UKH

hi

Rab just made the new ultrasphere4.5

it is 370g

R value: 4.3

pack size: 9*15cm

https://rab.equipment/uk/ultrasphere-4-5-sleep-mat

feels like a great competitor to Thermarest neoair xlite nxt.

but i cant see anyone talking about it on forums or youtube or reddit.

is there a reason for that?

I guess the marketing machine is having budget cuts?

I think it's likely just not the kind of thing people are very excited about, even in the weird world of the Internet. 

It's not very interesting?

even so

there is no single post review or video about it.

at least the ionoshpere did get some?

its just weird

Maybe they could do a season (or three) on Blaze?

'Paranormal Sleeping Mats Caught Not Doing Much'

It's really not.

Like the matresses of Sqornshellous Zeta?

What, like resorting to starting threads on UKC?

its just weird

I would go even further, and say its bizarre

If only there was someone who could help us with the rrp, and where we could buy it...

I think you've hit the nail on the head!

I blame Big Mat.

He's huge, really mardy and hates it when anyone calls him Matthew. 

Mattresses have been done to death of late. Only last week The Lemming was asking advice about memory foam mattresses as his back was giving him trouble. Maybe there's something there and you missed it.

People are really sleeping on this new product. Rab's marketing team will feel really let down after seeing this post. Hopefully the R value isn't an inflated figure. 

I´ve been losing sleep over this for days now, thanks for starting your courageous crusade!

What you need is a decent sleeping mat. I've heard that Thermarest do one.

I certainly wouldn't take that lying down.

No one is talking about the Alpkit Numo either and it's also 350gr and a fraction of the price (£46 against £190)

I suppose in making that comment I made my bed, now I'll have to lie in it. 

The first rule of Sleep Club is:...

You don't snooze, you lose.

It’s weird isn’t it. I only found out yesterday that Arc’teryx make a Goretex blazer and nobody had told me. 550g and only £434 in their outlet store!

https://outlet.arcteryx.com/gb/en/shop/mens/indisce-blazer-4797

That would partner well with the ultrasphere 4.5 for fast and light overnight formal occasions.

Why does it matter?

Think the OP was just hoping for a puff piece somewhere?

I'd suggest trying it with a Buffalo sleeping bag but don't want to turn this thread into any more of a pile on...

I think that's probably blowing it out of all proportion.

If someone wants to send me one, I'll have a lie down on it and share my thoughts.

Seeing that makes me want to burn the few items of arcteryx kit I own. I mean, just why? 

This thread is not a patch on the Thermarest one

Marketing team caught napping 

Veilance has been around for more than a decade, I think. We have ripped the piss out of it here before...

I think it's all hot air.  I'm feeling quite deflated by this whole thread.

Using hot air does lead to later deflation, yes...

It's far too well fitting for a blazer - it needs to be 3 sizes too large.

Wow, the r value isn't so warm, but bloomin Eck for that price???????? Bargain 

They are great!  I've got a couple and use them for things like the Saunders etc.  Light, cheap and small pack size.  Comfy too.

Two weeks early for that isn't it?

Believe it or not Patagonia did a blazer and a 'tweed' jacket for a short while about 35 years ago, at the height of their 'Patagucci' phase. Not goretex/H2No though. 

Edit: Outdoor brand formal wear is a bit off topic though, possibly only for those with an inflated opinion of themselves.

With an R value like that it’ll be really good for stuffing between the rafters when it gets a puncture or delaminates..

Hope the recent ones are better than the originals. I went through a bunch about a decade ago - the insulation all peeled and stopped working (new ones might be insulation free) and then a number of them failed on the seam by the valve and couldn't be fixed. Alpkit always replaced them for me with no questions, but they couldn't fix them so it seemed super-wasteful to keep chucking mats in the bin. 

I was lucky enough to get to review both Sea To Summit and a Thermarest air mats for UKC - both multiple time more expensive than the Numo, BUT it must be 8 years of use for the S2S and five years of use for the Thermarest and neither have had as much as a fixable puncture, let alone seam or insulation failure.

No they don't, they're expensive, get punctured and don't work, like any other inflatable piece of shite.  Closed Cell is where it's at.

Agreed. I've had a couple of blow-up mats. Waste of money.

Yeah. But I don't want to pay for fancy modern yellow coloured Karrimats either. Bring back the white 'un-kippered' ones. In fact, bring back using a copy of The Sunday People to sleep on, salvaged from the bin on Millars Dale railway station, on the way to the crag.

A good forty or so posts in and your thread title still holds true.

I just use a Karrimat, one I bought in 2003 to replace my last one, half-eaten in Madrid by a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig called Hamlet. I like the simplicity, and the fact it can't pop. If you overcompensate by using an expedition bag you're never cold.

Are you sure we're talking about the same product?  Sounds like you're talking about a self-inflating mat with insulation, and a valve near the seam (like a classic Thermarest or the Alpkit Airo).  The Numo is empty inside, with the valve away from the main seam.

While this new sleeping mat is very light it is very expensive in real terms and also in terms of pounds per R value.  There are less expensive and better value mats out there on the market.

Whatever happened to the skeletal Klymit X-Frame or whatever it was called? That was properly light and small. I had a good lie down on one on a cold stone floor and I was surprised at how comfortable and insulating it was. I didn't buy one because of rumours of valve failures.

Be it closed cell foam or even horse-hair,

It'll always outweigh a mat full of air,

But if weight is really your biggest concern,

Then expensive products you should spurn,

A pile of bracken or dried leaves will suffice,

But if climbing in barren fields of snow and ice,

Or perhaps just bare rock faces devoid of plants,

Then just lie on your ropes in your underpants!

What do you think of the new Rab Ultrasphere 4.5 370g R 4.3, cat?

I believe they still exist. But I believe part of the thinking behind them was that your uncompressed sleeping bag insulation in the gaps contributed to the warmth. And the weight obsessed these days tend to prefer quilts to bags, which rather puts paid to that idea.

They didn't use to be, but I think someone at Alpkit told me they gave up on the insulation because (as I found out) it would never stay stuck on. I believe they also had a rights infringement issue with an American firm who was buying the same product from the Chinese manufacturer as well and said it was their design - something like that. 

https://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.com/2014/01/physics-you-can-sleep-on-des... 

I had I think three fail on seams and all had the insulation peel away. By that point it became clear that the quality of manufacture of those early models wasn't great. I fixed some of the leaks with shoe goo/seam grip sort of stuff so have one or two Numos that still are usable if a bit suspicious!

Thanks - good write up.  Sounds like an interesting concept to solve the problem of convection within an air-filled mat, shame the manufacturing wasn't up to it!

Current Numo is simple, empty chambers.  Clearly not massively warm, but very light, packable and cheap!