Chronic Exped Failures

[weetbix456]

I've gone through three now in about three years (including 3 - 4 months waiting for a warranty..and then being out of state myself for 5 months so not being able to pick up said warranty) - so let's say two years! Two baffle blow outs & a valve leak. Not cool - super unreliable. I've about had it. Again, it's a shame as they are super comfy...but too many other quality mats on the market & I don't have the money to fork out for a new mat once a year...

[kanangra]

Unfortunately I've had a tent fail. The inner came away from the shell. The glued on strips failed. Very disappointing.

K

[jdeks]

Unfortunately I've had a tent fail. The inner came away from the shell. The glued on strips failed. Very disappointing.

K

Youre the first one with a tent to post up. Did they warranty it?

Mind sticking your vote in the poll for the sake of the record?

[Neo]

Strangely I had a dream that my Exped baffles let go. Only a dream, hopefully not a premonition!

[weetbix456]

Haha! Both times my baffles blew out I was having dreams of rolling down a hill...when I woke up it all made sense!

[photohiker]

Haven’t had any of those things, but have had their Exped air pillows, and have worked well for years. No failures.

For sleeping mats, have used thermarest for years, and no failures. Never tried Exped because the thermarest were available sooner in our area. Thanks!

[CasualNerd]

Can't remember if I ever uploaded these after I pulled apart andrewa's Exped Downmat to see if it was repairable. Thanks to him for sending it to me so I could break it open and have a look inside.

I got a cheap temperature adjustable iron off aliexpress that I found while researching TPU and packraft materials. It turns out the exped material is very similar and came apart very easily, and I should be able to melt it back together if I want to. Hopefully it's totally possible to repair an exped inflatable mat with an iron and some spare material for baffles.

Took me a while to get all the down out into garbage bags, never worked with down before and it's a PITA. I vacuumed the remainder of it up and it clogged the filter pretty quick

Inside the mat you can see that the baffles all failed similarly by splitting along the length. They're heat sealed to the top and bottom of the mat, there's no glue. So it's not a delamination failure, it's just a too thin and brittle plastic used to make the baffles.

I have some TPU backed packraft cloth and I'd like to fix it up, but it will require a lot of patience so I'm not sure it's worth it. If anyone else has failed mats they can send my way for parts or investigation I'd love to hear. Just picked up a Nemo AstroAir today with a few failed baffles and it'll be interesting to see if it's a similar issue and fix.

[muddy99]

Had this SIM UL blow out in the Kimberley in October... asked the warranty question (more out of curiousity as I'd bought it 2nd-hand on this forum) and got a nyet as it dates from 2014 (according to the code that's stamped on it's top edge).

Happy to send it to you CasualNerd if you wanna pay for postage...(the baffle blowout is now actually a bit larger than the photo as I had to sleep on it a few more nights...)

[Overlandman]

I purchased a Synmat put have never used it due to the horror stories
Regards OLM

[J M]

I might as well jump back in - I recently blew a baffle on my synmat hl, which itself was a warranty replacement for the original mat (which also blew a baffle). I think I'm due for a thermarest now...

[Neo]

Synmat UL S replaced no worries with a bafle starting to go 12 months in.
Sold the replacement... Had a Nemo mat also replacef so happier to keep that, just as comfy and an actual short mat.

[Neo]

Woah, just scrolled back and saw my September post, then a baf went. Spooky

[walkon]

At my work we have some exped mats. They aren't used much though have a high failure rate for not much use. We are currently in the process of selecting other options.

[Nick53]

I have had two Synmats that have failed to hold air.