once I have the fire, I can proceed to dry out my clothing. Ideally, hot rocks will help me do so.

[@hanskloss1331]

and your ancestors were neanderthals and didn't even wear shoes LOL 😜

[@jamesbowen5573]

First of all. It would be 100% waterproof if you roll over on your side and have The Zipper protected on the side or near the bottom. Next let me address the fact that that mylar is worthless. You're going to need a lot of clothes between you and the mylar for it to work at all. If you're out day hiking and it's fairly warm and you're wearing shorts with no jacket that mylar is not going to do anything for you at night when the temperature drops. Mylar is a reflector of infrared radiation. It is not an insulator. You might feel warmer or imagine you feel warmer for a short period of time. But it's going to suck the heat out of you if you have any kind of contact with the bivy which of course you will. Mylar bivys and shelters are gimmicky at best. The only thing mylar is good for is for reflecting heat from a small fire when you use it as a tarp or a wall behind you to reflect the heat down on you. And even if you have a sleeping bag with you, you're my little bivy is not going to breathe like the Tyvek. Which means you're going to get a lot of condensation. It is unavoidable. And of course that's going to get you and your clothes wet which will not only make you colder but dangerously cold. These companies will tell you anything to get you to buy their products and for some reason they are getting away with it even though it puts people's lives at risk. Probably because no one really uses them regularly and usually only keep them as an emergency and if you don't have an emergency you never find out the hard way and if you do you probably don't survive to complain about it. And it would be almost impossible for your family to sue the company to prove that the mylar actually killed you, it will be blamed on the cold weather. At best it will keep the wind off of you and the rain off of you for a short period of time you will be warm. But give it a few hours and the condensation will be a very bad thing. Since you make KZbin videos and are recommending this you should try sleeping in this thing without a sleeping bag just using those clothes you're wearing right there, when the temperatures get down in the 40's at night. And if you really want to learn something do it during a rainstorm. The scenario being you were on a Day hike and for whatever reason you were not able to get back in on time and you only have what's in your backpack including this emergency bivvy. I think you will be singing a different tune before the night is over. At least with the Tyvek there won't be as much condensation. Plus you don't have it in your mind that you're using it for an emergency. Which means if you have it you'll probably have a regular sleeping bag. I hate to say it but people who rely on this Emergency Equipment without field testing it in an environment where you can tap out easily for safety reasons are complete fools. The worst thing in the world is having false security and then relying on it when it is all you have and finding out the hard way the ugly truth of life which includes physics. Now if you're recommending to carry the emergency one and you have a Ultra Light Summer sleeping bag that folds down about the same size as that emergency bivvy it'll at least go a lot better for you and will only be a matter of will the night be over before the condensation completely soaks your little sleeping bag. Which of course you could spray with silicone waterproofing spray which doesn't weigh a thing but would give you a little bit of added protection from the condensation. I know it's a few extra Oz but the whole point is surviving. What's the point of Shaving off a few Oz if you're dead in the morning?

[@danielsingh9415]

The question becomes which one is more breathable, I've heard the SOL bivy causes alot of condensation, but I'm unclear on how the Tyvek bivy compares?

[@ExploreTrekAdventure]

Going from the feel and weight of the fabric I would think the Tyvek bivy would be more breathable.

[@danielsingh9415]

@@ExploreTrekAdventure it will be part of my kit when i convert to a flat tarp. Alot more options for setup, vs the one-way setup shaped syl-nylon tarp I use now, or plan to use 😝

[@travellingDAS]

The SOL definitely causes a lot of condensation but it is really designed for emergency use, hopefully no more than a few hours.

[@daphneraven6745]

That’s something I haven’t experimented with, but I’ve been thinking lately that perhaps, tossing one of those nice big packets of silica gel into the sleeping bag with the bivvy bag around it, would take care of any extra condensation. my intention is just to see a small pocket inside my sleeping bag and a spot, where I’m not likely to roll over on it, to slip the silica gel packet into.

[@danielsingh9415]

@@daphneraven6745 I think the silica gel pack is only for small spaces without continuous off-gassing, like our bodies, I think it would quickly be overwhelmed, at double it's weight at best? Best to allow water vapor thru, and condense in a synthetic topper bag, that won't compromise ur down sleeping bag?

[@daphneraven6745]

ma’am, that problem that you have about bugs getting near your face outside, might be alleviated. If you were to get a bit of bug net mesh, and perhaps also a small, flexible rod with and caps, and you can create a pocket for the flexible rod, so that it holds the hood open and away from your face while you sleep, and you can have the bug net installed across the opening, so that you don’t get any condensation in your bag, not from breathing, anyway, And bugs are not a problem.

[@better.better]

wonder why they didn't put a bug net on? I suppose you can add one yourself by sewing a bag out of bug net material. tyvek isn't designed to be an insulative material just breathable. in the summer it'll seem stifling because it's preventing air movement, in the winter you'd be hard-pressed to know it's doing any insulating at all. not sure why they put the zipper on top, at least if the zipper is on the side there's some chance to deflect water. the first tent my father got me, back in the eighties, was a bivvy from Marmot. it was designed with a hood held open with a single collapsible tent pole and a bug net that would be in front of my face if the outer zipper wasn't zipped in storm-mode.

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

a petite woman might be able to use the Escape, but a good size man cannot. It's much too small. Every place that it touches you forms a cold spot. the best such bivy is the XL sized Trifecta, 1.5 lbs, $95 from 2GoSystems. It's big enough. In fact, i fold over the bottom cornders and tape them into a mummy configuration. this saves quite a bit of otherwise wasted heat given off by my legs. If you pull a ridgline and a hammock thru the Trifecta, it'll suffice to let you sleep at 50F, in just cammies. If, however, you'll envelope the trifecta in 2 taped-together, 2.3 oz each heavy duty 55 gallon drum liners, it will let you sleep ok in the hammock at 40F degrees, in cammies, unlaced boots, 3 pairs of sock liners, gloves, balaclava and shemagh. You can't have your face inside of the bivy, or the condensation from your breath will freeze your butt off. The 'envelope requires a 3/4 length sleeping bag zipper and its own separate ridgeline. The layer of trapped air between the bivy and the envelope is what protects you from rain, cold and wind. The bivy, by itself, is not all that great. Remove the rain flaps from the zipper, or they WILL jam with you inside of the bivy! If you'll get a couple of 1/2 lb each Amazon "cut leaf' type of camo nets and a couple of their full-body bugnet 'suits" and wear those items as longjohns, inside of the bivy and envelope, they will let you sleep ok at 30F, If I add dry debris to those net-items, I can sleep ok at 20F and still be mobile. If I add a LOT of dry debris, between the bivy and the envelope, I can sleep ok at 10F, but that debris is not portable. Heated water bottles or stones inside the footbox of the bivy, give you another 10F degrees of warmth, for 2-3 hours. So will exercise and the UCO lantern, with a beexwax candle. This latter trick, however, wont let you get any sleep and it requires that you set up the hammock as a 'slingchair' in a reclining position. I've used the rocks and UCO to dry out enough dry debris to use as insulation under the netting-wraps. None of this gear is affected by its getting wet. It's all useful in hot weather and it's all "wearable" as clothing. I use both a buttpack and a daypack. I empty them out, stuff them with dry debris and use them as sleeping pads, normally up in the hammmock. I had to add a much wider, stiffer belt to the buttpack. The sleep-shelter gear gets folded, rolled-up and lashed to the top of the buttpack and then the day pack rides on the buttpack. In this manner, the gear serves as a pack frame. The spare sock liners serve as pads for my shoulder harness and the spare boxers shorts and T shirt serve as hip pads. I hate every oz and every cubic inch of stuff that I have to lug around. So I make almost everything serve at least 2 purposes.

[@hanskloss1331]

I disagree spend the cash and get a Borah Cuben fiber Bivy

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

@@hanskloss1331 oh, hell no! it can't be opened flat or worn as a poncho. Its not reflective and it costs twice as much? eff that noise

[@davidwhite5858]

No way that this is big enough for a guy like Travis Kelce !

[@ExploreTrekAdventure]

Taylor would totally fit. 🤣