Comment by baudehlo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by baudehlo | Hacker News Reader

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It is more expensive but only because it has an R value of 8.0 (the Kickstarter one has an R value of 1.0, which means it's not going to give you any protection from the cold ground whatsoever - even a self-inflating pad gives you more protection than that). You'd be amazed how much difference higher R values make on the quality of rest you get while camping.

Is it slower? Maybe, but I inflate mine in two or three inflations of the bag, and that takes me around 60 seconds - it's really not a long time in the big scheme of things - it takes a lot longer to get the tent erected (although that's down to about 5 minutes now). The problem is you can't inflate a high R-value pad without pressure - the reason his inflates so fast is there is no insulation, no down, no pockets, so the air can just go right in. But then so does the cold.

Anyway all I was saying is this isn't a new technique - there's a mattress you can buy today from any MEC/REI that uses this technique.

Whereas your first comment came off as a bit pithy, this was a really informative one. Thank you for the lesson on r-value and its importance. Not an avid camper, but I sometimes do overnights in the cold and today I learned something important about air pad insulation. Thanks again.

Per REI's page on the topic, here's what they have to say about R-value: "Insulation is measured according to its capacity to resist (that's the "R") heat flow. The higher a pad's R-value, the better you can expect it to insulate you from cold surfaces. The R-values shown on REI.com product pages are provided by the manufacturers and range from 1.0 (minimally insulated) to 9.5 (well insulated). Thicker pads generally offer higher R-values."

Source: http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/right-sleeping-pad.ht...

Thanks. As much as I hate to be "that guy", I think it's also important that people don't invest in a product on kickstarter that isn't going to match expectations, or isn't the "brand new innovation" that they say it is.

Just for further info: I camp a fair bit in Ontario. In September when the days are still hitting the high 20's (80's in Fahrenheit), the ground can still be cold enough that I had to trade up from an R-value 3 sleeping pad to this product. It's much comfier, very light and compact, and inflates really quickly. If you want to get into camping, being comfy at night is so important, I urge you not to skimp on your sleeping pad.

I looks like a wool blanket could help (R value around 4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool_insulation

The problem is that adds to your weight. Not important if you're car camping, but important for hiking.

I'll toss out another warning to those thinking of using this for back packing. I've seen baffles come apart on MEC sleeping pads with a similar design - it's a big enough problem that they acknowledged on their website for their first gen pads. I'd be leery of trusting a brand-new product from a team with limited experience in producing camping gear. It's not as simple as finding a factory in China to produce gear.

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