I bought the Exped SynMat UL 7. Now it's only synthetic insulation I know but the sales clerk said do not ever blow up with your breath but only with their separately sold (he actually threw this in for free for me) air pump as the moisture of your breath stays in the sleeping mat and the synthetic insulation will get mouldy.

My question is; We are going to a rainforesty area where the air I would be pumping into the mat via the pump will probably have as much if not more condensation than my breath. How do I get the moisture out of the mat then? And what if the synthetic insulation gets mouldy anyway (if I were to breath pump it up when using it)....it's on the inside and it won't affect my health. As long as its performance is not diminished I am okay with that.

Anyone with thoughts?

I know it's probably too late, but in my opinion you don't even need all that insulation that the UL if you are going to the rain forest. It's never gets too cold at night unless you are very up in the mountains. However you will be pumping the mattress at night when the air is less warm so I think the amount of water buildup will be minimal. What you can do is to leave the mattress under the sun for a little bit let the air inside warm up and then deflate. Just don't leave it too long in the sun because it's not good for the material. Unfortunately there aren't too many ways around it and honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much. The other option is to buy the Basic UL which does have limited insulation but can be found for half of the price and it's even lighter.

Mik, the instruction sheet states that you can drive out the moisture by running air from a hair dryer set to cool through it. That's what I've been doing, and it's apparently working because the pad hasn't gained any weight since I got it a year ago. Also the company claims that "Exped's proprietary, fabric lamination process creates air tight baffles and prevents moisture build up in the pad from destroying these glues, resulting in no loss of air over time." So I wouldn't worry about moisture trashing the pad.

Edited by Dondo on 05/22/2012 06:34:36 MDT.

So basically I can leave the hand pump at home and just breath inflate it for the usual 2 nights we spend out in the wilderness come home hairdryer the moisture out and it will be fine?

Sweet, pump staying home and my kit is even lighter :-).

Thank you.

That's what I've been doing for the past year and the UL7 seems no worse for wear. I had a hard time justifying the weight of the hand pump or pillow pump, but Exped got to me this year with their schnozzle pumpbag. It allows me to eliminate a trash compactor bag from my kit for the same weight(2.3 oz.)and makes inflation very quick and easy. Normally I shy away from gizmos like this, but this one was too clever to resist. I'll report more on it on my blog once I get a chance to use it in this field.

I found a rubber stopper that fit the inflation hole then drilled it out to accept a small tube the hooked a aquarium air pump to it. Kinda high maintance huh.

'I found a rubber stopper that fit the inflation hole then drilled it out to accept a small tube the hooked a aquarium air pump to it. Kinda high maintance huh.'

Not worried about different methods of pumping up but about the moisture getting pumped in weather that is from the moisty breath air or moisty air you are camping in such as a rainforest environment.

Thanks for the response anyway :)

Mark is probably offering another (and interesting) way to dry the pad out unless he has one very long extension cord to carry with him.