The Good Bad and Ugly of Nemo's New Tensor Mattresses

In Sweden: summer is the best day of the year! Great video

I think the point Justin Outdoors was trying to make in his video about the Nemo Tensor Extreme is that it needs to be reliable and if he’s out in extreme cold conditions he does not want to worry about shaking a mattress to get its layers correctly aligned.

Thanks for a honest assessment of these pads! ❤

great and complete video, thanks!

I have the older yellow Nemo Tensor Insulated (and also the orange "alpine" version, with a higher R rating.) A huge factor for me is how quiet an insulated air pad is -- I move around a lot when I sleep, and the "potato chip bag crunch" thing annoys the tar out of me, and will sometimes actually wake me up. These Tensors were the quietest pads I've ever tried, and they were sufficiently warm and comfortable and light, so I've stuck with them. Hopefully the "new and improved" versions have retained that relatively quiet feature.

I've had good luck with the old Nemo Tensor Insulated, so good to hear of these upgrades. I run cheap but good tent and sleeping bags, but have learnt with sleep mats it's really best to shop carefully and get the best you can, "buy once, cry once."

I love that you talked about Justin and Dev (great YouTube guys❤) You all have talked about in certain cases needing to REALLY inflate the pads to negate a person’s heavy hip area from compressing the air pads and making the insulation inside from falling or touching. I am sure Nemo has nailed it, but given it’s minimal design, in very cold situations you will need to blow it up to its stiffest to not have cold spot, but also making the pad a bit too firm. However sleeping in such cold temps and in such adverse conditions may have to be that compromise to have such a small and light weight pad. Zenbivy and BA (specifically the Rapide and the old blue Q-Core Deluxe are going to remain my go to for size, R value and comfort) [though very curious about Zen’s newest addition, 😉] ❤thanks Eric and everyone on YouTube making these videos and collaborating together. You are all great 😊

6:01 that shot of you holding both of those side by side is amazing. I will say, I don't like carrying my sleeping pads rolled up like that. I don't use a hydration bladder so I tend to fold my sleeping pad flat and slide it into the hydration bladder sleeve. Tends to take up very little room that way

You made a common mistake gluing, I'm a truck driver and have to patch my tarps often. The right way is to apply the contact glue to both the patch and the other part then wait until both are dry then you contact the two parts, wait about another five min then paint the glue around the edges wait about 20 min and use.

Eric, you're more an expert than I, but there might be a chemical incompatibility between the Nemo patch fabric and the Gear Aid adhesive. Gear Aid puts out adhesives specifically for use with silicone-coated and non-silicone-coated fabrics, and the adhesives don't work if placed on the incorrect fabric. It's possible the Nemo patch fabric is silicone-coated on the "inside" and you need to use Seam Grip +Sil instead of Seam Grip +WP. Thanks for the solid sleeping pad application suggestions, I think the Extreme might reduce the weight of my sleeping on snow needs this spring and summer.

great breakdown. thanks for the solid, honest review.

Love the videos!!🤯 What camera do you use to film landscapes..?

Eric, Thanks for comparing all these different pads. Sleeping pad innovation is where the camping industry has really changed over the last couple of years. I really want to try out the all weather Nemo Tensor pad. It was really nice to meet you and Devin in Escalante this weekend.

Extremely helpful. Am happy to know your confidence in the zen Bivey mattress. I bought the light bed 25 degree last year for summer backpacking and LOVE it. Slips on fine to my xlite, but have been thinking about a square mattress for awhile and they may be my go to for that. I wish square mattress manufactures would come up with a women’s version as thermorest has. Not soooo long and better r value.

I am in the market. I just ordered a Big Agnes Lone Ranger 15 degree 3N1 ( found on sale at Enwild). So, I definitely need a pad and this video helps. I am torn between the Rapid SL and the Tensor All Season. But the lesser bulk of the Tensor has me thinking that is what I am going to get. Thanks for producing this.

That was a good video. I liked it, well done!

I just used the extreme pad in the long wide version, directly on 6 ft of snow. The temperature was 11°F (-11.6°C) and I was toasty warm. I'm very happy with the way it preformed.

Gear aid makes great repair patches! They even make sheets of interestingly shaped fabric patches. The set I got has Bigfoot😂

Great detailed information.

Good review…shocked that the Thermarest NeoAir NXT was not in this lineup. I have the old tensor and had a trail leak, with very limited use of the mat. For the life of me, could not find the hole. Had to sink it in the tub when I got home to find it and even then it was hard to locate. After that, and reading so many reviews of the same thing happening to others, I have moved on from the tensor. Just seems too fragile and don’t want to spend my time on the trail fixing mattress holes all the time. Have never had a Thermarest but just got the NXT in and am looking forward to giving it a go. Def not as quiet as the tensor but does not have the chip bag sound of old. Looking forward to spending time on it soon. Great weight and good r value at 4.5 (I live in Colorado and think this is a good 3 season value for up here). Again, thanks for the video.