Topic: The Best Air Mattresses for Camping of 2023 (Read 36 times)
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Assistant editor Ashley Thess tried out the top-rated Exped MegaMat on a trip to the high desert of Colorado in June, where temps dropped down to the 50s. She found the pad to be both exceptionally co*fortable and durable. She had no qualms dragging it out of the tent to lounge on in the grass and then tossing it back in the tent again when it started to rain. But what really won Ashley over was the inclusion of the Exped Widget Pump as part of the package, which also serves as a backup power bank and night light.
While the Exped MegaMat has an excellent reputation for durability, it was one of the few air mattresses for camping that we considered that did not include a limited lifetime warranty.
If you’ve been eyeing the MegaMat but just can’t co*mit to that price point, then the Exped DeepSleep may be just what you’re looking for. While noticeably less co*fortable than air mattresses for camping with plushier foam, it was still plenty co*fy for a weekend of casual camping. Part of that is because its higher R rating means it excels at keeping you warm. On my testing trip to the eastern Cascades, temps dropped down to the 40s. But the DeepSleep’s insulation from the cold of the ground was so excellent that I ended up kicking off a blanket in the middle of the night because I was overheating.
While the valves of the Exped DeepSleep were more straight-forward to use than other air mattresses for camping that I tested, I struggled with the vertical-entry stuff sack, even after cinching down the pad as tightly as I could with the provided Velcro straps.
The Klymit Klymaloft is an unusual pad. It includes foam in the construction, but it’s not self-inflating. It’s either the heaviest of the best backpacking sleeping pads or the smallest of the best air mattresses for camping. If you’re a fair-weather camper with a smaller car, it might be exactly what you’re looking for.
This pad is extremely co*fortable, with a plush foam top that is more noticeably cushy than others that I’ve tested. It’s so co*fortable that my husband has claimed it as his go-to sleeping pad for all future summer family car camping trips. However, it has a very low R rating co*pared to others on this list. Don’t take this one car camping if you expect overnight temperature to drop below the 50s. Where I think it excels is in packing up your car. Space is often limited when I pack for a long weekend of car camping. This means leaving behind goodies like the best inflatable paddle boards if I also have one of the best air mattresses for camping. The Klymit Klymaloft takes up about as much space as a football, and is easy to cram into small nooks and crannies.
This pad is not, however, self-inflating. It also doesn’t co*e with a pump sack, which means that you’ll be blowing it up by blowing into it. Which can take a while. But if you don’t mind spending a little extra, then there is always the option to purchase Klymit’s Rechargeable Air Pump.
If you camp on the regular (or just hate inflating air mattresses manually) then an air pump is a must. The best I’ve used is the Exped Widget Pump. It’s tiny, it’s fast, it’s also a power bank you can use for your phone, and a backup lantern for inside your tent. Sure, it’s a little pricey, but it’s one of those luxuries that, once you have it, you can’t leave at home.
While the Nemo Roamer didn’t quite shine enough to win an award, it’s still an excellent pad that I would reco*mend. It’s exceptionally co*fortable with a high enough R rating to see you through the summer season and into the shoulder season. Though pricey, it does include a co*patible pump sack (similar to those used for backpacking sleeping pads) which makes the process of fine-tuning the inflation level fairly painless, without the need to spring for a pricey air pump.
Unusually, the Roamer co*es with two sacks, the one that it’s tightly packed into when you purchase the pad (good luck ever getting it into that again), and a larger sack that works well for travel, especially after it’s been cinched down using the supplied Velcro straps. Given that the Roamer is partially made from recycled materials, and NEMO’s well-earned reputation for eco-consciousness, the inclusion of a basically unusable stuff sack is a little surprising. It’s also a fairly minor ding.
The Roamer lived up to its claim of virtually instant self-inflation, but this proved problematic when packing away the air mattress. The self-inflation would kick in as soon as I let the pressure off the roll, making it difficult to get it squeezed dow