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Bought a $30 Ozark Trail sleeping pad on a whim and it held up better than my $150 Therm-a-Rest

I was skeptical about cheap gear for a long time. Then last spring I forgot my good pad at home on a trip to Olympic National Park and had to grab whatever was at the nearest Walmart. That Ozark Trail pad went through three nights on rocky ground without a single leak or losing air. My expensive one had a slow leak after five trips. Has anyone else tried budget gear that surprised them?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.emma1mo ago

I had a different experience. I bought an Ozark Trail pad for a weekend at Shenandoah and it deflated by 2am on the first night. The patch kit it came with was useless. I had to sleep on the ground for the rest of the trip. My Therm-a-Rest has been reliable for three years now, even after being used on sharp rocks and pine needles. Sometimes you get lucky with cheap gear, but I think the quality control is just not there. I'd rather pay more for something that I know will work, especially when a bad night's sleep can ruin a whole trip.

veraw471mo ago

That's a fair point about QC, but I'm curious how you tested the Ozark Trail pad before you took it out. Did you inflate it at home and leave it overnight, or was that first night in Shenandoah the first time it ever saw air? In my experience, a lot of those cheap pad failures happen because people skip the break-in check, and a slow leak from a bad seam can be caught before you're miles from the car. Not saying your Therm-a-Rest isn't better, because it probably is, but a 30-second test can save you from a lot of misery. Just wondering if you think that would have changed your trip at all, or if it was just a total dud from the start.