A Professional Grade Sleep for a Non-Professional World
Written: Dec 11 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ultra compact, ultra light, a comfortable sleep where comfort can be hard to find
Cons: Rather expensive, may be easy to puncture
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended for backcountry canoing, hiking, biking, or climbing trips. Better options available for car camping.
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| _mgoblue_'s Full Review: Therm A Rest Prolite 4 Women's |
The ultimate backcountry sleeping pad, from the ultimate backcountry sleeping pad brand. Still, most campers can likely find a more cost effective solution that is just as comfortable. If you are a car camper (ie. drive to your campsite) then save your money, and buy a Thermarest Trail or something even more luxurious. If you hike only short distances for one night, again the Trail is likely more suitable.
If you canoe trip or trail hike overnight, the Pro performs like a Pro.
Weight: Well, what can I say, it weighs almost nothing.
Bulk: It packs up extremely small. We don't use a stuff bag. I recommend folding, rolling tight, and cinching a compression strap around it. The regular and women's models both roll up to something smaller than a football. That's about half the size of other models.
Comfort: To get it to provide the most insulation and padding requires a few breaths of air. I find this produces a bit of an air mattress balloon feel, which isn't quite as nice to me as the regular Trail model. I still give it an A for comfort, but my partner gives it an A . She has a women's mattress, however, which provides extra foam in the
torso. We compared with the ProLite 3, which did not provide adequate foaminess for us. With the ProLite 3 we could still feel the shop floor on our hips. We could not feel the floor with the 4, and it has proven very comfortable in the woods. For the minimal added cost, we both recommend the ProLite 4.
Inflation: It mostly self inflates, but without any added air it is not super comfortable. Adding breaths requires a balance between extra padding and air mattress wobble. Just try a few different amounts of air - and you can always add or release air at night to suit.
Traction: I use this to describe how well it sticks to the tent floor. It has a non-skid bottom. The non-skid is adequate, but not great. The pad can still slip, especially on non-level surfaces. For the places we camp, it can be hard to find level tent surfaces, so this can be a concern. No other pad sticks much better in our experience, so while this is a concern, it is a tough concern to overcome with any product.
Durability: I wouldn't poke it with a knife or a sharp metal object! The pad can be patched, but I haven't needed to or tried. I guess a really sharp stick or rock could also puncture it, but campers should always use a groundsheet if outside, or be in a tent, so the sharp object would have to cut through a lot of material. More likely to be punctured from above by an accident in the tent or in a pack or canoe. The mattress comes with a life-time warranty that will protect against blown seems and that sort of thing, but not against accidental puncture.
Value: This pad is not a good value unless you canoe or hike a lot overnight. It's big selling feature is ultra-portable, ultra-light-weight comfort. We find it ideal on multi-night canoe trips with long portages when the minimal weight and bulk are important to make our lives more pleasant. If you carry huge heavy packs, then you might not notice the extra weight and bulk of the much cheaper and also very comfortable Trail model. The manufacturer's repair charges seem reasonable at $15.
Storage: It slides easily under a bed - just leave the valve open.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
_mgoblue_
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Reviews written: 8
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