So in my opinion there's only two sleeping pads that you could possibly even consider
for winter backpacking and camping and they couldn't be more different because science.
Technology is just coming such a long way and not just with camera gear
but in your outdoor recreation equipment as well. When it comes to winter backpacking or camping
these are the only two pads that anyone needs to consider and they have some distinct
differences to them. Did i get out a fancy infrared camera and test these two things?
No i didn't. I actually took them out into the cold and slept on them that was our test for these.
But after sleeping on these i did come back and do some research on why i slept the way i did,
felt the way i did. And after researching the tech that went into these to make these what they are
i'm able to explain what they do well and what they do poorly and why. So let's just get this
out of the way real quick. The Therm-a-Rest Neoair Xtherm is significantly warmer and
significantly lighter than the Sea to Summit Ether Light Xt Extreme and it's not
really close. This has an r-value rating of 6.9 while this has a r-value rating of 6.2
That sounds close but honestly for me it's not. This one is so much warmer, in fact if you're doing
any kind of backpacking around zero degrees i don't think that it's even an option you gotta get
the therm-a-rest neoair xtherm. So why is that? Why does the therm-a-rest work so well?
How is it able to get that much warmth in that much smaller of a size. Okay the key to this thing
is this fancy triangular core matrix that therm-a-rest has patented and so far no other company has
been able to duplicate it. And on therm-a-rest's website they explain that they can't explain
all the technology that goes into it. Think of one of those shiny metallic looking bounce boards or
pads that you might sleep on. Well therm-a-rest has figured out a way to sew one of those
in the middle of the sleeping pad. It keeps the cold air coming from the ground down in the bottom
of the pad while that warm air on top that your body is heating is staying warm. Those horizontal
baffles trap air inside it creating these small pockets of air that don't move and that your body
keeps warm and therefore you warm on top of it. Now performance and technology like this is not cheap.
These will run you anywhere between $225 and $260 bucks so sea to summit made their own version of
a winter sleeping pad, i believe to put in direct competition with this thing and they tried really
really hard and made a good pad. Unfortunately the performance of this thing isn't near the
technology of this. Now this does have some redeeming factors that i'll get to in a second
but let's break down why that is. Why this isn't as warm as this even though it's a whole inch
and a half thicker. Yes the ether lite xt extreme sleeping pad is a four inch thick behemoth. It's
basically like sleeping on a regular air mattress and this does make the sea to summit in my opinion
much more comfortable than the therm-a-rest and by that i mean if i'm on a cot next to a buddy heater
and i don't need as much warmth or i don't know i'm car camping i will actually go to this pad
over this one. Okay so the technology in this one that sea to summit has tried to use are these
air sprung cells and you can see it. They're super comfy, they're super nice on your back
and on sea to summit's website they say that these are designed to basically stop the flow of air and
prevent convection heat loss. So sea to summit's idea is also to stop air from moving, trapping
warm air over cold air. You know on a hot summer day when the upstairs of your house is way warmer
than the downstairs of your house. Well that's because heat rises and cold sits at the bottom.
So if they can get air to stop moving through this then the heated air that your body heats sitting
on top close to you should stay on top. Now if air gets moving in this sleeping pad, what happens? The
cold air mixes with the warm air lowering the overall temperature of the sleeping pad
that you're sleeping on. So in order for this one to work really well you have to stay really still
and when you're out in the backcountry who sleeps still? And when you roll around on this thing
air moves to those thick four inch sides of the pad, it mixes together and it lowers the overall
heat of this thing. I don't know how r-values are tested anymore. I don't know if they can actually
test this thing with someone rocking and rolling on top of it and see how much heat it loses. Does
that go into the test? If it doesn't there's going to be a huge difference between these two. If that
isn't included in this test and these things are just set up, not moved, and then they test the
r-value from there then of course they're going to be really close together in terms of r-value.
Hey look there's an awesome winter backpacking video for you to watch next.
Or you can learn how to dial in your entire winter sleep setup over here.
And youtube thinks you'll like this one. Thanks for watching, i'll see you next time.