They don’t make ‘em like they used to
For the best part of 15 years I had a Thermarest mat that, aside from once being used as a scratching post by my mum’s cat, never let me down. Pakistan, NW China, Tibet, the Indian Himalaya, the Pyrenees, uncounted nights on the hill in the UK; the mat inflated each night and stayed up until morning.
In 2008 I decided to ‘upgrade’ - and I’ve been slapping myself round the head ever since. So far the count is two Thermarest Pro-Lites (delamination and untraceable leaks), an Exped Synmat (internal seams ripping apart), an Alpkit Numo (leaking seams), a Multimat airbed (untraceable leak), a cheap Chinese Thermarest clone (junk, almost no insulation to it, perpetual slow deflation) and, now, a POE Peak Oyl Mountain - which has punctured after less than three weeks’ use.
I was actually liking the POE mat - comfortably thick and warm, quick to inflate, and much more stable than the awful floppy Numo mat despite being a similar tapered shape. Now I’m just cheesed off. I checked into a cheap hotel in Ballater with a bath, to try and track down the leak; it transpired it’s TWO leaks, both on the upper side of the mat, both in exactly the same place on opposing sides - in the corner where the outer airbed tube meets the foam core. That is, not punctures at all, but a manufacturing/design fault.
I’ll be contacting Nevisport (where I bought it) shortly to see what they can do for me, but that’s not the point. The companies making these piece-of-shit mats need to sort their fucking acts out and start making kit that’s actually fit for purpose.
1 month ago • 0 notes