Elegear Camping Mattress review
If there’s one thing that will make or break a camping trip, its the quality of your sleep. I’d go as far as saying this is even more critical for kids, especially when you’re the parent. A bad nights sleep means cranky days for everyone, and we’ve always done our best to camp in relative comfort, or its simply unenjoyable.
Since selling our Reconn R2 and getting the Cub Camper, our kids have been sleeping on big foam mattresses from our folks, which have previously been used as spare beds at home. These are decent, but they’re big, heavy and are really awkward to keep in the camper full time. If we put two of these on the main bed and fold the camper down it doesn’t shut properly, which means one has to live in the back storage, and still is a pain to put there.
When we were offered a new camping mattress from Elegear to test, I jumped on it. We’ve since gone down to one massive foam mattress that lives in the centre of our camper bed when we fold it up, and the new Elegear camping mattress, which makes life so much easier.
We didn’t pay for this
As usual, you should know we did not pay a cent for the mattress, but our comments are our own and not even Elegear get any say in what we say about it. If you’ve followed along for some time you’ll be all too familiar with our ‘ethics first’ policy, where we don’t get involved in any cash for comment arrangements, as there’s always a conflict of interest (regardless of what you’re told).
About Elegear
Elegear are an online business, selling a range of camping, sleeping and clothing options that are designed to keep you comfortable. They sell to over 30 countries and have sold 180,000 products to over 100,000 people. Their products come with a one year warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee, and whilst you won’t find their products at your local camping stores, they’re doing quite well.
About the Elegear Camping Mattress
This mattress is their 3.1″ Ultra Thick memory foam camping pad with a Pillow. It’s foam too, but self inflating and can be rolled up less than 30cm in diameter very easily. The mattress is firm but not too firm, coming in at 67cm wide, 195cm long and 8cm thick. As with most self inflating mattresses you’re best to let them inflate for the first time over a day or so, and then they’ll inflate much quicker down the line.
What do we like about the Elegear Camping Mattress?
When I first saw the different inlets and outlets on the mattress, I wondered why there were so many, and if they’d cause any issues. However, it was only after I went back to the instructions (typical bloke!) and read that some of the valves are one way, which is pretty clever. It means that rolling the mattress up nice and tight is a piece of cake, because the air goes out but won’t come back in again.
Normally, you undo the valves, roll it from one end and then do the valves up again, starting at the other end and then releasing the remaining air out when you get to the end. On these, there’s no need to do anything except roll it up as tight as you can (if you want it really small), and slide the elastic bands on and the cover. It’s got nice fabric, is quite compact when you roll it up and is really easy to use.
What are we not a fan of?
When I saw the inbuilt pillow in the photos I thought it was a great idea. Pillows are just another thing to carry around and an all in one solution seemed like a pretty smart idea. However, the actual pillow is only about 20 – 30mm taller than the mattress, which is no where near enough. That then creates other issues, as your normal pillow on top of this is too high. Fortunately for our kids they don’t seem to care, but its a good idea that isn’t quite right. Interestingly on their photos it shows the pillow a bit taller, so perhaps ours just doesn’t inflate quite as much.
I also wonder if there’s ever going to be an issue with air releasing out of the inlets or outlets, given they just press into place and aren’t screwed in to seal. If you’ve ever used air mattresses before you’ll know that air leaks can be a huge issue. I suspect with our kids sleeping on them its much less likely to pop anywhere, but you never know. The Black Wolf ones have screw release valves, which are quite tight when done up.
How does it perform?
All in all, I’m reasonably pleased with this mattress. It’s comfortable, easy to use and does its job. In comparison to other self inflating mattresses that we’ve used or seen, its decent. It’s certainly much better than the thin swag foam mattresses that so many swags come from, and I’ve not woken up with a sore back, or regretting sleeping on it yet.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is in the same league as the Blackwolf Mega Deluxe that we had 2 of for many years, but their price point is completely different too. In fact, its one of the cheaper self inflating mattresses you’ll find around. I can’t comment on its longevity just yet, but I don’t expect to have any issues given what I’ve seen.
If you’re in the market for a decent self inflating mattress that isn’t from the regular brands, this is worth a shot.
Where do you get them from?
If you’re going to get one, Amazon is the place to go. They’re $107 with free freight, which is a pretty good deal.
