A backpacking or tenting sleeping pad’s R-value measures its resistance to warmth loss to the bottom whenever you lie on it at night time. Pads with increased R-values do that extra successfully than pads with decrease R-values. R-value isn’t a measure of heat per se, however of a pad’s means to forestall the lack of the heat that your physique generates. It’s similar to the R-value used to fee house insulation.
Sleeping Pad R-Values and Air Temperature in Levels
What’s the correlation between air temperature and sleeping pad R-values? When do you want a pad with a better R-value? This desk is predicated on Exped’s suggestions in Fahrenheit and Celsius levels.
| Air Temperature (F): | 50 | 30 | 25 | 10 | 0 | -15 | -25 | -40 |
| Minimal R-Worth | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Air Temperature (C): | 10 | -1 | -4 | -12 | -18 | -26 | -32 | -40 |
| Minimal R-Worth | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
As well as:
- R-values are additive, so you may mix two pads to extend your heat degree. For instance, it’s frequent to hold a foam sleeping pad (often R=2) in winter to make use of as a sit pad when consuming and melting snow which you could place underneath an inflatable pad to extend their mixed R-value for sleeping.
- Girls want increased R-values pads as a result of they’ve decrease physique mass than males. A further R-value of 1 is often a very good hedge for girls and different chilly sleepers.
- If a pad mannequin has a number of sizes, all of them have the identical R-value except specified in any other case
- EN sleeping bag temperature rankings are predicated on utilizing a sleeping pad with an R-value of 5 or increased. If you end up sleeping chilly in temperatures the place you’d anticipate your sleeping bag ought to maintain you heat, it could be as a result of your sleeping pad has an R-value lower than 5.
Sleeping Pad R-Worth Comparability
The next desk supplies a side-by-side comparability of the ASTM F3340-18 rated sleeping pads obtainable within the US market. The pad weights listed are sized for 72″ lengthy x 20″ vast pads, although there are a number of exceptions beneath. The R-Worth of a pad stays the identical if you choose an extended, shorter, or wider variation of the pad.
Key: Air – Air Mattress, SI – Self Inflating, Foam – Closed Cell Foam
Sleeping Pad R-Worth Commonplace
In 2020, the outside {industry} rolled out a world and industry-standard R-value take a look at process known as ASTM F3340-18. This implies you may examine the R-values of various sleeping pads made by totally different producers and know that they’re all utilizing the identical take a look at process to measure the R-values of their pads. That’s an enormous profit for customers and can ultimately have the identical influence that the adoption of standardized sleeping pad temperature rankings had for evaluating sleeping baggage from totally different corporations.
The businesses which have adopted the brand new R-value sleeping pad customary (ASTM F3340-18) and retested all of their present sleeping pads embrace:
- Therm-a-Relaxation
- NEMO
- REI
- Exped
- Sea-to-Summit
- Massive Agnes
- Klymit
- ZenBivy
What’s New in Sleeping Pads in 2025?
- Thermarest killed off a number of sleeping pads together with the venerable Prolite and Girls’s Prolite. These pads had been reborn within the new pad known as the Path Prolite.
- NEMO has actually simplified their product line so mere mortals can perceive what to purchase. That’s a breadth of recent air.
- Exped has simplied their product naming scheme for his or her excessive R-value, heavy tenting pads.
- Massive Agnes has a handful of recent pads. They’re not extensively obtainable in retail but, however they make good gear and is perhaps an fascinating various.
- Zenbivy has gone huge with a number of their very own mattresses.
- Klymit continues to have an impenetrable product naming scheme. I don’t get it.
- Sea-to-summit doesn’t have something new.
Standing of Business Adoption
The adoption of the brand new R-Worth customary was pushed by REI, which requires that the sleeping pads listed on the market on its important web site have an ASTM F3340-18 R-Worth score.
Many sleeping pad corporations have nonetheless not adopted the brand new ASTM F3340-18 sleeping pad R-Worth customary and it’s not clear that they ever will. Actually, many producers don’t take a look at their pads in any respect, however “estimate” the R-values of their sleeping mats and pads. Within the absence of a regular definition and take a look at process, it’s arduous to inform if their estimates are correct or whether or not they’re similar to these produced by the usual ASTM F3340-18 R-value testing protocol.
Up to date Jan 6, 2025
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