Five years ago, I paid $390 for : the Exped听MegaMat听Duo 10.听That was a lot of money for me, and it was such a difficult purchase to make that I kept the tab to REI鈥檚 website open for a good week before actually pulling the trigger. But man, looking back on it now, it听was some of the听best money I鈥檝e ever spent.听
That $390 bought me the most comfortable nights of sleep I鈥檝e experienced, indoors or out. And also an awful lot of the best sex I鈥檝e ever had. Something about encasing a pressurized air chamber within memory foam, under a totally flat surface, with four-inch-thick vertical sidewalls just delivers an optimal level of support, cushion, and bounce. And, with a positively ridiculous 9.5 R-value,听it also delivers comfortable warmth on even the coldest nights.
I spent two weeks sleeping on it in Seattle, in the yard of a friend who doesn鈥檛 have a guest bedroom. On my fourth date with my now fianc茅e, we spent three days on it in a yurt over New Year鈥檚 Eve. On the way to Death Valley, California, three years ago, some firewood got loose in the bed of a truck and ripped a large tear on the pad鈥檚 base鈥攕omething I was able to fix in 15 minutes thanks to the excellent repair kit included in the price. Last Thanksgiving, we put it on a bed frame in one of the guest bedrooms in our new house, because we hadn鈥檛 gotten around to buying a real mattress yet. We still haven鈥檛, because the Exped actually works better. I鈥檝e probably gotten 200 nights of use out of this thing. Five years later, that $390听feels like extraordinarily good value.听
The MegaMat Duo has been the subject of at least half a dozen articles I鈥檝e written. , I can report that it remains the one which offers the most comfort. In my professional opinion, if you plan to sleep outdoors regularly, it is worth the price.听
Of course, that鈥檚 a problem. Because $390 is a lot of money, and not everyone wants to max out their credit card just to spend a night in the woods. I know that, not only because I,听too, am on a budget, but also because every time we publish an article mentioning听the pad, people complain about its price on social media. And it鈥檚 not just the Exped. A review of a $40 flashlight that makes over 1,000 lumens and fits on your key chain? Many readers jump right in to tell me that鈥檚 too much, that you can buy a flashlight at a gas station for just $5!听An article about wearing a Speedo as performance underwear? Good God man, those are $25!听
For that reason, we鈥檝e been trying to be better about featuring听stuff on the affordable end of the spectrum. We don鈥檛 want readers to come away from our magazine thinking that the听only way they can enjoy time outdoors is by dropping a grand or more on a car-camping setup or fancy carbon mountain bike. Our goal is to give readers as many choices as possible, and if your budget only allows for superinexpensive gear, then go for it; you鈥檙e the decider of how much you can spend at any given time, and our job is to simply guide you through that decision process.听听
All that said, I genuinely believe听there is a thing as gear that鈥檚听too 补蹿蹿辞谤诲补产濒别.听
Take my colleague Emily Reed鈥檚 recent review of a $140 camping setup she bought at Walmart. Her take was basically to remark that it worked, and she was technically able to spend a couple nights outside in it. Are cheapskate trolls vindicated? Well, let鈥檚 compare the $8听air mattress she tested to my $390 Exped to find out.听
Emily remarked that, despite using a 30-degree sleeping bag, she slept cold in temperatures that didn鈥檛 reach nearly that low. Not only is that because sleeping-bag temperature ratings are self-reported by brands, thereby opening the category up to, well, lies, but that even with a best-case, accurately reported temperature rating, that number is calculated when paired with a 4.0 R-value pad.听
R-value is a measure of how well insulation resists the conductive flow of heat; simply put, a higher number offers more insulation. Because your bodyweight compresses the insulation inside a sleeping bag, it鈥檚 the sleeping pad that actually prevents the cold ground from sucking up your body heat. How much insulation does that $8听sleeping pad offer? Zero.听It will actively work to undermine any sleeping bag you pair it with, guaranteeing that you sleep cold in any temperature below, say, 50 degrees.听
Then there鈥檚 the question of comfort. We all know, since we鈥檝e all slept on crappy air mattresses like these, that they lack any effective internal support structure, so they sag in the middle, no matter how much you inflate them. Which听means they might keep you off the ground, but they do not adequately support your spine. The problem is worse for two-person models, where the sagging causes sleepers to roll into one another, squishing them together. And they鈥檙e so squidgy that attempting to have sex on one is invariably disappointing for everyone involved.听
As we all also know from painful experience,听crappy听air mattresses do not last long. You鈥檙e lucky to get a week or two out of one, even if you鈥檙e using it as a guest bed on a carpeted floor. Inflate and deflate them, fold and unfold them a couple times, and the seams split and valves fail. And听every one I鈥檝e ever stored away has grown mold, no matter how dry the closet. They鈥檙e so fragile that they can basically be considered disposable.
Now, $8听isn鈥檛 bad for two moderately uncomfortable nights outdoors in mild weather, but we have to consider the environmental cost of disposable, petroleum-based goods like these. To facilitate just those two nights, a hole had to be drilled in the earth at great expense, oil had to be pumped out, transported, and refined. Rubber had to be produced at one factory in China, transported to another where it was bonded into a disappointing mattress, then that had to be packaged听and shipped to America. After those couple nights of use, this crappy air mattress will have to be transported to a landfill, where it will .
Producing the MegaMat Duo absolutely comes at an environmental cost, as do all other consumer goods. I鈥檓 aware of no way in which to compare its carbon footprint with that of the crappy Walmart mattress, so let鈥檚 just assume that each is equally damaging to the environment, both in production and disposal. Assuming you get about two nights of use out of the crappy mattress, and comparing that number to the approximately 200 nights I鈥檝e already gotten from the Exped (both with my own use听and that of friends and house guests), we arrive at a very uncomfortable comparison. It鈥檇 take 100 of the shitty Walmart mattresses to equal the use I鈥檝e gotten from the MegaMat. If we keep assuming roughly equivalent environmental costs, that鈥檚 damning. If we鈥檙e just talking financial costs, the Walmart crap would have cost me听twice as much. And again, that鈥檇 be twice as much for an uncomfortable mattress I couldn鈥檛 use in cold temperatures听or have sex on听versus the most comfortable pad in the world, which is still going strong five years after I bought it.听
Then, of course, there鈥檚 the question of where my $390 went. Exped is a small听Swiss brand, where the employees appear to enjoy their jobs. The pad was manufactured in Asia.听But it was sold to me at REI, where 听and where .听The exact opposite of Walmart, basically.听
And these mattresses are just one example. Most other items of cheap, crappy gear are also even cheaper听and even crappier when you start analyzing them in depth. Which is my job as a journalist听and what I try to inform you of when I write about gear. Expensive rainjackets breathe better than cheap ones. Nice tents weigh an awful lot less than ones you鈥檒l find at Walmart, while lasting years longer and providing much more weather protection. A good knife will come with a good warranty, because the manufacturer knows you鈥檙e not going to be sending it back any time soon. If none of that matters to you, great, but it remains my job to objectively evaluate an item鈥檚 merits regardless of price, then look at that price when recommending something versus its competition. I work in media, so this is not making me or my colleagues听rich; price tags are not a judgment against your value system, budget, or degree of student debt.听
I understand that you may need to spend those two nights on an $8 air mattress you bought from Walmart, but we should not be engaged in the business of glorifying price over value. It is our job to inform you that a better experience is possible.听
It is my hope that, rather than scare you off with sticker shock, the听articles I write about expensive gear can help educate you about the various merits that are possible within a category, tell you about new technical innovations, and听give you the knowledge you need to make an informed听decision when it comes to researching and ultimately deciding on a purchase at a price that works for you.
If nothing else, hopefully they at least give you an idea what to look for during sale season.听