Looking for a Sleeping Pad? I spent a year testing 23 different models.

[Christophe Noel]

http://expeditionportal.com/sleeping-pads-the-mother-of-all-reviews/



I spent roughly 19 months testing 23 different pads. That spanned 57 nights in the boonies, at least 24 more at home, on hotel floors, even on my patio. This review showcases 13 pads, most of them relatively new within the last 3 years or even 3 months. No, it isn't every pad on the market as there are literally dozens of dozens of pads out there, but I challenge you to find a more comprehensive roundup of pads.

Thank you.

 

[JDalcour]

Thank you!

 

[jgaz]

Nice Job! Can't beat the fact that we get such a comprehensive review for free.
Thanks for the efforts.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Nice Job! Can't beat the fact that we get such a comprehensive review for free.
Thanks for the efforts.

Your invoice is in the mail.

 

[jgaz]

How about a beer next time I'm in Prescott.
:beer:

I was up to Yarnell just yesterday.

 

[damon1272]

Great review. I recently purchased an Exped mat synmat 12. What an amazing mattress. Expensive but worth the money as is as comfortable as my own mattress at home. I would agree with your evaluation though that supplied the pump is weak and takes a bit to pump up the mattress. It is worth it when it is done. Overall a great article.

 

[grogie]

Awesome reviews! Thanks for taking the time to do so and to share your experience.

 

[whwv]

Great review. I recently purchased an Exped mat synmat 12. What an amazing mattress. Expensive but worth the money as is as comfortable as my own mattress at home. I would agree with your evaluation though that supplied the pump is weak and takes a bit to pump up the mattress. It is worth it when it is done. Overall a great article.

Yep, love my Exped Megamat. Pump is useless, so I bought a cheapo electric inflator off Amazon for like $10 and just power it off the plug in the back of my Tacoma. Only takes a couple of seconds to inflate!

 

[transporterjr]

I do like the dual chamber pad of the Sea to Summit Comfort Light pad you tested. We recently experienced a leak on an old Big Agnes pad. And even with two different people submerging the pad in a stock tub, on two different occasions, we could never find the any leak. So the patch kit would have done no good on a trip.

Perhaps a rare event, but luckily it was warm night in the Teton back country when there pad decided to leak out all the air overnight. Still these events, no matter how rare, shape your decisions.

 

[PlacidWaters]

Excellent review, Christophe, thank you! Must have been a fun experiment.

I’d like to offer some counterpoints to your #1 choice of the Nemo Nomad Air 30XL over the Exped Mega 12. I haven’t tried or even seen the Nomad. I do know the Expeds very well. So this comparison is based on the Nomad specs.

I have to question the premise that you don’t need insulation until you get into the 40s Fahrenheit. I’ve been cold on an uninsulated air mattress as soon as the temperature got into the 50s, with a 35F-degree down sleeping bag. The problem seems worse with a thicker mattress.

So that we’re comparing approximately the same size, I’ll use the mattresses you used, the Nemo Nomad 6 x 30 x 80, 47 oz, and the Exped Mega 12 LW 4.7 x 30.3 x 77.6. Here’s why the Exped is better:

1) The Exped weighs less . . .

2) . . . And yet it gives you, in my opinion, 50 degrees more warmth. Nemo doesn’t give an R value for the Nomad (or any of their mattresses, apparently). It’s probably less than 1. They give a temperature range, which has to subjective. I think that lessens Nemo’s credibility compared to Exped. The Nomad is basically a summer mattress. If you camp in cool or cold weather you would need a second mattress, which doubles your cost.

3) The Exped is available in four sizes. With the Nemo you’re stuck with the 30” width and the 80” length whether you need those or not. 30” is too wide for many cots. I have the Exped Mega 12 MW, which is 25.6 x 73.6 and a few ounces lighter.

Two more points to consider:

INFLATION: The review faults the Exped for awkward inflation. I complete agree that the large (brown) Pumpsack that comes with the Mega 12 is unwieldy. You need a lot of space and long arms to use it, and I’ve never been able to fill the sack more than 1/3 full. This problem is easily solved with the small yellow Pumpsack, which is a lot easier to fill. It takes about 4 to 6 sackfulls, less than two minutes, to fill the mattress. Works very well on a picnic table. Exped switched the sack for me for free. I’m guessing that the Nomad’s foot pump adds to the weight of the mattress. Would like to hear how effective it is.

THICKNESS: What’s the optimum thickness for comfort? 4”? 10”? 24”? At some point more thickness makes no further difference. In my experience, 2.5” is only moderately comfortable, especially for an older or heavier person. 3.5” is pretty good. 4.7” is perfect. I find no added comfort in 6” compared to 4.7”. If you use a cot, a thick mattress can feel too bouncy––you’ve got the bounciness of both the cot and the mattress.

THE VERDICT: Between the Nemo Nomad and the Exped Mega 12, the superiority of the Exped is in the INSULATION and the CHOICE OF SIZES. As the review hints, the vertical versus horizontal tubes don’t make a great difference in comfort. That’s in part because the tubes on the Exped Mega 12 have a very shallow depression. You can barely feel it. It feels like a supportive flat surface.

ONE MORE MATTRESS TO CONSIDER: If you use a cot, another mattress to consider is the Exped Synmat 3D-7 with boxed sides and a thickness of 2.5”. The MW size this brings the weight down to 33 oz. Works perfectly on a Helinox cot, better in fact than the thicker Mega 12 for the reason stated above. R value of 4.9 makes it a 3-season mattress.

Yah, I know I've beaten this topic to death. Gotta have something to do over the winter.

 

[PlacidWaters]

Yep, love my Exped Megamat. Pump is useless, so I bought a cheapo electric inflator off Amazon for like $10 and just power it off the plug in the back of my Tacoma. Only takes a couple of seconds to inflate!

That pump is only intended for the final few puffs of air. The Megamat is supposed to be self-inflating. That always baffled me because my Megamat has no self-inflation ability whatsoever. Maybe because I store it rolled up, but who has space to store it inflated? And who wants to store it inflated, roll it up to put in the car, unroll and reinflate it when you get home? So I use a foot pump or a Pumpsack. But actually I no longer use my Megamat because the Mega 12 is so much more convenient.

 

[luckyjoe]

I've used a Exped Synmat 9 LW for the past 3 years. This has proven to be the best comfort-size/convenience/packed-size combination for my needs. It has a built-in CPR-style pump (which has self-inflaitng foam in the pump section only). I store this pad rolled or folded to remove air EXCEPT for the pump section - this I leave fully expanded. I find that doing this allows for much quicker pump recovery on the trail. In cold weather I can fully inflate the pad in ~45 pumps. If I store the pump rolled/compressed this will easily be well over 100 pumps.

 

[Nanabijou]

That pump is only intended for the final few puffs of air. The Megamat is supposed to be self-inflating. That always baffled me because my Megamat has no self-inflation ability whatsoever. Maybe because I store it rolled up, but who has space to store it inflated? And who wants to store it inflated, roll it up to put in the car, unroll and reinflate it when you get home? So I use a foot pump or a Pumpsack. But actually I no longer use my Megamat because the Mega 12 is so much more convenient.

I'm really liking my Exped Synmat 12LXW. I've been using the large pump sac that comes with it and personally have found no difficulties with it. Would the smaller pump sac be even better? Yes, possibly. But I've never tried it to compare. If I was unhappy with the larger sac, I might be motivated to try it. The only thing that I sometimes worry about is misplacing the pump sac at some point, as it is separate from the air mattress, and it's just one more thing to suddenly go missing.

A couple of other things. My combination of Synmat 12 LXW fitted inside my Nemo Mezzo Loft Luxury (30" wide) bag (on top of my Camptime Roll-A-Cot Wide (32") is the closest I've found to sleeping on a bed so far. And the Synmat is nice and warm. If I was splitting hairs, I would say that my Nemo Cosmo Insulated (30") is slightly more comfortable than my Synmat 12 LXW because the material is a bit thinner than the Synmat, and seems to more easily mold to every nook and cranny on my body better when sleeping on it (like a memory foam mattress), while the thicker material in the Synmat just doesn't give as much - even though I never inflate it fully. But I suspect the Synmat will be more durable in the long-run as a result. And I now prefer the pump sac compared to Nemo's integrated foot pump. So the Synmat is now my "Go To" air mattress.

I also tried my Thermarest SV Camper (30") air mattress several times tenting this summer. While the mattress seems fine, at least in my experience - the speed valve just never seems to work as well as it should or as well as I have seen it work in online demonstrations. I have strong lungs and no matter what technique I adopt (including following Thermarests instructions to a "Tee") I can only fill the mattress about half full. I aways need to add more air manually through the plastic valve to fill the mattress fully. So I must say that it's a bit disappointing. It also doesn't have the insulation that the Synmat has. So I've relegated it to an "extra" mattress when we go group camping.

Mike

 

[PlacidWaters]

I've used a Exped Synmat 9 LW for the past 3 years. . . .I store this pad rolled or folded to remove air EXCEPT for the pump section - this I leave fully expanded. I find that doing this allows for much quicker pump recovery on the trail. In cold weather I can fully inflate the pad in ~45 pumps. If I store the pump rolled/compressed this will easily be well over 100 pumps.

Interesting! My Synmat 7 took 100 pumps, made me nuts. The yellow Pumpsack is far easier. Plus when they removed the built-in pump from the Synmat 7 it reduced the weight.

 

[PlacidWaters]

What do you think is missing on the market today in mattresses? It's hard to see how they could be further improved, with all the great choices available today, too many almost. I think a slightly raised section at the head would be helpful. Rectangular and flat, not pillow shaped. I'm always putting something under my pillow to make it higher. Can't think of anything else.