Exped Ultra 5R Sleeping Pad Review

The one thing missing from the Ultra 5R is a way to connect a pillow to the pad so it stays in place at night, like the velcro-based system offered with Sea-to-Summit air mattresses including the S2S Etherlight XT pad. That would be a great enhancement if offered with the Exped pillow line. It really makes difference in comfort and sleep quality (take it from someone who slept with a bunched-up down jacket as a pillow for years.)

Insulation

The Ultra 5R has synthetic insulation laminated to both the top and bottom of each baffle to prevent cold spots. This makes the Ultra5 a very quiet pad to sleep on, unlike Thermarest’s NeoAir Pads, which can sound like your sleeping on a bag of potato chips to your tent or shelter partners if you move around at night.

The Ultra’s synthetic insulation is laminated to the baffles in a way that makes it impervious to bacteria and moisture from your breath should you opt to inflate the pad by blowing into it. But the pad can also be inflated with an included 45L waterproof stuff sack, called a Schnozzel, which can serve double duty as a waterproof pack liner. I’ve used a Schnozzel as a pack liner/stuff sack pretty extensively (See Comparison of Five Ultralight Backpack Liners) and it’s also compatible with the flat valves of other air mattress vendors, including Sea-to-Summit.

The Ultra 5R has an R-value of 4.8 which is good for winter use down to zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18C) making it a viable choice for 4-season use or 3-season use if you sleep cold. It should be noted that Exped helped spearhead the adoption of the new sleeping pad R-value standard that lets consumers compare the warmth of sleeping pads from different manufacturers using a common scale, so this is an R-value you can actually trust, rather than a number pulled out of the air by some marketing or sales guy. We also publish a list of all of the sleeping pads available today that are rated with the new R-value standard in our Sleeping Pad R-Value Directory.

Inflating the Ultra 5R with the Schnozzel is very quick and only requires a few bagfuls of air. If you do decide to blow it up by mouth, the intake valve seals after each breadth so you don’t lose air while inflating it. Deflation is also easy because the pad has a dedicated OUT valve and most of the air rushes out as soon as you open it. Both valves are flat and stemless, which improves durability because there’s nothing sticking out to break. Packing the pad away is equally easy. You simply pack fold it once lengthwise, roll it up with the Schnozzel and pack it in the included stuff sack. It’s a snug fit but it’s not hard to pack.

The rectangular medium pad I review here weighs in at 20.3 oz, the Schnozzel weighs 2.0 oz, and the stuff sack weighs another 0.6 oz. I’ve listed the weights of all of the Ultra 5R pad sizes above for comparison. As mentioned previously, these are all priced identically regardless of size or type, which I think is a spectacular benefit for consumers.

While this 20.3 oz pad isn’t the lightest weight backpack air mattress available with this R-Value, I think it’s a pretty compelling size and value if you want a thicker 3″ pad. Pad thickness is a huge factor in air mattress comfort, and its hard to explain the comfort difference between a 3″ or 4″ pad and one that’s thinner. Comfort is tightly associated with sleep quality and not to be sacrificed lightly in the name of weight savings. Live and learn.

Exped Ultra 5R Sleeping Pad

Comfort

Ease of Inflation

Warmth

Weight