Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft

Comfort is what the NeoLoft is built for, and it delivers. Three things make it work well. First, it is thick at 11.7 cm (4.6 in), which makes it nearly impossible to bottom out unless a lot of air has been let out, and it gives enough room to deflate slightly for extra pressure relief without ever feeling the ground. Second, it uses a 3D construction with raised side walls, which helps keep me centred and makes the pad feel wider than its actual dimensions. Third, the top material is very stretchy. I feel it the moment I lay down. I sink in, pressure relieves, and the material is soft enough that bare skin against it feels great. Combine the thickness with that stretchy material and this becomes one of the most comfortable pads I have used, full stop. It works well for back, stomach, and side sleeping alike, and I think just about anyone would find this one of the most comfortable backpacking pads they have slept on.

Stability is one weak point. Fully inflated, the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft is stable and well supported. But when I let air out to deflate the pad a little, it can start to feel a bit balloon-y, especially near the edges, where it can feel like I might roll off, or when shifting positions, where it can feel a little like lying on a waterbed. Some people never notice this instability at all, and others feel it right away. It is a real love-it-or-hate-it aspect of the pad, one that comes down entirely to personal preference.

In terms of warmth, Therm-a-Rest markets the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft as an all-season pad, but my testing suggests it performs more like a three-season pad. It carries an ASTM R-value of 4.7, using a ContourCore Matrix for convective heat loss and ThermaCapture reflective material for radiative heat loss. I have taken it down to freezing and stayed comfortable with no hint of cold. That said, I have seen a number of reports online of people sleeping cold on this pad, and my read is that this is happening to people pushing it below freezing. Part of that likely comes down to sheer size. Like other large, thick pads, the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft loses more heat to the surrounding air than a smaller pad would. An R-value of 4.7 should allow for a little past freezing, but for anyone pushing colder than that, the warmth here is slightly disappointing for its stated R-value.

In terms of weight and packability, this is a big and heavy pad, there is no getting around it. At 833 g (1.8 lb) for the Regular Wide Rectangular version tested here, the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft is not a lightweight backpacking pad, but it is noticeably under Therm-a-Rest's advertised 850 g (1.9 lb) spec, which is a nice surprise in the right direction. For a comfort-focused pad in this class, that puts it on the heavier end, though it is still lighter than the Exped MegaMat Ultra, which weighs 880 g (1.9 lb) in its comparable Medium Wide size. When I first picked it up, I expected the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft to weigh over 1,000 g (2.2 lb), so coming in under that while delivering this level of comfort is impressive. Much of that weight comes directly from what makes the pad so comfortable in the first place, the thickness and the 3D construction with raised side walls both add material and weight that a flatter, thinner pad would not have.

Packed size follows the same pattern. The Regular Wide packs down to about 29 cm (11.4 in) by 15 cm (5.9 in), closer to the size of a football than a water bottle. The size and weight are the tradeoff for the plushness and supreme comfort.

For ease of use, the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft uses Therm-a-Rest's TwinLock valve system, with both valves on the top corners of the pad. The Out valve sits in the top left corner, and the In valve sits in the top right. Inflation is fast, and because both valves sit on top rather than underneath, adjusting firmness while lying on the pad is easy. The second valve exists specifically because a single valve would take too long to deflate the pad, and with it, deflation is quick. That said, I am not a fan of the two-valve setup itself. It adds weight and adds failure points for something that could be simpler. The included pump sack has the same weak point I have run into on other Therm-a-Rest pads, it tends to pop off mid-use and lose air through the seams. An electric pump works great as an alternative. Packing the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft away takes a bit longer than smaller pads simply due to its size, but getting it into the stuff sack is generally not a hassle.

For durability, the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft uses a 50-denier polyester knit top and a 75-denier polyester bottom. Therm-a-Rest has built a reputation over more than five decades as one of the most reliable names in sleeping pads, which makes it all the more frustrating that I have had a real durability issue with my own unit. It developed a leak somewhere I was never able to pinpoint, losing air slowly overnight even sitting still in my house. Therm-a-Rest warrantied it without any hassle and sent a replacement, which speaks well of their lifetime warranty. But a pad should not be developing leaks after only 20 to 30 nights of use. To be fair, when I looked across other review sites and reports, I did not see widespread reports of leaking Therm-a-Rest NeoLofts, so this may well be an isolated unit rather than a pattern.

For noise, Therm-a-Rest markets the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft's stretch-knit top material as eliminating crinkling entirely, and my testing backs that up. The two things that usually make a sleeping pad noisy are the internal insulation, since reflective film can sound crinkly, and the outer material, which can squeak against a tent floor. The stretch-knit top does not crinkle at all, and the polyester bottom is quieter against tent floors than the slicker nylon material used on many other pads. Noise never came up as an issue across dozens of nights on it, and the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft is easily one of the quietest pads I have used.

The Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft is for anyone who prioritizes comfort above almost everything else, assuming they do not mind the occasional balloon-y feeling covered above. It is currently the favourite pad of both my wife and my dad, and I know plenty of other people who feel the same.

For me personally, the Exped MegaMat Ultra remains my top comfort pick, mostly on the strength of its durability track record and extra stability. But that is a close call, not a knockout, and the Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft is still an excellent pad that a lot of people are going to love more than anything else on the market.