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.
