NEW! NEMO Sleeping Pads 2023 – 2024

[Jeff McWilliams]

I honestly felt like the Nemo Tensor was more comfortable and less noisy than a NeoAir XLite.  I have a bad back and I tossed and turned a lot more on the Neoair. None are perfect.  Heck I toss and turn on my memory foam mattress at home as well.

 

Honestly hammock camping is the best sleep I’ve had.  I’ve never done it backpacking as I’m still tinkering and I have heavy hammock gear. (esp my underquilt)

 

 

[Dan]

I’m happy to hear that the Nemo is making a difference for you, Jeff, I can definitely relate to your issues. I also have lower back problems and I’m pretty much crippled in the morning until I can find a place to sit with bent knees for about 20 minutes. The Nemo Tensor hasn’t helped for me, and neither has Big Agnes, or either Thermarest I’ve tried. They’re all the same to me. There may be a slight noise difference, but it’s just not noticeable to me, and since my only tent partners are canines, I don’t really care about noise anyway.

[Jeff McWilliams]

Dan,

That’s really unfortunate.  Have you tried hammock camping?  It’s not viable for every situation, and the lightest tent setup will always be lighter than the lightest hammock setup.  But it may be a reasonable alternative to feeling crippled for 20 minutes every morning. That sounds awful.

 

[Paul S]

Actually, in that video, it looks like all of the pads, except the neo-air, DO have uneven insulation: some spots are warm, and some are less warm. I think it proves my point (except wrt the neo’s that have a surprisingly even thermal profile).

[Jeff McWilliams]

I think it’s important to look at the temperature ranges represented, and not just the colors. The temperature range of the Nemo Tensor was 7 degrees, compared to 5.7 degrees for the NeoAir.   That’s not that big a difference.  The Static V had a whopping 18.4 degree temperature variation.

Also, the “warmest” area (where the most heat was being lost) detected by the NeoAir was 66.5 degrees, compared to 67.6 degrees for the Nemo and an awful 79.3 degrees for the Static V.

I don’t recall where I read it, but I seem to recall at least one person claiming that the Klymit Pads are better used with a sleeping bag that has loft on the bottom of the bag that can fill in the uninsulated gaps between the ridges.  As a quilt user, the Klymit pads would be one of my last choices for a sleeping pad if cold ground was a concern.  I own, among others, a Klymit Static V Insulated Lightweight, a Klymit Static V Insulated UL, a NeoAir Xlite, a NeoAir XTherm, and a Nemo Tensor.  The Klymit pads are mostly relegated to summer time camping with my grandkids.

I’ve not been impressed with the S2S Etherlight XT based on reviews and specs.  It seems to perform poorly given how heavy it is and how large it is when rolled up.  Also, I consider the NeoAir Uberlight to be borderline “stupid light”, or a summer season only pad for mild temperatures when pack weight is a person’s primary concern.

[Dustin V]

Jeff, you read on the Klymit site somewhere that the loft of your sleeping bag is supposed to fill in the gaps in their pads’ grooves. That expectation started with their X-frame pad which is just a few strategic tubes. Until this year I was using a Klymit pad even after I’d heard their ASTM R-value was less than half the marketed rating because I find their pads very comfortable to lay on. I just kept telling myself I woke up cold because my quilt was leaking or my socks were too tight…

Also Jeff, I got the whole WB hammock system a few years back and I sleep better in that than at home. Another selling point of the Klymit pads was that their shape worked so well in hammocks, which seemed to be true except that again I kept waking up cold. This made me leery of UQs at first, but it finally made me suspect the pad was the problem.

I finally grabbed a used Nemo pad and I’m a little less comfortable, but because I’m waking up too warm. The problems now are more logical like a quilt rated for colder conditions, socks too thick, etc. I feel like I can trust the Nemo pads more, but of course we’ll see how the results of the live human testing goes here against the new models.

 

[DWR D]

“all equally uncomfortable.”

Comfort is a relative thing, I suppose. If you ever slept on one of the ensolite pads in the old days, EVERYTHING these days would seem extremely comfortable…

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