The Exped Downmat 7 is a sinfully luxurious sleeping pad for cold weather camping when you need extra insulation below your sleeping bag to stay warm.
Almost all sleeping bags, no matter their temperature rating, have one fundamental flaw. When you get into your bag, you compress the insulation underneath you limiting its ability to retain loft and trap warm air. In winter, when the ground is very cold, you need to compensate for this by sleeping on more insulation and it is common for winter backpackers to carry 2 pads for cold weather camping.
The Downmat 7 eliminates the need to carry two pads by providing you with one very warm insulation layer that resists compression. The Downmat is an air mattress segmented into multiple chambers each containing 700 fill goose down, much like a regular sleeping bag. When you lie on it, the air in the mattress maintains the loft of the down, absorbing the heat you radiate toward the ground, and trapping it in the down chambers. It’s a simple, yet ingenious design.
With an R-value of 5.9, the Downmat 7 is rated for camping in temperatures down to minus 11 degrees F. For comparison, a Thermarest Prolite 4 has an R-value of 3.4 and a Thermarest Z-lite has an R-value of 2.2.
When inflated, the Downmat is 2.75 inches thick yet compresses very well due to to the down fill. A synthetic version of the pad is also available but there is no reason not to get the down fill since there is little risk of it getting wet in the watertight air mattress.
In order to inflate the Downmat you need to use a pump to prevent water vapor in your breath from degrading the mattress’ down insulation. To inflate, you use the Downmat’s stuff sack which connects to the mattress’ air valves as a pump. With a little practice, it takes just a few minutes to inflate the pad. The stuff sack doubles as a dry bag which you can use to store additional clothing or as a pillow.
The Downmat 7 is a very hefty 34 oz, including its stuff sack/pump, but you can often get away with taking a lighter bag on a cold weather trip, say a 0 or 20 degree bag, than you would otherwise, since the air mattress is so thermally efficient for cold weather conditions. There are several other variants of the Downmat 7 available including a 3/4 size and an extra long. A Downmat 9 series is also available with an incredible R-value of 8.0.
Here’s a great you tube demo that illustrates how you inflate the Downmat 7.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Related posts:
Backcountry.com Coupons
No user commented in " Exped Downmat 7 Sleeping Pad "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackLeave A Reply