NEMO Tensor Elite Sleeping Pad Review

Summer warm. NEMO lists R-2.4 with an aluminized film inside. OutdoorGearLab calls it one of the lowest R-values for an inflatable, found it true to its rating, and says you may feel cold as temperatures dip toward freezing. It scored warmth 4.8. CleverHiker sees it as primarily a summer pad, maybe a mild shoulder-season one for warm sleepers.

Now the sum. Ounces per point of R-value: 8.5 over 2.4 is about 3.5. For the Therm-a-Rest XLite NXT, 13 oz at R-4.5, it's about 2.9. So the Elite is the lightest pad, and it carries the least warmth per ounce of the two. Light and warm-per-ounce aren't the same thing, and that's the whole trade.

Could you stack it? OutdoorGearLab notes R-values add, and suggests a foam pad like NEMO's Switchback underneath, R-2.0 at 14.5 oz on its scale. That's about R-4.4 for roughly 23 oz. A single XLite NXT gets R-4.5 at 13. If you need warmth often, buy the warmer pad.

With care. NEMO uses 10D Cordura nylon ripstop on both sides. OutdoorGearLab put a few small tears in the underside on the abrasive decomposing granite at home, patched them with the kit and Seam Grip, and kept using the pad for many weeks, including a climb of Mount Blue Sky. It scored construction 6.5.

CleverHiker says campsite choice matters more than with most pads, and suggests a very thin foam layer underneath. A repair kit comes in the box. It scored durability 4.0 out of 5. Both read the same way to me: clear the sticks and rocks, carry the patches, and it keeps going.

What I find telling is the order of events in OutdoorGearLab's test. Tears first, on home ground, then a patch, then weeks more use and a 14,000-foot summit trip. That's the honest picture of 10D fabric. It isn't fragile in the sense of failing. It's fragile in the sense of needing attention. I think that's a fair trade for 8.5 oz, as long as you know you're making it, and I like a pad that says so up front rather than surprising a hiker at 2 a.m.

NEMO now lists three: Short Mummy, Regular Mummy and Regular Wide Mummy. That last one is newer than OutdoorGearLab's review, which said no wider or longer version was available, so if the 20-inch width is what put you off, the Wide is worth a look on NEMO's page before you rule the Elite out.

Here's the saving in plain numbers. Against the XLite NXT's 13 oz, the Elite's 8.5 oz saves 4.5 oz. Against the Tensor All-Season, which OutdoorGearLab weighed at 15.4 oz, it saves 6.9 oz on its own scale's figures. That's real. It's also less than a liter of water, which weighs about 35 oz, so one fewer half-liter of water carried at the wrong moment wipes out most of it.

Where it really pays is volume. OutdoorGearLab's 0.75-liter packed pad leaves room in a small frameless pack, or in the restrictive bags of bikepackers and fastpackers it names as the pad's natural home. If your pack is 30 liters or less, that matters more than the ounces.

So I'd buy it for a summer kit where space is tight, and skip it as a one-pad-for-everything pick. That's the same line both reviewers draw.