Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Pads

> Roger – just leave the better half at home.
Hey – her warmth is half of my sleep system!

Cheers

Roger – I'd rely on my other half for warmth, but normally all she has to offer is cold feet and an ice cube ass. She'll come in handy if I ever sprain an ankle and need to make the swelling go down.

I should also note… I set up my Lunar Duo in the back yard today and threw in the NeoAir and the Big Agnes Insulated Air Core. I have have the 70D floor and the NeoAir refused to slide around while I was one it, not matter how much I tried. The BA was business as usual and would slide around plenty when provoked. On the 70D floor at least, it's definitely much less slippery.

Joe, I want the plush thickness, quiet AND lightweight. I'll have to try out a NeoAir once it's in my local REI or another store, or order one now just to try out for noise. Potato chip bag noise sounds pretty loud to me.

"Roger – I'd rely on my other half for warmth, but normally all she has to offer is cold feet and an ice cube ass. She'll come in handy if I ever sprain an ankle and need to make the swelling go down"

Damn that's funny

I'll be using my new NeoAir Regular for two nights, the 17-18th. I'll take some photos and post a review when I get home. Hacked together an air pillow to deal with the two and a half inch thickness of the NeoAir. Initial testing indicate a fairly low inflation required for maximum comfort. I just hope it meets my needs for warmth as well as padding. The forecast low for next Wednesday at Hetch Hetchy is 28°. if it keeps up that low I'll carry ny new WM Ultralite overfill. If it gets to (another forecast) 41°, I'll take the NF Beeline.

I'll also be using my new Sublite for its first real backpack trip. I'm looking forward to testing a fair amount of gear this summer.

All this and hiking too. It doesn't get any better than that.

Have to say a quick thanks to Brad Smyth, he picked up a regular NeoAir for me today and will ship out to Aus.

Cheers again Brad.

I'm waiting for reviews, especially from side sleepers who like their air mattresses pumped up only half way, nice and cuddly and just barely keeping hip and shoulder joints off the ground, the way I use my POE insulated air mat. Denis, you sound as though you may be one of those! Maybe if I wait long enough, my local REI will finally have a demo in the store for me to check out? I suppose I could go to the big downtown Portland store, but it's either expensive (parking) or takes half a day (public transit). Anyway, I'm relying on you folks for reports. If I decide to get the thing, I don't need it until July. Weight on a 2-3 day trip is not a big deal; it's when it goes to a week or 10 days that the ounces become critical! If I do get the NeoAir, I'll probably continue to use my current POE pad for short trips anyway.

Mary-
Portland did not have one on display today when I was there. Also, you can park for free in their garage.

Just finished 4 nights with one in Canyonlands.

Noise just isn't an issue. It's more comfortable than my IAC. It feels more stable, and I appreciate that it is rectangular rather than mummy shaped. My gut feeling is that it is at least as warm as the IAC.

My problem, though, is that it won't stay inflated! I'm a bit disappointed, to say the least. I haven't given it the bathtub test yet, so we'll see in the next day or so. It takes half the night, but I end up having to add another 2 or 3 puffs to get my rear end back up off of the ground. I've tried starting with the thing fully inflated, but still ended up aground.

I though perhaps at first that the change in inflation could be due to air temp, but I'm no longer convinced. I picked the thing up in Friday evening, literally threw it in my pack, and was using it Monday night in Salt Creek, so I just didn't have time to mess it up on my own.

My future review will include info on the comfort and warmth as well as CD customer service. :(

I finally slept on mine last night in my grandma's basement with the window open and a cool 30 something breeze. The noise wasn't really an issue with me, and I'm a fairly light sleeper when it comes to crinkly noises. Which is why I gave up on bpl inflatable pillows. The amount of noise appeared to be a function of how underinflated the matress was and how much you rolled. If you snuggle in and get comfy and pass out it's hardly noticable. Half way through the night I switched to the uninsulated queen size airmattress my girlfriend was sleeping on because she was cold and wanted my warmth and when I switched I could definately feel the difference in insulation. I had to actually put pj's on because I could feel the heat being sucked away and I'm normally a very warm sleeper. Can't wait to try it in the field the 17th to 19th. Also Friday the Seattle rei had 2 mediums in stock.

"Finally slept on mine last night in my grandma's basement with the window open and a cool 30 something breeze… Half way through the night I switched to the uninsulated queen size air mattress my girlfriend was sleeping on because she was cold…"

I am absolutely amazed that your girlfriend willingly slept in your grandma's basement with the window open and a cool 30 something breeze!!!

Rooinater,

You got a lot of "whoevers" d@mn gall to tell us there were NeoAir mediums for sale two days ago. I coulda been on an airplane to SETAC. They're probably gone by now.

8-)

recieved 2 regular i ordered in the UK,
404 and 397g including the bag to store them :)

the noise isnt a problem at least for me, my tent or tarp does more with little wind, and i do much more snoring.
and my back seems to like them,
so far so good, i will test it more in 3 weeks doing Cape Wrath trail from Fort Williams to Kinlochewe or Ullapool depending on our speed.

I'm not surprised she did, neither of us knew about the window till really early in the morning. Everybody is here for Easter, it was just us and my dad spread out on airmattresses in the basement and it was hot. Then my dad opened the basement window sometime early in the night and passed out. Neither of us knew initially, I was only planning on testing the sleeping comfort this weekend or I would of brought my down bag :( but since I had to switch mattresses in the middle of the night I noticed a significant heat loss switching matresses and figured I'd note it.

Sorry for not mentioning the pads at seattle earlier… Family get togethers take up a lot of time with this side of the family (it's the Greek half) and we have spotty cell service in this part of eastern Washington, but I found a wireless network open I could connect my phone to. We stopped in the Seattle store on the way over to pick up a bunch of small stuff for my hike next weekend in the olympics, easten nail stakes, sea to summit dry bag for my down bag…

And I thought she did it because she knew how important this gear test was for you… :)

Enablers!

I found that Mountaingear.com in Spokane has them in stock and ordered one. I hate you all. LOL!

I'm just going to have to try one out for myself to evaluate the noise.

She knew it was important which is why she let me sleep on it and not next to her, but at the point where she got really cold she wanted the heat that i put out from sleeping warm. If we had our 20 degree bags with us she would of slept out in the tarptent with me for some real testing.

5 days and counting and i get a couple nights in the Olympic National Park with it under my tarptent-for-2. Weather this week appears to be sketchy, not that i trust the long term forecasts in washington… They like to just throw sun on for the end of the week to get your hopes up and then wait till thursday or friday to crush your hopes of a clear weekend. Unless a lot of snow is forcasted or sustained sub freezing temps i'll be up in the Elwha Valley

Jared, I'm glad to see that someone else has caught on to the ways of weather forecasting in the Pacific Northwest! I'm looking forward to your report!

Has anyone had any problems with the NeoAir pad deflating during the night? Deflating may not be the correct word, but as the air inside the pad cools… I was reading on another forum that shall not be named, deflating after 5 hours was one users experience. He needed to add more air during the night. Just wondering if anyone here has had the same experience

nm

I gave it 4 nights, and had to re-inflate twice during the night every night.

Upon getting it home, I submerged it and found a small pin-hole leak in the top surface right up against the side seam.

I just got off of the phone with CD and am now the proud owner of the first ever RMA number assigned to the NeoAir!

They are going to repair or replace it.

hooray [sigh]

Despite my own trouble with it, I do believe that it's a great pad. The noise just isn't an issue for me…once it's inflated and you put a bag on it, it's as quiet as any other mattress I've used. It was warm enough by itself down into the mid-30's, and I put a 1/4" pad below it one night the temp dropped well below 30 degrees and was plenty warm.

My NeoAir arrived today! I ordered it from Dom’s Outdoor a couple weeks ago. It weighs in at 9-1/8 ounces on my scale. It’s a tad smaller than a Nalgene…

It’s size small. Feels pretty comfy on my living room floor…

I’m a side sleeper and I think it’ll work fine for that when deflated a bit. It feels similar to my BA Insulated Air Core except the NeoAir sort of pushes up against my mid-section a little. I don’t recall having that sensation on the BA, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The small amount of “chip-bag” noise is not an issue for me at all.

So far I like this pad a lot, though I could do without the god-awful color. Limon? Hmm, more like chartreuse. I know because I have fishing tackle this color. What were they thinking? Any bets on whether there will be better color options by next year?

Gordon

I really like the color. I was kind of hoping that the NeoAir, relaease 2, would be a brighter pink than the Prolote.