Backcountry Gear – NO Returns on ‘Used’ Gear

Nathaniel,
"I do consider all of this testing to be abuse of shops personally."

I agree. In the 6th post of this thread I state:
"Their "issue" has probably been abuse. (My guess.) "

However-
"If it is broke, send it back."

The Ether Elite is advertised as an R-2 to R-4 matt. I found that to be quite an exaggeration.

But, as noted, Backcountry Gear makes no exceptions to their "No Returns" policy, broke, exaggerated, or not.

I didn't see any R-Value specs at all on backcountrygear.com's site. They have Usage: Sleeping on there.

POE's site does show a 2-4 value which had been reported on this site already as meaningless. POE has another pad with a 3.5-8 R value. (Peak Oyl)

You are comparing a R value of 1.0 advertised pad to one that is a 2 (but 4 in a spot). I would be guessing that anything advertised as a 1 by Big Agnes means 'this keeps you off the ground' and 'our other products do have insulation'?

I never paid attention to R-values until I joined this site, and I don't own any insulated pads. It makes sense to me that the ground can suck heat off of you if it is frozen, but this still seems like splitting hairs. Unless your porch is frozen ground, and you had a secondary pad, I don't know how/why you would be judging insulation values on a 1 or 2 pad.

"If it has been used outdoors, it cannot be returned."

The porch is outdoors?

What a bunch of idiots.