Big Agnes AXL pads. Anyone buy one yet? Spec vs actual weight?

I’ve got one…actually sent the wrong one (Mummy) and then the right one (smallest rectangular)…. Both were spot on in terms of weight from their website….

I have large rectangle pad. Right on spec.

Big Agnes Insulated AXL Air Weight Measurements for 20” x 66” Pad

The following measurements are without stuff sac (0.35oz)  & Repair Kit (0.15oz)

ADVERTISED:  20” x 66”  –  10.7oz

ACTUAL:  20” X 66”  –  11.4oz

Today I received an AXL Insulated 20″ x 72″ Mummy – Advertised at 10.7 oz.

Weighted without stuff sack of repair kit at 11.4 oz.

Ken and Dan’s experiences are disappointing and what has been my experience with BA pads. I’m hoping that REI stocks them in store so I can bring my scale. I wish 0.7 oz didn’t bother me. 😩

Don,

Exactly – tell me up front 11.4 oz so I can make an educated decision. Now I’m disappointed and feeling duped. BA also looses integrity for any future specification claims. Not a good way to do business.

Dan

12.1oz for my 20″x72″ insulated mummy . . . advertised at 10.6oz

1.5 oz over . . . disappointing

Yikes….12.1 for insulated mummy? Thats a lot over spec….

The rei 20% coupon just came in the mail today…I was thinking about using it to get a mummy to replace a exped hyperlite mummy that is 12.9oz. I was going to do it to save the 2.3oz…but now…it could only be like .8oz? Not sure its worth the hassle.

The only other reason I was going to switch was because the exped is all insulation (so eventually I worry about synthetic fill degradation). The big agnes seems to be inbetween a neoair and exped…..it has SOME synthetic insulation plus a mylar layer, whereas a neoair is only mylar layers and exped is only synthetic…

Only disadvantage I see in switching is I would have to come up with a way to connect an exped schnozzle (which I love) to the big agnes using a piece of tubing or something.

Yup, Insulated mummy . . . 1.5 over.

I sent BA a message . . . I’ll let everyone know what they say.

I’ll probably return it to REI and try to find one closer to 10.6

Could you blow it up and hold it to a light? I heard somewhere that a person was finding that some parts did not have insulation (inconsistent).

I sent it back to REI yesterday . . . sorry

The gap in the insulation people are reporting is just a result of the manufacturing process. I don’t think anyone has reported experiencing cold spots due to it. In fact, there are a lot of people reporting comfort sleeping in the 20s and even high teens.

I can tolerate a +/- 2.5% weight difference. Note that first productions runs typically vary a bit until consistency develops.

What I don’t have a lot of tolerance for is temp rating exaggeration (ala sleeping bags that don’t use EN ratings). Tell me the R value and I know through experience what temps it can handle via my personal EN rating. Big Agnes sleeping pad temp ratings from anecdotal evidence appear to run parallel to the low end of the EN range. The Big Agnes Core SLX is adequate to mid 20s, but that nice, thick, comfortable volume of air has room to move around as the ground temperature grows colder creating a larger temp differential for the sleeper.

I am most interested to hear anecdotal evidence from AXL insulated pad users. BTW, I’m happy with my NeoAir XTherm, but a comfortable pad without the potato chip sound but be much appreciated by my camp mates…….

Cheers
Bill in Roswell, GA

I agree with Bill, these being first production runs most likely explains the variance in weights. I’ve weighed my insulated mummy on 2 different scales and they both read 11.3oz. So from the limited sample size in this thread we have 3 weighing in at 11.3 to 11.4 and one weighing in at 12.1. Perhaps Joseph’s was an outlier. Still 11.3 is not 10.7 as advertised.

I did use it the other night in the low 20’s and was more than toasty so I’m fine with it so far. Durability is my main concern but I’ll have to put it through it’s paces to see how it stands up to long term use.

A wide AXL is on my wishlist. Can anyone verify the width (after inflation!) of a wide?

I recall there were some issues with width when the SLX first came out.

Just pulled the trigger on the Wide Regular at REI, using dividend, gift card, and 20% discount code — and it was STILL expensive!  If it’s too far off spec. (more than 1oz over), or if it’s narrower than advertised, it WILL go back!

I’ve got about 1,200 trail miles on an old MW Exped Synmat UL7. Hoping for another 1,000 miles out of it – but wouldn’t mind saving the extra 4 oz for the AXL, provided its comfort and durability are as good as the Exped has been. (OTOH, I had to send back an Exped Hyperlite for channel delamination; so apparently not all Exped products are created equal!)

thank you Valerie!

I really like my Xtherm, but am tired of Thermarest not offering an MW like Exped and BA do, so I’m now interested in the AXL insulated MW. Valerie, how soon are you expecting to get your pad, before the current 20% off ends?

Doug – Yesterday when I ordered my AXL, they said it was “out of stock”. This morning, REI sent me an email saying “Your item has shipped” — so maybe they just got big shipment from Big Agnes?

I should get it by mid-next-week, and would be happy to weigh and measure for anyone who has questions! :~)

I’m going to go into REI soon with my scale and possibly buy one. I have very low expectations. I’ll post on this thread what I experienced. I did this when they released the SLX and was horribly disappointed. I weighed 7 pads in the store without the stuff sack or repair kit. All were 1.5-2 oz over spec. :(

ive been using an Exped which is 0.3 oz over spec. I think it’s relatively comfortable but if I can be more comfortable and save 2 oz then they’ll get my dividend.

My regular mummy (advertised at 10.6oz or 301g) is actually 324g (11.42oz),

Yikes. Hard to believe actual weights are so far off considering the primary selling point of the regular mummy is that it’s lighter than the NeoAir… At any rate, I’m probably going to pull the trigger on a long/wide soon and will report back with the weight on my scale when I do. If it comes in at even a tenth of an ounce over 1 lb. I’m going to feel very guilty carrying it around :p

I got my AXL Mummy Air the other day.

It weighed in at 279g. On-line it’s listed as 272g.

Hmmm, 7g = .247 ounces… damn – it’s a quarter of an ounce off!

On second thought, forget it. I’m not going to complain after all.

Sandwiched between a pair of 1/8″ ccf’s & I won’t care.

Just hope it doesn’t leak.

Just to muddy the waters more … got mine a few minutes ago, and it came out UNDER spec., in all ways (both good and bad).

Pad:  Regular Wide size, insulated version.

Weight:  Mine = 14.7oz; BA Spec.= 15.2

Dimensions:  This is supposed to be a “wide” pad (so, 25″ width INFLATED). My pad’s un-inflated width is 28.5, which, with a height of 3″ is gonna come up pretty short (I mean, narrow).  For reference, my trusty ol’ Exped Synmat UL 7 in the Medium Wide size measures 31″ in width, and its height is slightly less at 2.8″.

Can’t decide whether I should return it yet (I’m a side sleeper and really need that extra width). Is it really so much to ask that expensive products like this be closer to spec?

Edit:  I just blew up the AXL [by creating a fiddly rubber band “o-ring” to adapt my Exped Schnozzel pump to the (clearly larger on purpose) bespoke BA valve]. C’mon guys — Exped and Sea to Summit valves are compatible, why not yours too? But I digress… Inflated, it is 24″ wide. One FULL inch below spec. Yes, it’s a “wide-ish” pad, but not quite as wide as they claimed (and yet, just as expensive!).  I guess that’s why it came in underweight.

Another note about the AXL pad: Compared to my trusty Exped and my husband’s not-so-trusty XLite, the exterior fabric of the AXL is more slippery and scratchy feeling. Still better than the rubbery stuff that the first generation of XLites had (yuck), but not as pleasant-feeling as other brands (esp. relevant for quilt users).  And the mattress-like baffles seem to be comfortable — at least as comfy as the Exped (vertical baffles) and more comfy than the XLite for a side sleeper like me. The only oddity there was that when I sat up, the pad immediately bottomed out (my Exped doesn’t do that), so I guess the baffle pattern makes it prone to that.  Probably won’t be a problem when sleeping on it, though…