An insulating sleeping pad is a must have for backpackers who sleep on the bottom in tents and beneath tarp shelters to forestall physique warmth loss to the bottom. The finest backpacking sleeping pads are air mattresses or foam pads as a result of they’re light-weight and compact. While they fluctuate in composition and thickness, they’re all designed to enhance your sleep insulation, retaining you heat, so your physique can get better after a day of climbing.
When selecting a sleeping pad you will need to additionally take into account its weight, R-value, sturdiness, measurement, thickness, consolation, and worth. What are your priorities?
Here are our picks for the perfect 10 sleeping pads accessible at the moment primarily based on these dimensions. Many of those sleeping pads can be found in several lengths, widths, and weights, making it simple to seek out a good selection to suit your wants.
1. NEMO Tensor Insulated Air Pad
Available from:
REI | Backcountry
2. Exped Ultra 5R
The Exped Ultra 5R Air Mattress is a light-weight inflatable sleeping pad that’s three inches thick and has an R-value of 4.8. It incorporates artificial insulation, as a substitute of reflective movies, which makes it very quiet to sleep on, and is roofed with a sturdy 20d polyester non-slip cloth. The pad has a pair of flat stemless valves for inflation and deflation and vertical baffles which might be designed to maintain you from rolling off the pad at evening. The Ultra 5R is out there in three mummy and three rectangular sizes together with a daily width, a large width, and a protracted and vast pad. All six sizes are priced identically so you’ll be able to choose the dimensions you need with out having to sweat the next worth level. The Ultra 5R can be bundled with a big 45L inflation sack/dry bag referred to as a Schnozzel (a $50 worth, additionally accessible individually), which can be utilized as a water-resistant pack liner. Read the SectionHiker overview.
Available from:
REI | Backcountry
3. Sea-to-Summit Ether Light XT Insulated Pad
Available from:
REI | Backcountry | Sea to Summit
4. Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT
Available from:
REI | Therm-a-Rest
5. Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT
Available from:
REI | Therm-a-Rest
6. NEMO Tensor Alpine Air Pad
Available from:
REI | Backcountry | NEMO
7. Sea-to-Summit Ether Light XT Extreme
Available from:
REI | Backcountry | Sea-to-Summit
8. NEMO Quasar 3D Insulated Air
9. Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol Foam Pad
Available from:
REI | Backcountry | Therm-a-Rest
10. NEMO Switchback Foam Pad
Available from:
REI | Backcountry | NEMO
Backpacking Sleeping Pad Guide
Choosing a sleeping pad requires prioritizing between a number of elements, a few of which could be at odds with each other.
Sleeping Pad R-Values and Air Temperature in Degrees
What’s the correlation between air temperature and sleeping pad R-values? When do you want a pad with the next R-value? This desk relies on Exped’s suggestions in Fahrenheit and Celsius levels.
| Air Temperature (F): | 50 | 30 | 25 | 10 | 0 | -15 | -25 | -40 |
| Minimum R-Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Air Temperature (C): | 10 | -1 | -4 | -12 | -18 | -26 | -32 | -40 |
| Minimum R-Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
In addition:
- R-values are additive, so you’ll be able to mix two pads to extend your heat degree.
- Women want larger R-values pads as a result of they’ve decrease physique mass than males. An extra R-value of 1 is normally a very good hedge for girls and different chilly sleepers
Sleeping Pad Thickness
Thicker sleeping pads are sometimes extra snug for facet sleepers as a result of they supply extra cushioning beneath the hip bones. Depending on their size and width, it might take extra breaths to inflate a really thick air pad, one thing to issue into your resolution.
Sleeping Pad Dimensions
Most common sleeping pads can be found in a variety of lengths and widths. While massive pads are sometimes extra snug, they’re typically heavier. Most pads can be found in a regular 72″ x 20″ measurement. But many pads are additionally accessible in longer, shorter, and wider sizes, or mummy and rectangular shapes.
Sleeping Pad Weight
A sleeping pad is without doubt one of the most essential objects in your gear listing when it comes to consolation and sleep insulation. While the burden of all backpacking gear issues, don’t make the error of being depressing at evening by selecting a pad that compromises the standard of your sleep, merely to cut back the burden of your gear listing. For instance, most sleeping bag and quilt temperature scores assume that you simply’re sleeping on a pad with an R-value between 4.0 and 5.0. If you sleep with a pad that has a decrease R-value, even in summer season, you most likely received’t be capable of expertise the complete temperature score of your sleep insulation. That’s a sobering thought.
Sleeping Pad Compactness
The measurement and compactness of a sleeping pad could be an essential truth relying in your type of packing and the dimensions of your backpack. Inflatable pads normally pack up the smallest, self-inflating pads are normally bigger, and foam pads are the most important. Depending on the way you pack, foam sleeping pads could must be connected to the skin of your backpack as a result of they’re so massive. While closed-cell foam pads don’t take in water in the event that they get moist, you’ll need to dry one off earlier than you place a sleeping bag or quilt on prime of it, after a moist day on the path.
Sleeping Pad Types
There are three kinds of sleeping pads: air mattresses, self-inflating mattresses, and closed-cell foam pads. Air mattresses present the best consolation and pack up the smallest when deflated. Most include a light-weight stuff sack that can be utilized to inflate them. Self-inflating mattresses are normally the heaviest and can up partially with air when unrolled to be used. You nonetheless must blow them up a bit, however solely a minor quantity. Closed-cell foam pads are the least costly however they’re cumbersome must be connected to the outside of your pack. They are very dependable nonetheless as a result of they’re made with foam to allow them to’t be punctured they usually’re waterproof, in order that they received’t get heavier if it rains.
Sleeping Pad R-Values
The most dependable measure of insulation is R-value. Beginning in 2020, a brand new Sleeping Bag R-Value Standard was adopted by the out of doors business and many of the main sleeping pad producers together with Therm-a-Rest, NEMO, Sea-to-Summit, REI, Big Agnes, and Klymiy have retested and re-rated their sleeping pads utilizing it. Klymit, notably, has not. This new customary advantages customers as a result of it makes it potential, for the primary time, to check sleeping pads by their R-values as a result of all of them use the identical testing methodology.
For three-season backpacking and tenting, an R-value of two, or larger, is beneficial. For winter backpacking and tenting, an R-value of 5, or larger, is beneficial. R-values are additive, so you’ll be able to stack two pads to extend your heat degree. Women want larger R-values pads as a result of they’ve decrease physique mass than males. An extra R-value of 1 is normally a very good hedge for girls and different chilly sleepers
Sleeping Pad Durability
Foam sleeping pads are probably the most sturdy, self-inflating pads are the following most sturdy, and inflatable air mattresses the least. Inflatable air mattresses are inclined to fail in two locations: the valves and on the seams of cloth. Flat valves which might be flush with the floor of the sleeping pad are extra sturdy than stick valves as a result of they don’t have any transferring components and may’t catch on obstructions.
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