Are thermarests supposed to be stored flat or can you keep them in the stuff sac?

Flat with the valve open. Ours live under the bed.

Had two vangos fail on the seam. Best to avoid them

Now on an Exped lilo type thing. It’s very comfy, packs very small, and around 600g. Cheap too.

RE mats delaminating/splitting etc – try not to leave them blown up with the valve shut in hot tents. They heat up, the air expands, they get unhappy…

Oh.. good point…

Things have moved on a lot since a karrimat.

One thing Karrimat have going for them though is they are still very very light.

IIRC, Karrimat ~250g. So light. Trouble is, it’s also bulky and not so comfy.

We used to carry them on the outside, they’d get wet and then so would everything else when sleeping on them. I still have a couple of the pukka yellow ones in the gear cupboard.

I have a whole family’s worth of thermarests and have never had a problem with any of them. My personal one also the oldest is approximately 17 years old and has been slept on for up to 8 weeks a year each year. I store it flat behind the wardrobe. My wife has a big delux thing which if you are car camping is amazingly comfy and the kids have the little 3/4 length ones. Can you really put a price on a comfy nights sleep. I have tried cheeper alternatives and all have only lasted a very short prefiod of time most less than 1 year. I rekon my old standard one works out about £6 per year so far and still going strong.

All these good words and it is bound to leak on me tonight, off to find a big peice of wood to touch.

I also have a couple of Alpkit ‘wannabees’. They are Fat Airic’s (or whatever the latest fatty mat is called) for car camping. Both failed after ~1 year and replaced under warranty.

Alpkit re-jigged its entire mat range quite recently. New models made in a different factory, better quality, replacement for the Fat Airic is called the Dozer. Should be more reliable, mine’s been fine anyway, had leakage around the valve on an early Fat Airic, another, bought at the same time, has been flawless.

American brand called Nemo does an interesting self-inflating mat – two layers with separate valves so you can keep the bottom layer firm to cope with rocks etc while the top layer is softer for comfort.

Oh, and generally, the lighter you go, the more likely you are to have puncture issues – lighter mats use thinner materials, more likely to hole. Carry them inside a pack not hanging off it and beware of itchy grass and similar, particularly if you’re bivvying or using it as an impromptu sun-lounger.

Went for the Exped Synmat7. Thanks for all the advice folks. Bought it for the Transam, so eighty plus days of back to back use, should be a good test for its durability.