Adding insulation to Sea to Summit air mats

Discussion about making bushwalking-related equipment.

Adding insulation to Sea to Summit air mats

Postby mobius » Sat 21 Aug, 2021 9:48 pm

As a lockdown project, I have added more insulation to the inside of an Ether Light and a Comfort Light sleeping pad. The attached PDF describes how I did this.

In brief, I used polypipe to guide strips of ClimaShield Apex insulation through the inflation valve and down the channels between the dot welds of the mat.

It added 70-80g to the weight of each mat. I have not been able to get out and test how much warmer the mats now feel.

I also don’t know if the added insulation will wear through the airtight coating inside the mats or lead to mould build up. So do this at your own risk as you would probably lose the lifetime warranty on these products.
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Adding insulation to mats.pdf
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Re: Adding insulation to Sea to Summit air mats

Postby Bill P » Tue 24 Aug, 2021 6:39 pm

Great write-up mobius! . Thanks for that.

It would be great to get an idea of the change in insulation performance. I wonder if there is a simple way to measure that?
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Re: Adding insulation to Sea to Summit air mats

Postby CasualNerd » Wed 25 Aug, 2021 8:50 am

Looks great, instructions are brilliant.
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Re: Adding insulation to Sea to Summit air mats

Postby mobius » Mon 06 Sep, 2021 10:04 am

Bill P wrote:Great write-up mobius! . Thanks for that.

It would be great to get an idea of the change in insulation performance. I wonder if there is a simple way to measure that?


Thanks for the feedback. I can't think of an easy, reproducible way of measuring the improvement that will also give me a guide to real-world performance.

However, since my first post, I have been able to test the modified Ether Light mat once at +5C. I think the added insulation made a noticeable, but not dramatic, difference. My legs no longer felt cool where they touched the mat. However, they did not feel toasty warm – just comfortable.
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