Recommend me a self inflating mat

[chairhead64]

Im wanting one of these, I know they will be expensive once in production but....look at the benefits

[Mike101]

Morning all,

This is not a true answer to the question but this is what i do.

I have a large ish 2 man tent with a porch. I use a simple double airbed form Halfords. It's quilted on top and it 4 inches thick.

Yes i know it's not self inflating but i run a small etectci pump fomr my bike and it takes less than 5 mins to inflate.

I am 6ft tall...far too much around the middle and with a prolapsed disc. This airbed is so comfy and long enough for me.

When fully packed away correctly the airbed is nothig more than a large loaf or bread and the pump is very small.

I think we get hung up on having the smallest most comapct gear we can. Sleeping comfort is vital and if you are tired on a bike you will crash..sooner or later..it will happen.

So i would rather have a few extra pounds on the bike and leave behind something else to make sure i sleep well.

Mike

[ANDYdk]

pretty true, I use a cheap HI-GEAR. IT WAS A 3/4 one but done an IOM 7 DAYS AND 10 DAYS IN PYRENNEES so value for money, it was a £10 buy.

[samfan]

I do 3 or 4 camping trips a year and have tried 2 different self inflating matress couldent get used to either of them , As someone has already said a air bed with a 12 volt air pump is hard to beat .My air bed and pump came to less than £20 off ebay. Wouldent change it.

[-Ralph-]

This all depends on the individual, not the bed.

If you can sleep on the cheapest of the cheap air beds that's fine and that's all you need. I used to sleep on them no problem too, but with age I've found them impossible to get on with.

They are non breathable plastic which doesn't allow for sweat (even with a flocked surface), they are filled with several inches of air that takes the same temperature as the ground underneath so can be really cold to sleep on in winter, suffer from condensation due to that temperature difference, are prone to punctures, wobble about, and don't give very good spine posture with the hip sinking into the bed and being lower than the ankle or the shoulder.

The more expensive stuff, and the self inflatable stuff, has it benefits, otherwise it wouldn't sell and the likes of Therm-a-rest wouldn't have been in business since the 1970's.

My guess is the majority of people who are sleeping on £10 air beds have never bought and owned an £80 bed, so are not really in a position to make a fair comparison.

[samfan]

Ralph can l ask you what a self inflating air beds are filled with when inflated ,air beds self inflating or otherwise no matter if they cost £5 or £500 are all filled with the same thing when inflated that would be air.Can you please tell us where you managed to find a breathable self inflating air bed.l would presume the £80 jobs have more expensive air in them that must be what makes them so much better.

[-Ralph-]

You can ask, but given your level of sarcasm accompanied by an obvious lack of knowledge I may choose not to reply. I'm not a person that suffers fools gladly, I suggest you use google to find out what else is in them that makes them insulating (you can sleep directly on snow without getting cold with a good quality one), stable, supportive and funnily enough able to return to their uncompressed form time after time and hence self inflate.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[AndyB]

You can ask, but given your level of sarcasm accompanied by an obvious lack of knowledge I may choose not to reply. I'm not a person that suffers fools gladly, I suggest you use google to find out what else is in them that makes them insulating (you can sleep directly on snow without getting cold with a good quality one), stable, supportive and funnily enough able to return to their uncompressed form time after time and hence self inflate.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

That was remarkably restrained :whistle:

[-Ralph-]

It had been a remarkably long and tiring day, sorry, and to suggest a £5 plastic balloon in the shape of a mattress, is no different to an £80 Therm-a-rest was a bit beyond what my fail-o-meter could cope with.

[Bernard Smith]

Think this might be a +4 for the Exped?

I bought the 7 (instead of the 9) as didn't anticipate sleeping on the Arctic tundra!

Seriously balked at the price initially as I already had a good thermarest but felt I needed something more due to advancing decreptitude. The first night on it convinced me - I woke up in the middle of the night and could feel the heat underneath me from the down filled mattress - plus it packed smaller than the T-R.

If you think about the costs of hotels and B&Bs etc - two/three nights cost (ish) in comparison. If you sleep on it for a week then you have recovered costs even allowing for campsite fees etc.