Exped SynMat UL 7 Question

The colder the night, the more your breath will contract but it shouldn't be worse than about 2-3 breaths an hour later, and then 1 more after another hour.

Sometimes you can get an imperfect seal at the valve, leading to a leaking pad one night and no issues the next. Give the valve area a wipe.

Thanks Dan!

I've had the same occasional experience of a partially deflated UL7, which made me worry that I had a leak. The temperature drop wasn't even that drastic. Then, no problems for the rest of the trip. I also use the schnozzle. Maybe temp drop/ barometric change/ slight valve leak.

Which…makes the Schnozzle bag so nice. It uses the cold mountain air to inflate the pad instead of your warm breath. Also, makes it super nice at 9K feet to not get dizzy from blowing up your mattress. And…I'm usually blowing up 2-3 UL 7's for the Family and the schnozzle makes short work of it. Also doubles as my dry bag!

It is probably a leak. I have a UL7 that had a leak (now repaired). It was incredibly difficult to find the leak even in a bath tub. Even once I knew exactly where it was and marked it with a grease pencil, I couldn't consistently reproduce the bubbles and feeling air coming out was impossible.

Glad someone else had the same experience. I tried to find a leak in the bathtub when I returned and couldn't find anything. Love how comfy the mat is so I'll stick with it. Thanks for the input everyone!

First check to see if your valve flap is dirty, slightly folded over from making micro adjustments or that your cap is FULLY snapped in on all edges. These are the most common causes of leaks with Expeds.

I've had the same experience as Terry. I had the tiniest pinhole leak that took two dunks in a lake before I finally found it. The trick was to make sure the mat was firmly inflated and give each section a little squeeze when submerging it. That was the only way I could get the leak to show itself. It had to have a similar pressure as when I was laying on it. Then and only then would the tiny leak shoot out a stream on little bubbles when squeezed. and bent slightly. Had 5 nights of blowing it up again at 2:30AM until I found it…the hole was that tiny.

I think Exped actually recommends only putting a little air in them when submerging, but that is just to make it less of a battle to get the mat under water. Some of those tiny pinhole leaks need air pressure to push air out and show themselves.

HTH

KJ