How much life you can realistically get out of inflatable sleeping pad? I keep constantly seeing these horror stories of them leaking or delaminating after just few uses. Even the expensive premium brands. That can be potentially dangerous if you are in the middle of nowhere. Ccf pads can last whole thru-hike before going flat and even after that they still be somewhat usefull. They are cheap too.
Are there any bombproof inflatables that you can really trust?
don´t remember the story behind this one too good but it broke after a week or so and it just kept escalating on every use until i got a new one for free after sending it back for examination
2 winters without problems so far with the new one
Bunch of good labor day sales on thermarest pads btw. Don't know about how durable they are...but thought I'd contribute within the same realm of topic anyway.
https://www.thermarest.com/sleeping-pads/trek-and-travel/trail-pro-sleeping-pad/trail-pro.html
https://www.thermarest.com/sleeping-pads/fast-and-light/prolite-apex-sleeping-pad/prolite-apex.html
https://www.thermarest.com/sleeping-pads/fast-and-light/prolite-plus-sleeping-pad/prolite-plus.html
Depends on how much care you take with your site selection and gear maintenance.
Do you autistically use a groundsheet?
Are you ultralighting it?
Do you go camping twice a year?
The cheapest thermarest venture has thick materials but is low R and heavier than other models. Life time warranty and moron proof in comparison to other expensive models.
i've probably spent 200 nights on the 40 dollar foam cabelas pad. inflatables are for ultra light hiking only and are a consumable like a water filter.
I just buy the $40 klymit sleeping pads, they last me at least a year with reasonable care, and are a drop in the bucket if they shit they bed.
Same here. Small, pretty light, and r4.0 for like $60.
Just a foam pad for summer, inflatable for late fall, both for dead of winter
The klymit r values were waaay inflated, their insulated sleeping pads have a real value of like 1.9. they're comfy for sure but not really warm on their own
You can't beat bubble wrap, I don't know what the R rating is but 3 - 4 layers of this is extremely light weight, comfy enough and very very efficient at insulating you from the cold. It's so cheap it doesn't matter that you only get 6 or 7 nights out of it before you start to lose bubbles and need to replace, it costs pennies and will never fail catastrophically in the same way inflatable mat can and often do, usually in the fricking dark while you're trying to sleep when it's raining outside and cold as frick.
Take the bubble wrap pill and make all the terminal consoomers and shills seethe with unmitigated rage.
>listen to random anon
>Go hiking with 1sq ft of bubble wrap
>lay it out for the night and ready to get some premium rest
>lay down
>*P-P-P-PPOP-P--P-P-P-PPOP-PP-P-P-PP-POP
>sleeping pad is now a flat sheet of plastic with some bubbles to use as as a pillow
>Just use single use plastic crap as your bed every night. If you dont use disposable plastic you're a consoooomer
>Just use single use plastic crap as your bed every night. If you dont use disposable plastic you're a consoooomer
I find the notion of a bubble wrap sleeping pad very silly, but if it's secondhand bubble wrap, it was already headed for the landfill anyway. Of course, the guy you were responding to implied he buys it new. Probably just bait/a meme regardless.
Even if someone else is dumber/more of a consooomer than you are, paying $200+ for at most $5 worth of Chinese nylon and polyurethane (muh global materials) is as consooomer as it gets.
I do find it hilarious it when Orvis, Patagonia, REI, LL Bean and so on describe their Chinese bullshit as "imported" Oh, it's imported? From Finland, perhaps? Switzerland, perchance?
Make peace with the fact that your back is carrying a big wad of Chinese petroleum byproduct synthetics while you're "being at one with nature" out there, folks. Your $250 Therm-a-Rest will last years, but it's still going to end up choking a sea turtle decades or centuries down the line.
i tried it out.
its like R= 0.3-0.5 per layer. reflectix (bubble wrap with mylar glued to it) claims to be R=1.1 when slept directly on but i don't believe it based on experience.
foam is always going to win in r value per weight and also price.
it actually isn't that bad in terms of popping. i use a reflectix square as my sit and knee pad and the bubbles last a solid year or more. if your back's lying on it, its the same as a bed of nails, you don't pop any of them because your weight's evenly distributed. sitting up is also disributed enough. only stepping on it while standing up realistically goes POPOPOPOPOPPP
My friend uses his dads thermorest, which has sat in a hot garage since the 1990s. It's fine, just stinks.
I've had the same thermarest since 2013. Taken it on about 30 boyscout campouts
I can’t even get an inflatable to last an entire night, always pumping it around 3 am. The durability of the material and the valve is always a concern.
The space saving and R value is worth it though. Foam pads fricking suck ass, would rather lay on fallen pine branches.
I've been using a cheap foam mat ($8) together with a really cheap 8cm thick inflatable pad ($25), both from Aliexpress. Been using both for 3+ years so far. Only once did it get punctured, but a simple patch fixed it. You don't really need to be careful, just don't be an idiot with your gear.
I have my dad's thermarest from the 90s (I think, could be 80s, the green one). The thing is bulkier than newer ones but it's sturdy. Hasn't needed to be patched at all or anything. I almost always use it with a tent. It's gotten probably about 80-90 nights of use from me since 2016. No clue how much he used it before I got it.
I guess this is useless information unless you get one off eBay/craigslist but thought I'd share anyways.
Saw some guy laying down an Uber Lite XL on bare ground and warned him about popping it. He said he did it all the time and had never had a problem. We were over 600 miles deep into a thru hike
>600 miles
Holy shit anon, how many miles per day? How many days was the journey? And how do you even carry enough food?
I use some blue roll up foam shit my dad gave me and it's been good for 8+ years. Survived many nights going into the negatives.
Unless you´re an UL gay, you should get one of those German Army sleeping mats, and/or the "Elefantenhaut" by the German army, to put underneath your sleeping pad.
I guess there´s other stuff also, but I´m German and you can get those 2 items for cheap here, and they are pretty great to have.
Also, I heard good things about the Savotta Sleeping Pad. It´s not inflatable.
not sure if same thing but my friend had a surplus german backpack which had this narrow sleeping pad working as the structural support against you´re back
it was really thin and narrow and he did not like it at all, his elbows were always wet and cold because he did not like to sleep on his side all the time
bulky and thick finnish army sleeping bad on the other hand has these flaps that reach i think 30cm on both sides and is way wider, flaps wont keep you´re elbows/knees warm but atleast they stay dry
t. been in the finnish army
ulgays do this too they just use thinlight (r=0.5) foam (comes folded or rolled)
it stops your inflatable from getting fricked up, you can add the r value of the pads together, or you can put it on top of an inflatable to make it comfier and less crinkly.
another good related trick that i see both ulgays and non-ulgays alike do is you take a z lite or fake z lite and put it under your normal 3 season sleep pad for a "slightly heavier, way cheaper and more durable" winter insulated pad. you wanna put it above the inflatable in this configuration so the mylar coating works. +2.0 r value to any pad. the only difference i see really is ultralighters will often shorten their zlite and round the corners off.
I have a 5mm and a 4 mm both 200cmx100cm. They are Great. Waterproof, stop pointy bits to some extent. Very flexible. I even use them in the hammock if I need to cocoon.
Both are black so they dry/heat up super quickly in the sun so you can dry other stuff on top
ordered one not because ULgay but because i don't need insulation in the warmer months just a clean even surface to lie down on. hoping it will be enough may through august
Just sleep on the floor.
any foam pad with an r value above like 2 works with the winter pad trick, zlite/chink zlite's just the one i see all the time
i sleep on foam pads by choice but i think you have to be a little crazy to exclusively use foam, if you're not a beginner or on a budget. you also have to be able to sleep on your back. the only reason to is because you really value dependability, and you're not a picky sleeper or keen with camp site choice and utilizing your environment to make your sleeping situation better. aka if i'm sleeping on only some 1/8 foam, which i do, i might plan an hour to gather up evergreen branches to sleep on under my pad or something. random example. or just be pickier where i set up.
foam is the way to go if you're new to backpacking. get all your gear first. don't skimp out on a sleeping bag(s). make a good sleep pad your first big investment if you do this a lot.
imo the way to go for MOST people in the long term is a high end inflatable pad with something under it to protect it like anon said with the german army sleep mats or my ulBlack person equivalent 1/8 foam sheet. you also want to protect your sleep pad/tent/whatever you sleep on as well. the ulgay way to do this is a polycryo sheet (duck brand max strength heavy duty window insulation kits are the thickest i can find 1.5mm just google it all the ulBlack folk buy a specific one) and the more durable way to do it is a tyvek sheet (i do this anywhere w/ rocks)
little bit of extra weight, but its also r value. also bring a repair patch & super glue & shit if you have an inflatable. a lot of them come with the patch. most of the time you can fix it when they frick up, its just a nightmare when you cant, sometimes.
When I started hiking in the 1990s, and did several week-long hikes (affiliated with a summer camp) along the AT during my teenage years, absolutely no one that I hiked with or saw/met on the trail had cots, inflatable pads, or any of that nonsense.
>Everything has a shelf life, including pads.
True, but my original roll-up yoga mat-looking sleep pad from, I'd guess, 1995 that's been used countless times (I'll be conservative and say ninety nights, plus use as a picnic mat, sitting mat, etc.) is still alive and kicking.
I replaced it, but it's still in my storage shed and usable.
The inflatables cost like $100-200 and do not last as long as foam. I'd rather take two foam mats than one mat and a blow-up mattress, let alone a cot, and I am not an UL guy (and I'm nearly 40, the age aches and pains really start to surface).
>The inflatables cost like $100-200 and do not last as long as foam.
Literally the opposite, you disinformation weirdo.
Thermarest last decades (I know 10+ between me, family, and friends whose all are still in use). Meanwhile, foam loses it's cushioning through extended use.
Everything has a shelf life, including pads. If you're not an ULgay and want to get the most out of your money, just get a backpacking cot. Good ones way about 2lb.
I have a 20 year old thermarest, inflatable mattress that still holds pressure all night but my 3 year old Nemo is way more comfortable.
I have a 3/4” thermorest from 1988. Repaired a few small holes with seamgrip. It’s just fine. Use a ground sheet or a tent like a normal person.
I've been sleeping on a shitty one every night for 11 months. Still holds air fine
2-3 seasons.
I bought this 20d mat and it is super thin. I honestly can't see it lasting more than six months of regular use, even with a groundsheet etc. Are the brand name 20d mats like the Nemo Tensor also this thin? This 20d pad is almost like paper, I kinda wanna drop big money on a Tensor but if it's the same super thin material then I dunno. Also looking at the klymit static v, which is 75d and will probably feel a lot more durable.
If the material is thick you will loose the biggest advantage of a inflatable sleeping pad and that is packability.
Well yeah but not by that much, still gonna be way more packable then a foam mat. I'd rather carry an extra 20% weight for something twice as durable.
Might just buy the klymit anyway as a backup. This cheap 20d mattress packs to nothing anyway, which is great but for a longer trip I just can't trust it on its own.
>Also looking at the klymit static v
be aware they used a 'different' system to measure r value than other companies so if you adjust it to the normal method the normal static v only has an r value of like 1.2 and the insulated one only like 1.9.
they get advertised as being r=4+ and they're not.
the uninsulated one makes a good summer pad though.
>Are the brand name 20d mats like the
20 denier's 20 denier. its strong enough, most tents use like 20 denier for their rain flies. the material itself isn't the weak point on inflatable sleep pads its the heat welded seams, and only damage to the seams around the sides isn't repairable in field.
if you're worried about punctures with inflatable pads its highly suggested to put a piece of thinlight foam under your sleep pad. also gives a little r=0.3-0.5 boost and makes for a good sit pad.
>20d is 20d
Thanks, yeah I wasn't sure if there were differences in material or variety or whatever. Thin is thin.
And yeah I wouldn't trust any uninsulated air mattress for warmth, I'm after these for pure comfort only.
>True, but my original roll-up yoga mat-looking sleep pad from, I'd guess, 1995 that's been used countless times (I'll be conservative and say ninety nights, plus use as a picnic mat, sitting mat, etc.) is still alive and kicking.
those do eventually have the foam bottom out, it takes me like 3-5 years of frequent use to ruin a foam pad though. i use it more than most people because i prefer foam > inflatable.
Every klymit pad have the same problem with deep grooves between air channels with zero r-value. You will freeze your ass off even with their "winter" pads if you dont add ccf pad on top of it.
I always bring a foam mat to put under my inflatable. Last trip (2 nights) I didn't bring it for the first time in my life and after 1 hour on my inflatable it popped. Basically inflatable+foam or just foam is best, never inflatable on it's own. Honestly I dont trust inflatables much at all. Foam is uncomfy, but at least better than nothing
Inflatables pop most often because of internal failure, not because you lay it on a sharp object. Ultra thin film of tpu is all that is keeping the air from escaping. No matter how hard you try to baby your pad, its going to fail eventually. Most damege is done when you are packing it. Worst thing to do is pack it the same exact way every single time. Creases are going to set on the same spot every time bending and damaging the tpu film or welded seams faster. Eventually micro holes are going to appear slowly deflating your pad and its pain in the ass try to find them.
Just like you should never fold tarps the same way if you want them to last longer. Instead just stuff the tarp in the stuff sack randomly. Tent floor is thick enough to protect the sleeping pad most of the time. If you want warmth the right thing to do is put the ccf pad on top of the inflatable.
How do these things compare to hammock + underquilt?