Bushwalk Australia

Perhaps a short RidgeRest for thermal insulation under whatever inflatable you use for comfort?
The downside is that the RidgeRest is bulky

I have heard all the stories about the Expeds, I have used my 9LW downmat for a few years now and not had a problem. You MUST open the valves after you get up as the warming up in your tent etc will cause expansion after the sun has been up for a while. Used mine in minus temps this past week, cosy and very warm. Just so heavy to hump. I love it, never been cold with one under me. I will sacrifice something else to carry one of these.

markg wrote:I have heard all the stories about the Expeds, I have used my 9LW downmat for a few years now and not had a problem. You MUST open the valves after you get up as the warming up in your tent etc will cause expansion after the sun has been up for a while. Used mine in minus temps this past week, cosy and very warm. Just so heavy to hump. I love it, never been cold with one under me. I will sacrifice something else to carry one of these.

These are the positive stories I need to hear more of! I’ve read somewhere recently that Exped may have recently altered their design (internally, I presume) to deal with the baffle issue. I like your tip. I’m going to email Exped and see what they have to say re design!

As I said in an earlier post I have had my winterlite for over 3 years with 200+ days on it and haven't have a problem. Also own 2 others that my wife and second daughter use which are 5 years old. Not as many days on them buts still going strong. I pull the plug on them as soon as I'm out of the sack and only blow them up with the schnozzle bag never my breath. Don't know if it makes a difference but I must be doing something right based on all the failures others claim.

I sent an email to Exped headquarters in Europe regarding my concerns around durability and especially the baffle issue. The response gives me confidence but I wonder if it correlates with the mats people have had issues with. This is the response:

Hi,

Thanks for your request and your interest in our products.

In fact, the blowout problem you described affected a small percentage of our production from 2014 to 2016. Now the chambers are equipped with a more elastic and hydrolysis resistant baffle material, so this shouldnt happen again.

All Exped products come with a 5-year warranty on materials and workmanship. Only the UL/ HL Hyperlite/ Hypersleep/ Winterlite products are excluded, which have a 2-year warranty due to the very light materials used.

However, since all air mattresses of all brands are still only air mattresses, we recommend to have a spare mat or a closed-pored emergency mat with you in extreme areas where you can't even escape into civilization, such as the Evazote or Hypersleep. The latter can also be used to increase the temperature range of the mat and serves alone as an emergency mat to protect you from freezing to death.

We hope we could help you with this information.

In fact, the blowout problem you described affected a small percentage of our production from 2014 to 2016..

Call me cynical but whenever I read a company saying "affected a small percentage" I think of telcos or isps..
"currently a small amount of customers are experiencing issues" Translation: everyone in the entire city has no internet.

wildwanderer wrote:

In fact, the blowout problem you described affected a small percentage of our production from 2014 to 2016..

Call me cynical but whenever I read a company saying "affected a small percentage" I think of telcos or isps..
"currently a small amount of customers are experiencing issues" Translation: everyone in the entire city has no internet.

That may be so, but I think the fact they’ve put a date on it gives me confidence in the current product. I’m almost certainly going to run with the SynMat or Downmat now, so I’ll be able to alert if I suffer any issues.

FNM wrote: Have they been any mats in particular? All UL? The ones I’m mainly focusing on are the Downmat and SynMat (1-1.2kg), although will def take a close look at the mat in my previous post. In other words, I’m not looking at their UL mats and I wonder if that makes a difference?

Yep, both of mine were synmat hyperlites and both blew baffles after about a year. I also had a downmat that had an issue with most of the down packing into an inseparable clump at either end of the mat - not sure why this happened (moisture maybe?) but it reduced the warmth significantly. Besides their proclivity to fail, they are very comfortable mats though!

J M wrote:Be careful with exped mats - a lot of people (myself included) have had multiple fail. If I were buying now I'd either go for a sea to summit or a thermarest.

Strange. Our Exped Synmat UL7s are many years old, and have not failed. OK, I got a pinhole in mine once due apparently to a sharp grass seed, but I do not count that as a 'failure': it was damage. Easily fixed. We have used them down to -7 C and were warm enough.

Cheers
Roger

rcaffin wrote:
Strange. Our Exped Synmat UL7s are many years old, and have not failed. OK, I got a pinhole in mine once due apparently to a sharp grass seed, but I do not count that as a 'failure': it was damage. Easily fixed. We have used them down to -7 C and were warm enough.

Perhaps a difference in construction between the ultralite and hyperlite models? I treated these mats quite carefully so I'm not sure what more I could've done to prevent the baffle blowing. Apart from this, they're a comfy mat!

jjoz58 wrote:As I said in an earlier post I have had my winterlite for over 3 years with 200+ days on it and haven't have a problem. Also own 2 others that my wife and second daughter use which are 5 years old. Not as many days on them buts still going strong. I pull the plug on them as soon as I'm out of the sack and only blow them up with the schnozzle bag never my breath. Don't know if it makes a difference but I must be doing something right based on all the failures others claim.

I thought exactly the same. Similar age. Treated with huge amounts of care due to reports.... (and they all fail eventually)

Then one night it rolled me off due to baffle failure.
Went to exped and their response was ‘it’s 5 years old what do you expect?’

If their response was ‘yea it’s happened to a few, but because it’s 5years old here’s 15% off your next mat for good faith and good customer service’ I would of brought another on the spot. Their customer service was woeful and now I’m exploring options.

It is a known fault in a particular batch of the mats.
All of them should have been pulled and replaced and because of Expeds attitude to this problem and most especially Exped Australia I will never buy another Exped article no matter how good it may be.