Gear of the Week | Therm-a-Rest Z Lite im Test: Vielseitige Isomatte

Some pieces of gear can be discussed for hours. Lighter, warmer, smaller, more technical, newer and, of course, supposedly a little better every year. And then there are those things you simply keep using for years. You strap them to your backpack, throw them on the ground, use them as a seat pad and eventually realise they are almost always with you. My Therm-a-Rest Z Lite is one of those things.

I’m now on my second generation of this mat. Not because the first one wore out. Quite the opposite. I had to leave it behind with a heavy heart because it no longer fit in my luggage. By then, it had already seen countless happy nights outdoors, rest stops, bivouacs and all kinds of other adventures. Definitely more than 100 nights under my roughly 85 kilograms of body weight, and it was still far from finished.

Losing air? Not an issue!

Of course, there are more comfortable and compact sleeping mats. My inflatable mat is thicker, provides better insulation and packs down impressively small. But it has one major disadvantage: it contains air. And when there’s air inside, it can escape.

That may sound obvious, but it can become a serious problem when you’re far from the nearest outdoor shop and discover that a thorn or sharp rock has punctured your comfortable sleeping mat. Especially on longer trips, I don’t want to worry every time about whether the ground is suitable for my mat. With the Z Lite, I simply don’t care.

Rocks, thorns or gravel? No problem.

Unfold it and sit down. That peace of mind is one of its greatest advantages for me.

One mat, many uses

And of course, I sleep on it too. In summer, it works perfectly well for me as my only sleeping mat. To be fair, though, not everyone feels the same way, and some people may find it too uncomfortable. When temperatures drop, I place it underneath my inflatable mat. This gives me a second layer of insulation while also providing excellent protection for the more delicate mat above it. Especially in winter, I wouldn’t want to go without this combination.

In the snow, the Z Lite becomes a true allrounder anyway. Sometimes it is a seat pad, sometimes a place to put my gear and later a sleeping mat again. I also love its accordion design. Yes, it means carrying a relatively bulky silver package on the outside of your backpack. But there’s no rolling, inflating, deflating or spending ages squeezing it down in the morning.

Unfold it and lay it down. Get up, fold it together. Done.

Therm-a-Rest Z Lite – simple, durable, and good for just about anything.

Steffen Kruse

Davos

Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite

It’s getting older. So what?

Of course, many nights of use leave their mark. Over time, the foam becomes thinner and the mat gradually loses some of its comfort and insulation. This was clearly noticeable with my first Z Lite after some seriously intensive use. But that certainly did not make it useless. Even if the mat eventually becomes too uncomfortable to sleep on, it still has plenty of life left in it. Individual sections make excellent seat pads, provide additional insulation in winter or can be used for all kinds of DIY projects. You really have to work hard before a mat like this actually ends up in the bin.

You can find cheaper, but probably not equally good

Of course, Therm-a-Rest is not the only manufacturer to come up with the idea of a folding foam mat. A certain major French retailer, whose name we would obviously never mention here ;-), also offers something very similar. I have tried that version too. The resemblance is hard to miss. However, after using it for a longer period, the difference became quite clear to me.

When it comes to foam quality, sleeping comfort and, above all, how long the mat retains its original shape and thickness, the cheaper version simply cannot compete with the Z Lite in my opinion. Someone who uses the mat at a campsite twice a year might see things differently. But if you regularly take it outdoors, sleep, sit and kneel on it and throw it down wherever you like without giving it much thought, you will eventually notice the difference.

Conclusion

The Z Lite is not small. It is not particularly sexy. And anyone looking for maximum sleeping comfort will definitely find thicker mats. But it simply works. After well over 100 nights on my first one and plenty more use with number two, it has become one of those pieces of gear that I want to think about as little as possible while I am out and about.