THERMAREST VS NEMO - Which Sleep Pad Should You Buy? Is R Value Important?

what is going on everybody my name is Dan I'm a hiking backpacking gear all of those things if you guys are into that stuff to go ahead and subscribe to the channel also I do have an Instagram I'll put that right here for you guys to make sure you follow me on Instagram as well today we are talking about sleep pads we're gonna talk about five different sleep pads we're gonna talk about all the sleep pads that I own some I use some I don't it's sort of my progression of sleep pads and the first sleep pad we're gonna talk about Oh first we got to thank the sponsor of today's video back country back country thank you thank you guys thank you thank you for sponsoring today's video the first sleep pad that I bought was actually a foam sleep pad was like a closed cell foam pad don't recommend it piece of garbage miserable night's sleep then I thought that I would upped my game and by something like this I was convinced that this like weird pattern would be more comfortable it is slightly more comfortable but it's not super comfortable so there are different types of sleep pads this one you can see that is the therm-a-rest z rest they also have the therm-a-rest z light that would be the one I would recommend the one that I'm talking about is the one you've probably seen a lot of through hikers use it's silver on one side yellow on the other they're pretty much the same thing the reason people like these is they're an accordion-style sleep pad super instant setup and they are indestructible so you're not gonna pop it but they're not super comfortable so like especially if you're a side sleeper your hips are gonna dig into the ground on this this pretty much just takes the edge off of like hard ground underneath you so if you're like okay with that comfortability then this would do fine for you or if you're the type of person that is super rough with your gear this would be good for you but other than that this doesn't really do much more than act as like maybe a second layer for a really cold night because you can actually use this underneath or on top of another sleep pad for a little bit more warmth the next pad that I bought was the therm-a-rest NeoAir X light and that pad is not here today because somebody borrowed it and they never returned it so real nice huh you're watching why my pad back I'm a sleep pad back you hear me so I got a stand-in for you it is this pad right here it's essentially the same style it's also made by the same company this is a newer pad as of about the past year so this is the therm-a-rest NeoAir uber light so the difference between the ex light and the uber light is the ex light is a little bit warmer and let me just talk about that for a second our value so I'm not gonna get super technical because I can't get super technical on this because I'm not a super technical person when it comes to this kind of stuff when you're shopping for sleep pads you're gonna see our value on the vast majority of them and the higher the number the colder the temperature that you can take this sleep pad down to and it will keep you warmer so for instance this pad here is a 2.4 I think our value this one is a 2.0 R value I've got other ones that are much higher r-value and so they're each meant for different purposes this is the coldest pad but it will still get you down into probably I don't know the 40s I would say before you're gonna start to feel a chill if you're a cold sleeper maybe the 50s but the reason people want this particular sleep pad is because this is about the most comfortable to the lightest weight pad out on the market right now this is the large version I like my sleep pads wide I do not want a narrow sleep pad because I roll around at night and to me they're just totally uncomfortable it ruins the night if I don't have a wide sleep pad so I need at least 25 inches wide and that's what this is this particular one is also like kind of you can see that it's like a mummy's type but it gets narrow at this end and then the head end gets a little bit wider so it's more form-fitting to your body and they do that because really they're just cutting out material at the bottom and they're saving weight this particular one weighs 12 ounces and you can get this I believe down to like 7 or 8 ounces for the sleep head this is a great option if you're looking to save weight especially in the summer or the early fall or the late spring temperatures it's also nice and thick and it's got like these apples that go this way so it's you know it's not uncomfortable aw it's actually really comfortable sleep pad so let's say you don't like some of the brands that I'm talking about today or you want to see what else is out there let me show you how you can find some other sleeping pads that may work well for you very very easily log on to backcountry comm and what I like to do is I like to go to activities I like to go to hike camp and then I like to go to shop and then it pulls up all of the different categories for hiking out there which is really cool and then you can click on sleeping and you can also select sleeping pads and this will pull up all the different sleeping pads that they offer so this is really cool you can sort it by highest-rated new arrivals lowest highest price and you can find your sleep pad that you want now let's say that you've got even more questions that you're not finding answers to just from looking at the website you can click on chat right here and then you could type in your name I want to talk about hike and camp gear and then I hit submit and this is going to connect you to one of the gear heads the gear heads are great because they're former Olympians former athletes they are trail guides so these guys know their stuff and they can at least point you in the right direction if you have extra questions about a specific item also this weekend is their Memorial Day sale make sure that you head over there right away if you're looking to purchase some items for this upcoming backpacking season and they also gave me a coupon code it's Dan 15 for 15% off of your order some exclusions do apply try out those codes and see if it could save a couple bucks if you're a cold sleeper this is probably my arms are actually already starting to get warm this is probably the best sleeping pad on the market for the warmth to weight ratio and comfortability pack ability all of that this is a four season sleep pad so this will get you easily down to zero degrees or probably lower and you'll be toasty warm underneath you now keep in mind that if you're still cold even though you have a high r-value LeapPad like this one this is a 6.9 r-value sleep pad that's really warm your problem may be that your sleeping bag or quilt or something else is causing the problem so just keep that in mind it's a sleep system that is gonna help you out but if you're looking to sleep warm underneath you from that cold ground this is a great option this can still be used in like the summertime it's just gonna be warm underneath you so like I said if you're cold sleeper this may be great but essentially it's the exact same shape is the one I just showed you although it is a little bit more durable the nylon on the outside is a higher denier nylon than this uber light pad this super light pad I think is like a 7d or @nd nylon something like that and there is some people that have complained about that puncturing really easily this one is a little bit more durable in that direction so keep that in mind as well so if you're a little bit rough on your gear and you're wanting to think about that this might be a good option for you as well my my favorite sleep pad and I'm gonna explain why this is my favorite sleep pad this is the Nemo tensor regular wide version of the Nemo tensor it's the Nemo tensor line so if you go onto back country's website search Nemo tensor a few different options will pop up this one's built a little bit differently than the therm-a-rest brands over here this one's still gonna have baffles that go this direction but they're kind of quilted in the middle so there's just kind of presses in here and what I've noticed is it feels more supportive so like you don't feel like you're gonna roll off like the ends just slightly curved up not much that it would bother you or that you would notice it it's almost like they're curving up from the baffle at the end here I also like this particular one because it's rectangle it's rectangle it's rectangle all the way through it so it doesn't have that mummy style to it I like that because I can spread my legs out at the bottom if I want to I can move my arms out I can roll around on it I'm not gonna fall off of it this one has a 3.5 our values so it's about half to our value of the therm-a-rest x therm but this one will still get you down into the 20s it'll definitely get you down below freezing probably twenty to thirty degrees if you're a cooler sleeper I'm a warm sleeper so I can get this down to about 20 degrees and be okay anything below that I'm definitely bringing the X term because I'm for sure gonna start to feel a chill the other thing I enjoy about this particular sleep pad is that the insulation that's inside of it along with the uber light and along with the X therm they all have like a mylar shiny coating metallic insulator like a space blanket inside of them this one has I believe two layers inside of it but they're suspended opposite of these baffles and so when you press on it and you lay on it you don't hear the crinkle like you would in some of the other brands so it's a little bit quieter and that's really really nice and that's really really important for a good night's sleep also one other thing you want to consider when you're buying these sleep pads is possibly purchasing a pump sack now the NEEMO comes with a pump sack I don't believe these other ones come with pump sacks you have to purchase that separately so keep that in mind so this is the pump sack that comes with the NEEMO okay it's a vortex pump sack and essentially all you do is you connect this little nozzle down here and then you open this up you blow into it and it opens up and then you can just roll it and it pumps up the sleep pad these are really nice for just saving your breath and not making you dizzy at night the worst part about a sleep Pat especially an air pad after a long hike is getting to camp and having to blow one of these things up it takes a lot of energy to do it now granted you're going to have a little bit extra weight I don't even know exactly how much that weighs I think maybe an ounce and a half two ounces extra but just keep that in mind those are very very helpful okay so if I had to choose one sleeping pad to rule them off which one would it be I think you guys probably already know the answer to this because you've seen me use it and talk about it in a million other videos it would be this one right here with did an emo tensor regular wide version of the knee mode sensor it's almost a four season pad it is the most comfortable in my personal opinion it is also pretty lightweight and I have yet to have a bad night's sleep on this sleep pad alright I hope that helps you guys out I hope you're able to at least get pointed in the right direction while you're shopping for a sleep pad for this upcoming season if you guys like this video makes you hit that like button also subscribe for more hit the bell notifications so that I can send you a video every single time it's released and I will see you on the next one you

Channel: Dan Becker

Views: 414,229

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Id: -Lfed0YjSRs

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020