Originally Posted by
GhostRider62
I am a side sleeper and in the past used an old therma rest on top on half length closed cell pad and always inside a tent. I have hundreds of nights on that setup. Now, I use a Neo Air in large but only about 20 night on it, so, I cannot say if it is reliable although much more comfy than my older and heavier two pad deal. I carry Park stick on tube patches just in case but so far, not had to use them.
FWIW, by now I have many nights on both the older self inflating models and on the Neoair. Certainly plenty to make some conclusions about reliability. Any way. I have had better luck with the neoair in that regard. The few caveats are that I used the self inflating models in my younger years. I probably used the neoair more in the west and the self inflating more in the east. I don't think I have become more careful with my gear, in fact I have abandoned using ground sheets having used heavy duty ones in the old days.
All of the old self inflating ones of mine or family members seemed to have patches and some had holes at the seam where they were difficult or impossible to patch. I only recall ever patching a neoair once and my current one has no patches. I did have the problem where a big blister formed from sleeping on it with bare skin against it (body oils, sunscreen, DEET?). That one did have a single patch if memory serves. It was replaced under warranty for the blister (while still usable). I started sleeping with a tech tee on after that which also stopped the noisy sleeping according to tent mates.
I would have expected the opposite. The self inflating models seem heavier duty. Maybe I have just been really lucky with the neoair, but it has been an awful lot of use for luck to hold out.