X-Therm pinholes

How old is the pad?

Good question. It’s 7 years old. It’s my winter pad so I only use it maybe 3-4 times a year. I would hope that it’s not past its lifespan.

Was it rolled up for long periods between use? Perhaps it fused together or weakened the seam. Lost elasticity from not being blown up.

Exped has good customer service.

It usually is rolled up for around 9 months and put into its stuff sack for storage. Maybe I mash it too much to get it in the stuff sack and somehow damage the seam. I’ve been storing my X-Lite the same way without any problem. I hope the pad isn’t toast. Those are pricey, and I am somewhat unhappy with Cascade Designs since their customer service is pretty much non-existent compared to pretty much every other company I’ve bought gear from, which is pretty sad since it used to be excellent.

The Exped 7R looks plausible, but it comes at the cost of 2 oz.

Nemo has a new Tensor Extreme with a reported R-Value of 8.5 but no-one has had one long enough to report on its durability.

It usually is rolled up for around 9 months and put into its stuff sack for storage.

At our house we currently have six or seven Thermarest’s, two of which are the originals going back to 2009. I have two X Therm’s, one from 2014. No issues with any of them. We store them loosely rolled and never (and I do mean never) use the little stuff sacks they come with.

Can you post some pics of the location of the holes?

Also, I had a heck of a time getting through to Thermarest. Best is to email them for a warranty repair, then call and keep calling until you get someone on the phone. That’s how I got my warranty issue taken care of. They never responded to my multitude of emails.

That Nemo looks interesting, but it seems to be 40D throughout, while the X-Therm has a 70D bottom. Since the X-Therm has lower denier on top, and all of the holes on top, I am wary of switching.

All of the pinholes are near the top of the pad. I initially thought my quilt straps may have been abrading it since they do have some pointy-ish parts, but my straps connect to the lower parts. I also thought that perhaps the snow could be abrading it, but all of the holes are on the part of the pad that doesn’t touch the snow. Perhaps I am putting excess strain on the pad because I do wiggle out of my quilt while it’s attached in the middle of the night, but there’s really nothing attached near the head so that can’t explain those holes.

The pinholes are all at the edge of where the top and bottom fabric were bonded together

The holes must have something to do with that bonding

I agree with Jerry. It’s a warranty issue for sure.

if its 7 years old maybe a warranty claim is unreasonable?

thermarest has a history of defective air mats they keep trying to redesign to fix

the Prolite was less than 1 pound but had delamination issues.  I remember reading one person that kept happening so thermarest sent them a new one.  Multiple times.  Then, thermarest redesigned the prolite so it’s 1 ounce heavier but they didn’t mention the delamination and how the redesign was to prevent.  Then they must have more problems because they redesigned it again and it was 1 ounce heavier than before.  They redesigned the valve too – the new one has these wings on it.  Now, the prolite isn’t sold any more (I think) – they must have given up on it.  They still have a prolite plus that weighs 1 pound 7 ounces.

Uberlites have problems with leaks according to posts I’ve read.  My uberlite loses about half it’s air during the night.  I have been unable to find where it’s leaking.  They discontinued these I believe.

That being said, I still use a prolite.  I think I’ve avoiding delamination by never putting my hand with all my weight on it onto the mattress.  On previous prolites, where it delaminated, I had put all my weight with my hand on the prolite.

This may sound critical of thermarest.  But, maybe it’s just difficult to make an ultra light mattress.

For what it’s worth, I have a Thermarest Xtherm which is 9 years old. It has never had any holes or leaks.

I’m careful with it, but not obsessive. I use quilt and pillow straps as well….I don’t store or carry it in its little sack tho.

I’d guess the problem is that your mat is defective- not anything you are doing to it.

Thanks everyone for your input. Consensus is that it’s a manufacturing defect. It sort of makes sense since the problem is only on the upper side of the pad and only the inner edge of the weld. I can’t imagine something I could do that would only damage that in multiple places. Pad failure in the winter is kind of a big deal. I always carry a CCF backup.

I’ll probably file a warranty claim. I know these delaminate over time and the fabric can degrade, but repeated failure over the weld strikes me as a something that would not be expected to be a point of failure if I’ve only used it for ~20 nights. Now that I think of it, the problem definitely started last year if not the year before, so it was probably 5-6 years old. This last time, 3 pinholes showed up at once so I imagine it will only get worse. I can’t have my pads failing in the dead of winter. I have a CCF backup, but still, it can get pretty dangerous if I can no longer be insulated from the ground.

You could put polyurethane all along the edge.  Head off any future pin holes.

Thanks everyone! I patched the holes but just leaving it around the house unrolled, it started developing new ones. I contacted Cascade Designs and they confirmed that it was a manufacturing defect.

If anyone has any ideas on what to do with a defective X-therm, I’m all ears. I hate throwing things away, but it’s definitely not going to function as an air mattress.

I have had recent (2025) positive warranty experience with Big Agnes.  What other sleeping pad brands have people had good warranty experiences with?

I have had recent (2025) positive warranty experience with Big Agnes.

Same here.  A few years ago, I had a 13 year old BA pad delaminate.  I contacted them, and they gave me a store credit for the full retail price of the item (which had been discontinued) at the time of purchase.  I told them I had bought the pad on sale at REI, so they were crediting me with more than I actually paid for the pad.  But they gave me the full credit anyways.  That is just how Big Agnes rolls.  Good customer service is more and more difficult to find these days, so this kind of thing makes a big impression on me.

I had the exact same issue. They accepted a warranty by photograph showing my patches along the baffle seam and mailed me a new one.

My good experience with my Therm-a-rest warranty . . .

first the problem and warranty claim . . .

https://popupbackpacker.com/is-your-neoair-mattress-leaking/

the resolution . . .

https://popupbackpacker.com/cascade-designs-therm-a-rest-neoair-for-the-win/