Big Agnes Air Core Ultra Sleeping Pad, Insulated, 25x72 (Wide Regular)

Product Information

It has an R-value of 10.6 which is a full 2 units more than its closest rival. This will keep you warm down to extreme temperatures of -54 degrees F thanks to the insulation inside which is an open-cell polyurethane foam that won’t let you down. The top surface is a50D stretch tricot nylon which is super soft and comfortable while the sides and bottom are made from a tougher 75D polyester for durability. If you’re new to camping, it’s reasonable to invest in one mid-range R-Value pad for every outing. As you start camping through the seasons, you’ll appreciate the function of a cold weather pad with a higher R-Value rating, and the importance of a warm weather pad when you’re out camping in a hot desert valley. An R-Value is a new outdoor industry standard which requires every pad to be thoroughly tested then rated based on insulating performance from 1 to 5, the higher the number, the warmer the pad. Photo by: Max Seigal The NeoAir XLite is only available in a mummy shape, but they offer various sizing options including a regular, small, large, and regular wide. A wide version is always a perk when it comes to side sleepers to help ensure we stay on the pad throughout our shifting from side to side during the night.

One week later I received the new Insulated Air Core Ultra. Kudos to impeccable warranty service. Now only time will tell, but it's holding air at home. The following link will take you to a video by BA on how to replace the diaphragm, and it looks like a pretty simple task: The shape of a sleeping pad is another important characteristic to consider. You usually have two options: Mummy and rectangular. The Nemo Roamer Double Sleeping Pad is a beast. There is no other way of putting it. It is big enough for two people to stretch out on, deep enough so that you never feel the ground, and extra warm for winter camping. It is also quite heavy and bulky to carry.

The Sea to Summit Comfort Plus XT Insulated Air is another winter sleeping bag that feels warmer than its 4.8 R-value rating. It has air-sprung baffles created by spot welds instead of seams so that you get a very even platform to sleep on. These air-sprung baffles seem to conform to your body better than other directional baffles. Utilizing the borescope provided significant insight into the design details of the insulation approach used with this mattress design.

In general, I have always found that products from Big Agnes are well designed and are of good quality. The Insulated Air Core Ultra is no different and my overall impression is that the design is well thought out and the build quality is very good.Standard size for most sleeping pads is 20” x 72”, but as side sleepers we may require a little additional space to maximize our comfort. Because we tend to shift from side to side, having a wider sleeping pad helps us stay on our pad and not roll off onto the cold ground. If you are a side sleeper that stays put, then a standard size pad might work great for you.

Before I get into the details of the Insulated Air Core Ultra design, I wanted to comment on how comfortable the mattress is to sleep on since this is the primary reason for buying a mattress. As I mentioned earlier, I have been using an earlier version of this design for a number of years and have always found it very comfortable. While my old mattress size was a 25 x 72 and the mattress I am reviewing is a 20 x 78, I found this mattress to be just as comfortable as my old mattress. So from a sleeping perspective I am a very happy camper sleeping on this mattress. R-values are now standardized by law for sleeping pads, and so you can rely on them to be fairly, if not totally, accurate. You can use R-values to judge the temperature limits they will be suitable for using our chart here. While I haven’t had any issues with either of the plugs leaking air, I am not totally comfortable just yet with this design approach. With the valve on my old mattress if there was any indication of air leaking out you could just tighten down the valve that much more to hopefully seal it. With the approach being taken in the Insulated Air Core Ultra, if one of the plugs leak there really isn’t much you can do about it. Also, since this design has two plugs you now have two potential leak sources instead of one when you compare this design to other mattress designs that only have a single plug or valve.If you like to sleep on a partially deflated sleeping pad for extra comfort, you may lose a small amount of R-value, although I don’t have access to one of Thermarest’s testing facilities to confirm this. My thinking is that with less volume inside to insulate, the worse it will perform, but by how much, I am not sure. Like I stated earlier, I currently own a 25 x 72 BA Insulated Air Core that I really like, but with my height being 5' 11" the effective length of this mattress is more like 70 inches, so I always have a hard time keeping a pillow under my head without having to dangle my feet off the end of the mattress. It’s not a fault of the mattress in any way, but it is something to consider when you’re selecting a mattress to make sure it will provide the amount of support you are looking for. There are lots of double air mattress options out there but very few are suitable for extreme cold and winter conditions. This one is. With a high R-value of 6 suitable down to temperatures of around negative thirty degrees Fahrenheit, you can be sure not to lose much body heat to the frozen ground at all. The KLYMIT STATIC V LUXE Sleeping Pad took the camping community by storm over a decade ago and this was one of the products that helped them do it. The Static V Luxe has a very unique baffle system with deep chambers running up either side and then a v-shaped system running down the main section. This makes it feel like more of a cot than a mat and even though it is only 2.5 inches deep in the middle the v-shape baffles support sideways sleepers like no other.