I am looking for recommendations for a hardwearing inflatable sleep mat for camping / bivvying after being let down twice by the one I originally bought and its replacement. I'm not a big man so it doesn't need to be huge. I am a side sleeper if that makes a difference. Weight-wise I'd be happy with a bit more to carry if I knew I could trust it. What have you lot got?
What's the budget ? Exped and Thermarest are good, but spendy.
For car camping we have Thermarest MondoKings - very comfy but not for bike/back packing.
I've a 'cheap' mattress for bike packing - was OK over a four day trip !
I have a Sea to Summit "ultralight" one. This one I think. I didn't spend that much on it, but I've had it a few years. It's pretty good. Warm, big enough, packs small. It's a bit crisp bag crinkly! It did go down on me once (fnarr) on a bikepacking trip. A thorn came through the tent ground sheet. Easy to patch though. I also have a matching inflatable pillow which velcros to it and packs down to matchbox size.
Alpkit Dozer if still available. Very comfy but I'm a restless sleeper & it was too narrow for me, I sold it to @stayhigh.
I keep getting facebook ads for these NorthPeak ones and I'm very much on the verge of a purchase of a couple of them.
Positive reviews (I know, I know), half the price of known brands, 90 day trial, 2 year warranty, decent 4.0 R rating.
Alpkit Dozer if still available. Very comfy but I'm a restless sleeper & it was too narrow for me, I sold it to @stayhigh.
their Dumo is on offer at the mo and is positively reviewed -- https://alpkit.com/products/dumo?variant=40689877123177
My 20 year old Thermarests are still in good working order. The five year old Expeds - 1 puncture and another split at the seam. Also found the Exped to be slippery so I slide off them. On that basis I would suggest going to a shop to see what they feel like.
New thermarest is good but haven’t used it enough to be sure, to be sure.
10cm thick sounds like it should be comfortable even for a side sleeper with bony hips.
Remember balloon beds?
I developed a version that used clapper sticks. It was surprising resilient and if one poped they were side to side so you were still supported.
Was a right faff though.
Xped here, used to have thermarest but they started making them out of a material that made them very noisy.
I like alpkit kit but I won't trust another of their mats after 2 of their nemos let me down badly 2 weeks into a 6 month trip. They did their finest galic shrug at that point - makes me wonder how much use reviewers really gave them before giving the thumbs up.
Thermarests were procured and lasted the rest of the trip and beyond.
Now use thermarest neoairs and they continue to be reliable and warm to sleep on no less.
Hard-wearing, you say? I'd suggest an old school indestructible Thermarest like wot I use now (again) after giving up on modern mats. I'd suggest keeping an eye on Ebay for items like this (but you're too late for that one, I've snapped it up as a backup)!
The old school thermarests are nothing like as comfortable as your modern 5, 7, 10cm thick mats, until it's the middle of the night and one's gone flat on you. I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't put the valve at the narrow end. Turning tail in a bivi bag to add a few puffs of reinflation ain't happening.
I have an exped and like it. But it’s to young to be called reliable. My Alpkit started slowly letting me down. Maybe that was my fault. But i didn’t buy another one
Due to some home renovations, I’ve just spent 6 weeks sleeping (like a log) on an Exped MegaMat 10, it’s actually really comfortable, not as good as my 31cm normal mattress, but I had a good nights sleep every night. Only problem, they’re not cheap.
Side sleeper here. I bought a Seatosummit Ether Light XR and a 'pillow lock' pillow ~3 years ago and super comfy they are to. The stuff sack 'pump' is effective. When a couple of the 'pillow lock' strips came away, Seatosummit posted replacements without a quibble.
I am a bit surprised at current prices. I bought mine from GoOutdoors after one of their staff recommended it and pointed out there was a good discount at the time.
TBF, I usually find the GoOutdoor staff at Chester, Warrington and Stockport both knowledgeable and helpful.
Needle sports are punting some sea to summits today..
I like alpkit kit but I won't trust another of their mats after 2 of their nemos let me down badly 2 weeks into a 6 month trip. They did their finest galic shrug at that point - makes me wonder how much use reviewers really gave them before giving the thumbs up.
My experience of similar with two of their early ones (Fat Airic or some such) which both blew the seams out:
Alpkit's support team were very good at suggesting multiple things I could try to diagnose and exact a DIY repair, but wholly disinterested in offering a return for repair (or replacement) on what was surely a design/manufacturing fault.
Items like camping mats are atypical in so far as, OK yes it might be several years old and expecting warranty service at that age is optimistic; but in terms of usage it's only been slept on for a few weeks and spent the rest of its life in a wardrobe. Playing devil's advocate I can't really blame Alpkit for their response but, by turns, I was still disappointed.
My Experiance was a nigh on new mat. Delaminated both. Their first comeback was that I'd left them in a hot tent during the day ....yes that's right while point- point touring a country I leave my Mat in the tent
Thermarest by contrast would warranty at authorised retailers - globally.
as did vaude for my 8 month old Taurus - probably had 3 life times of use in those 8 months. - they shipped me new poles on short service 4 months in.
Mean while terranova can get in the sea condescending sods who's tent might be light but didn't last 3 weeks.
The one I linked further above arrived yesterday - and it's still inflated this morning, unlike most people's Nemos...(yeah, I made the mistake of buying one of them, too).
I bought my Thermarest in 2001. One of my oldest bits of kit. Works well. Modern stuff is probably lighter, or thicker for the same weight. But these days it mostly gets used for camping at bike events and the odd trip abroad but it is ore likely to be carried by a donkey than me.
Exped Synmat. Choose your weight/temp rating. Full length baffles mean you're less likely to roll off. Quiet. Mine is a 7cm deep mat that does me all year round
I'm replying whilst lying on mine, in a tent, in Glen Feshie 😉
Ah, the gentle ripping noise as the internal walls fail and it turns into a beach ball.... the warranty replacements are easy to sell on in as-new condition, at least.
Not sure if this helps, but I'm currently debating between Big Agnes Divide - regular/wide, and Alpkit Whisper.
Both similar size, the AW (185x64x7) has rounded ends, BA (183x64x9 inner baffles are 8cm) is a plain rectangle.
BA packs smaller 10x18 cm vs 28x15cm.
Weight BA is 668g excluding bag and inflation sack, AW is 795g inc bag which doubles as an inflation sack. So pack weight is probably closer than the 130-ish grams difference.
AW has a higher R value 2.8 vs 1.4. The BA is available as an insulated pad with an R4 rating, but costs more.
Price wise, the AW is cheaper at £83.99 vs BA £94 (insulated £119.99 with R4 rating and 814g).
I'm leaning more to the BA due to the shape, and the outer baffles are slightly larger to help prevent rolling off.
I've had 2 Alpkit inflatables break many years ago, so I went spendy and got an Exped 8 years ago. I then bought another Exped. They're both been great for tent sleeping, bivvying and sleeping on the floor at my mother's when I visit.
That Alpkit Whisper I said was £83.99, it's now £69.99.
Use GETOUT20 code, and it's down to £56+£2.99 p+p. So, £59.
I have had 3 Alpkit mats over the years, they have all let me down.
For the last 3 years on various multiday trips I have used the Big Agnes Divide, the regular and wide version. I am a side sleeper.
Lots of good food for thought here, thank you.
i saw a thing on one of the socials about making tyvek sleeping pad protectors .....
must admit my neoair might be one of the heavier ones but I've spent the last 10 years just chucking it on the floor where i stop zero protection and largely minimal care about what it is i sleep on.
I did have a buddy who turned up with an ultra light tent adn the ultra light neoair on one trip and although we rode the same trails - and camped in the same spot - he managed to wear holes in his tent with the poles vibrations - and then that night he managed to burst his neoair by rolling over.
surely there does come a point where ultralight is compromised if you find your self needing to add to it to protect it ?
Sports pursuit have several sea2summit models for good prices. We’ve just picked up a couple of the comfort deluxe Si for the van at £99ea.
Holy thread ressurection batmam (not really, its only been a month)
I had another horrific nights sleep (or, not sleep) on an alpkit Numo, on a friends floor last weekend.
Its thick enough, i dont touch the floor through it, but still foud myself impossible to get comfortable.
It kept bouncing around and im not sure if being wider would help.
Is there a significant difference please, between something like the Numo
and something more spendy, im looking at the BigAgnes, which come in both tall, and wide. (im a 6'4" side (non)sleeper)
We had this exact conversation at glas allt shiel on Sunday morning.
My buddy had spent the night wrestling with his robens (looks a lot like that sea to summit up there).
My thermarest was glorious as usual but a replacement one is the thick end of 200 quid. Mine came from USA when there was just one model Unsure if the neoair venture is much different to what waS the regular neoair....I recall an r value of 4.5 ? But a large part of that may be down to the changes in how they measure r value.
The other one that came highly recomend d and was some size was the forclaz one. It's about 70 quid.
And as Always there was one madman with no mat 🙂 - at least one of that party of cyclists has to be on here
I bought a thin light thermarest in 2004 for a two week tour from Edinburgh to Cork via the ferry at Belfast. It's been ace for about 5 nights a year since then. Never let me down.
For car camping with my wife who doesn't sleep.well we went for thermarest Mondo's. Not sure I'd want to carry them far, but also not let us down despite being used as a bed for kids occasionally. And by bed, I mean trampoline 😱
I'd go a thermarest that fits your budget and backpack. Not cheap, but have made camping better every night.
I'm 6'4 and a side sleeper if that helps
I ended up buying one of these for a very good price as I'd spent a load of cash on bike bits. It's way better than the price had me expecting. It's small, but I am below 6ft and under 12 stone so it's big enough for me -
https://www.lifeventure.com/products/sleep-mat-lite
It will probably get replaced with something more fancy for winter but as a summer mat I am pleased.
