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Shoutout to the $25 air pad I almost returned, it beat my $150 one on a 28 degree night
So I had two sleeping pads sitting in my garage for about a month, a basic blue foam pad I got for $25 at a shop in Boise and a fancy inflatable one that ran me $150 online. I kept going back and forth on which one to actually take on a trip to the Sawtooth range, and I honestly figured the cheap foam one would be the one I regretted. I ended up packing both because I could not decide, which turned out to be the best dumb idea I have had. That night it hit 28 degrees and my buddy with the same fancy pad was shivering by 2am while I was warm on the foam one. The foam pad does not pop, does not leak, and does not care if you drag it over rocks. It is bulkier to strap on my pack, sure, but I stopped babying it after night two. Now I am wondering if I even need the inflatable one at all. Has anyone else ditched their inflatable pad for plain foam, or do you still bring both?
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jamie_webb6710d ago
Man, I gotta push back on this one. One cold night does not prove foam beats inflatable, it just proves your buddy brought the wrong pad for those temps. That $150 pad probably had an R-value of like 1.5 or 2, which is fine for summer but useless at 28 degrees, and the foam one is closer to 2 or higher just by being thick and closed cell. So you did not really beat a fancy pad, you beat a pad that was never built for that weather. The real test is a week long trip where bulk and comfort start to wear on you, cause foam never gets more comfy and it eats up pack space the whole time. Ngl if you want one pad for everything, a high R-value inflatable still wins, you just have to actually check the numbers before you buy.
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