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Need a new sleeping pad
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › Need a new sleeping pad
- This topic has 15 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 10 months ago by Ed Biermann.
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May 16, 2016 at 10:33 pm #3402914
Hello, my 6 year old thermrest neoair 1st gen finally started leaking. I am in the market for a new pad but I am not sure which one to get. Which one would you recommend? I like the newer neoair xlite but they are expensive! I am looking at Nemo Equipment, Big Agnes, and Klymit. I would like something light and comfortable. Are there any pads that can beat the neoair xlite?
May 16, 2016 at 10:57 pm #3402918I would highly recommend trying a bunch out and taking your time with it. I recently stepped out of the NeoAir world and on a whim tried lying on an Exped last time I was at MEC and low and behold I found it more comfortable than the X-lite or even large x-therm I have. Glad I tried it or I would have never known!
I now have a Synmat UL7 and sleeping better for it! Like shoes and packs (a current discovery process for me) these things a personal.
-Michael
May 16, 2016 at 10:57 pm #3402919Contact thermarest
theres an excellent chance theyll send you a new one if it cant be repaired
;)
May 16, 2016 at 11:42 pm #3402929Repairing a leaking pad is actually not that hard, so I wouldn’t give up in your Neoair just yet.
The hardest thing is finding the leak. Mix up a soapy water solution. Fully inflate the pad. Pour about half the soapy water over one side of the pad, using your hands, a brush, or a towel to cover the pad. Make sure the entire pad on one side.
Now, squeeze the pad and look for air bubbles. If you see any, mark them with a Sharpie (you can use rubbing alcohol to remove the ink later). Repeat for the other side. Rinse off the soap, leaving the Sharpie marks.
If you don’t find any hole this way, you can fill a bathtub with a few inches of water, place the inflated pad in it (fold the pad if necessary), squeeze it, and again look for air bubbles.
Now, patch the holes you’ve found using the repair kit your pad came with. If you don’t have that, you can use Seam Grip. First, clean around the hole with rubbing alcohol. This will remove the Sharpie, so make sure you remember where the hole is.
For small holes, just brush the repair glue or Seam Grip on or around the hole. For larger holes, you may need to you the repair patches your mat came with, or Tenacious Tape. Still start with glue or Seam Grip. You may also want to apply glue or Seam Grip around the edges of the patch.
Leave the pad and let it dry for a least a day. If you need to use the pad right away, first apply the glue then a repair patch, and skip the glue around the edge of the repair patch. You can touch it up after your trip, if necessary.
May 17, 2016 at 12:29 am #3402936I have an Exped Synmat UL 7 S and whilst I have incurred a couple of problems with it and leaks in the past I still continue to use it. Very comfortable to sleep on in my experience.
May 17, 2016 at 12:52 am #3402940A while back, I sent Thermarest several pads that I had bought over the years, all of which had developed unfixable leaks. They sent me factory seconds replacements for all of them, no charge, no questions asked.
May 17, 2016 at 1:37 am #3402941Exped Synmat UL7
Cheers
May 17, 2016 at 8:03 am #3402967I have had Big Agnes and Thermarest pads that leaked – each time they simply replace them, sometimes with a newer version that may or may not work, but then I sell the thing and get what I am actually comfortable with. I do try to find leaks before I send them back. I have patches on the Exped that are holding pretty well.
May 17, 2016 at 9:46 pm #3403134The leak is pretty obvious and I believe it is at the seam. I found it to be super hard to repair. I bought an old insulated pad from and REI used gear sale and after gluing 4-6 patches, I gave up because there was leak on the seam by the edge. Same here. I might try send it for repair. Is it worth the hassle? Do they have a good warranty? That pad is like I said 6 or so year old and I think I bought it on ebay new. Does it matter?
May 17, 2016 at 9:48 pm #3403135I am going to give their warranty a shot. Thanks!
May 22, 2016 at 7:33 pm #3404113Thermarest has excellent customer service. I’ve sent two of the original neoairs back to them because of a slow leak that I couldn’t find. First pad was like new except for the slow leak and they sent me a brand new one. The second pad I sent back had a couple of patches on it, but still had a slow leak that I couldn’t find. They sent me a brand new xlite because they longer made the original neoair when I sent it back. I never expected a new pad from them, and was only hoping that they could find and fix the leak for me.
May 22, 2016 at 9:32 pm #3404131Exped synmat ul7.
Is there an echo in here?
May 23, 2016 at 12:13 am #3404161I’ve heard some pretty good things about the (in the meanwhile not so) new Sea to Summit-mats.
However, I have and will continue spending lots of happy nights on my Neoair Xlite.
May 26, 2016 at 11:24 am #3404837I sent my pad last week. I never heard back from them but I got a tracking number saying that they are sending me a package. I should be receiving it Friday. I am not sure what to expect. Did they fix it? Are they sending it back to me? Are they replacing it?
May 26, 2016 at 11:38 am #3404840Like Michael M said above, “these things are personal”. I recently moved from an Exped Synmat UL7 LW to a Neoair Xlite large.
I found that I can side sleep better on the neoair. I can let a good amount of air out of the neoair so it conforms a bit to my shape before my hip bottoms out. With the exped, I found that I almost had to have the thing fully tightly inflated to keep my hip from hitting ground. I seem to be sleeping better, and waking up with less hip and back soreness. It could be to the baffle orientation and the chambered construction of the neoair.
May 26, 2016 at 10:38 pm #3404948Noel, most likely you will get a new pad. Similar to what you sent in, just a current model. Let us know.
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