Reader Reviews

Rating: 3 / 5

This is a preliminary review that will be updated later this spring/summer when I get more experience with the sleeping pad outdoors. I will post what I know so far in order to help answer people's questions about the pad.

The pad weighs 251 g, the hand pump 36 g, and the patch kit 11 g. After some testing, I found it best to inflate by mouth only. When inflated to higher pressure, the pad became too hard and lumpy, and numb spots would form on my back when I slept on my side. (Note: I am 190 cm tall and 75 kg, so tall and thin).

The pad is narrow. When I lie on my back my elbows and lower arms fall off the side of the pad. In my case that's not a problem (see below). It is also shorter than me, so about 8 cm of my feet are hanging off the bottom end when I align the rest of my body correctly with the pad. Again, for me this is not a problem (see below).

I am a quilt sleeper, so getting this pad was a bit of a gamble. But I've found a way to make it work very well for me — at least so it seems for now, after 4 nights of testing on the balcony at temperatures from 6 to 10 degrees C.

The pad alone is insulation enough for temperatures down to about 12 C when wearing a Marmot Cocona PowerDry layer under a quilt (which has an open back). Putting a 1/4'' GG evazote pad underneath lowers that limit a few degrees, perhaps to 9-10 C. But ultimately I found the most comfortable solution to be placing the second pad on top of the Inertia X. My 1/4'' thick pad weighs 120 g, is 55 cm wide and about 165 cm long (bought from the Gossamer Gear site and cut in half). With this pad on top the comfort temperature is lowered to about 3-5 C. To get lower than that, I will fold the GG pad and use it as a torso pad, placing the back padding from my ULA Ohm under my legs. Or, I'll put the back pad on top of the GG pad underneath my torso.

In any case, an effective sub-zero C pad system with the Inertia X weighs about 350 to 400 g (151 g + 11 g patch kit + 100-140 g additional pads). That's 130 g more than my PCT thru-hike pad set, consisting of three different GG pads. Is it worth it?

My impression so far is, "Yes" — unless the Inertia X develops a puncture that can't be fixed. I've had two inflatables already — a Thermarest short and a BMW Torsolite — that disappointed me by developing incurable microleaks. However, Ron from MLD stated that he had not heard of puncture problems with the Inertia X, so I decided to give inflatable pads "one more try."

The pad combo described above provides bed-like comfort, and I have been sleeping very well on the balcony on both my side and back. The lumpiness of the Inertia X pad is lessened by the additional 1/4'' pad.

An unexpected advantage of the Inertia X over other inflatables is that it has no lower back area to push up into your lower back when your buttocks push down into the pad. With the Torsolite, I often would get a sore back when sleeping for hours on my back. I didn't realize what the problem was until I did some reading on the form and found that it has to do with how inflatable pads equalize the pressure under the weight of a human body. With the Inertia X, you feel like you're on a firm matress — i.e., pushing down on the matress in one place (buttocks) doesn't make the matress push up with greater strength in another (lower back).

With the second pad on top, it is actually comfortable to have my lower arms hang over the side, since there is a bit of GG pad underneath them. For this purpose a 60 cm wide pad would be better than 55 cm. I can also stick something under the balls of my feet to keep them from getting cold (so far not a problem).

Sleeping on my side is also a pleasure. Here, the pad's narrowness and insufficient length fit my sleeping profile perfectly. The only possible downside I've noticed is that the GG pad squeaks against the Inertia X when I make major body movements. But it grips it well enough that I don't have to adjust it during the night.

When used together with the GG pad, the Inertia X seems very comfortable and functional. Inflation, deflation, and storage are quick and easy (in my case I leave it in the bivy sack with the quilt and store it all together to save time). Compared to my lighter PCT pad combo, this new set cuts down on bulk and is more comfortable. Given the weight difference, if the new setup provides 8-10 minutes more quality sleep per night, then it's worth it, because I will actually cover more ground then while carrying slightly lighter gear.

I would not consider shortening the Inertia X pad because of its considerable thickness. In my experience, significant height differences between torso and legs result in at least some amount of lost sleep or physical discomfort. Then you have to spend more time in camp arranging your bed to put something soft under your legs. Not worth it for a 100 g weight savings, IMO.

I expect to use the Inertia X during an all-summer backpacking trip through Europe and will update this review later.

FINAL REVIEW AFTER 100+ DAYS OF SLEEP

The first puncture occured on about day 48, the second 24 days later, third — 12 days later, etc. All the failures were in corners on the bottom of the pad, strongly suggesting a failure of the materials rather than actual punctures. I had about 6 such failures over 100 days. Each time I was able to fix them later, but what a pain! Luckily, I was carrying a backup 100 g GG pad, otherwise I would have had a few very, very miserable nights rather than just merely miserable.

The pad is nice enough and very comfy as I wrote above, but my puncture tolerance is about 1 in 100 days. This will not do. Actually, after the 6th puncture I patched up all the corners in the area where the failures were occurring. Since then it's been fine. But MAN!

Edited by Legkohod on 10/18/2011 09:18:08 MDT.

Rating: 4 / 5

I've used this pad on two trips now - a two-night stay in the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness, and an eight-night trip through the Weminuche Wilderness.

The main attraction of this pad is its light weight. At 9 oz (with pump), it is substantially lighter than other inflatable pads.

I liked this pad a lot, and will continue using it for 3-season trips. I found it to be easy to inflate and comfortable to sleep on. I didn't suffer from cold spots so long as I kept my bag/body aligned with the pad.

The alignment problem is the principal drawback to the pad, and the reason why it gets a 4 and not a 5. I'm 5' 10" and the pad appears tailored to my height. But the tolerance is no more than 2 inches either way - if you are shorter than 5' 8" or taller than 6' 0" this pad would not work well, as you could not keep head/shoulders/hips/feet on their respective sections.

If you are within this height range you still have some work to do. The pad material is fairly slippery, and so some means of keeping bag/body/pad in register is required. My bag (an REI Sub-kilo) has pad loops on the underside, so I simply tied the pad to the bag. I also tried putting the pad inside the bag. Both methods worked, but I preferred the pad-outside solution.

In short, this pad offers the advantages of a full-length inflatable for the weight of a 3/4 foam pad. You can shave 6-10 oz by swapping out a single piece of equipment, so it is well worth considering.

Rating: 3 / 5

I picked up a Xframe (full size) a couple weeks ago. I took it out for 5 nights last weekend with my daughter, Brenda. I had a good trip but was unimpressed by the pad. I tried various techniques with it but could not get very comfortable except for one night. That was on forest duff.
I had 8.6 pounds of food for the two of us, and planned to pick up a pack of hot dogs and a couple steaks as we paddled by a town. Total pack weight was about 21 pounds. Brenda carried about 10 pounds. Four nights were in Lean-to's and one night was sleeping on the ground.
Generally, conditions were summer with hot, hazy, humid, chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms. Nights were fairly warm with the coldest night being around 45F. We got rain, a severe thunderstorm followed by multiple showers, all night once. It drizzled a couple other times but only for short periods of time in the afternoon, not while sleeping.
At 72"x18" the pad is a little narrower than either the GG Nightlite or the Therm-a-rest Neoair. The narrow pad created some problems in the lean-to's with my tossing and turning as it was quite slippery. Weight was LESS than advertised, 242g or 8.54oz. The total kit weighed 278g or 9.8oz (including bag and hand pump.) Advertised weight was 9.1oz for the pad and 10.6oz including pump. The Klymit Inertia pad is also a bit thinner than the Neoair: Klymit at 1.5" thick, Neoair at 2.5".
The same narrowness lets it be put inside a bag for increased warmth at night. The holes in the pad (called Loft Pockets) allow the insulation under your bag to loft into them. Since this was about 50% of the pads surface, it keeps you somewhat warmer, though it wasn't really needed this trip (in summer.) I used the same technique with the NeoAir a few years ago under cold conditions (~10F), it works pretty well even without the Loft Pockets. The best sleep I could manage on the hard floors of the lean-to's was using my bag as a quilt and sleeping on the pad in the lean-to's. The increased ventilation was welcome and should also be mentioned in their adds, though it isn't. A single flap of the quilt ventilated me and the pad (sleeping on my side.)
Sleeping on the ground was fine with the Klymit. I simply scraped up some forest duff around the edges and slept very well. Tossing and turning meant staying in the same "nest" on the ground and the pad did not shift and slip around. Quite comfortable.
Sleeping in the lean-to's was difficult. I tried two different techniques, pad inside the bag and pad outside the bag. Various pressures were tried, eventually arriving at a fairly firm pressure for sleeping on hard surfaces and somewhat softer on duff. But, I toss and turn at night. I quickly found I rolled off the pad on the hard floors of the lean-to's. (Having a slippery tarp under us seemed to make the problem worse, but, I can easily recoat the tarp...a hole in the sleeping bag or repairing a hole, inadvertently punched in the pad by a stray sliver is much more difficut.) At every roll I made, I needed to reposition myself on the pad. Annoying, since, I had to be marginally wake to figure out where the pad was. And, due to the body mapping, where!
whether it was too high or low for my body...more than simply pulling the pad under me again.
I used my long johns for sleeping in, but I assumed that there might be a difference with pants and shirt on. So I tried that for two nights. Basically, there was no difference, except when I tried the pad inside the bag. Then my pants seemed to catch on the holes and required me to lift away from the pad to release the "catch." Using the pad inside the bag means using long johns for ease of movement. Also, my foot caught on one of the "loft pockets" causing a bit of confusion. Comparing this to the Neoair in the same configuration, I think that the Neoair was slightly warmer. I believe this because I can also wear my cloths over my long johns and because of the IR baffles inside the Neoair, regardless of the extra lofting of the Klymit. It didn't matter at the temperatures we were sleeping at, but I think that's true.
Overall, I was not impressed with the Klymit pad. For me, it was difficult to sleep on in the lean-to's. The thinness caused some discomfort on hard surfaces, though, if I slept on my back, I think I would have been fine.
And it was too small to be used as a pack frame for my pack. I was using an older Miniposa because of the arrow shaft stiffeners already present in this pack (though I remove them when I use the Nightlite.) I have come to rely on the pad to stiffen my pack.
While very effective in the forest, it was not really well suited to lean-to's. For a more strict back sleeper, it would work fine. Because I toss and turn, it was a problem. It was not as comfortable as the Neoair. However, it was well suited to summer conditions.