Sea To Summit Comfort Plus SI Sleeping Pad Review

Sea To Summit Comfort Plus SI Double Sleeping Pad is a dream pad when it is inflated. We used this pad for our 3 month long kayaking trip through Canada and Alaska’s Inside Passage. Anna and I really value a good nights sleep and with a trip this long, we decided this pad was worth the extra weight and volume. This double sleeping pad that is 3 inches thick and fits snugly in our Big Agnes Bird Beak SL2. Weighing in at 5 lbs 13 oz or 2 lbs 8 oz per person, this isn’t an ultra light pad, but it is an incredible comfortable one.

We chose a double sleeping pad because we like to cuddle and so far have found no manner of mating two sleeping pads that eliminates the gap between them. Neither of us wanted to spend three months sleeping half on the ground. The main downside to choosing a double pad is the volume of it. There is just no way to get a double pad to pack down into a small size. We folded it in half and rolled it leaving us with a pack size of 9 x 25 inches. This required creative packing to fit into our boats, but we were able to make it work thanks to Jeremy’s LightSpeed Pheonix kayak.

We were often forced to camp in rocky or root filled ground, so the 3 inches thickness was greatly appreciated. We both were able to sleep on our sides without our hips touching the ground. Many other sleeping pads are loud and crinkle when you move, but the Comfort Plus SI is silent. The surface is a soft 30D stretch knit fabric which feels great on your skin and has a slight non-slip grip to keep your sleeping bag from sliding off.

It is self inflating and usually just required a few puffs to fill to our liking. The Multi-Function Valve on each side of the mat made for easy fine tuning of firmness and allowed for fast deflation. All the other self inflated double mats we tried were incredibly huge to role up, but Comfort Plus SI somehow roles up nice and small for such a plush pad.With the R-value of 4.1 it kept us warm even when camping near the frigid waters of Glacier Bay Alaska.

We completed our sleep system with an Enlightened Equipment Convert Synthetic APEX custom Quilt and two Sea to Summit CoolMax Liner sewn together. We used an Outdoor Research AirPurge Dry Compression Sack 35L to pack the pad in our boat.

We slept like royalty on this pad until day 16 when we started to notice it leaking. Slowly it got worse and we patched one hole to only find more leaks along the length of the seams. We slept on the deflated pad for a few more days and then called Sea to Summit when we returned to cell service in Prince Rupert.

Sea to Summit customer service was incredible. They said this was likely caused by delamination of the fabrics and within a day they had sent another Comfort Plus SI Double pad to Ketchikan (the next re-supply point on our route) for us to pick up. We are incredibly grateful for the great customer service, but this did mean that we had to sleep on the deflated pad for the next 15 days.

In Ketchikan we picked up our new mat and were happy to be sleeping on 3 inches of heaven again and paddled north. But 16 days later it started to leak in the exact same spots as our first one. At that point we were to far into our trip to have a replacement sent to us, and just used the deflated pad for the rest of the trip. Anna really wants me to point out that even deflated this pad is more comfortable than some of the other pads we have owned. So comfortable in fact, that we used the deflated pad again on a week long trip down the coast of California shortly after our Inside Passage trip.

When we got back to Washington we talked to Sea to Summit about the pad and the customer service rep told us this is a known defect and they are working on a solution. He gave us a full refund for the pad and actually recommended a brand by another manufacturer. We were both really surprised and happy to be dealing with such an honest company that fully stands by their products and their guarantee. While the pad was frustrating, the experience overall made us Sea to Summit customers for life.

Tech Specs

  • Price: $270
  • Packed Size: 9.75 x 26in
  • Dimensions:  72 x 50 x 3in
  • Style: self-inflating pad
  • R-Value insulation 4.1
  • Weight: 5lbs 8ozs

Pros

  • Double pad means no cold gap
  • The most comfortable pad we know of
  • Impressively compact for its size
  • Soft non slip fabric
  • 3 inch thickness
  • 4.1 R value
  • Backed by Sea to Summit’s incredible customer service and lifetime gaurantee


Cons 

  • Delamination issue
  • Not ultralight


Overall 
The Sea To Summit Comfort Plus SI Double Sleeping Pad would be an amazing addition to your gear if it stayed inflated. But we can’t recommend it with the delamination issue.

Update

5/2/2020- Sea to Summit has informed us that the delamination has been fixed and we just ordered another Comfort Plus SI Double! We’ll update this if we have any issues, but for now it seems that we can give this a heartfelt full recommendation- if you want a super comfortable double pad and are either car camping or willing to carry a little extra weight, get the Sea to Summit Comfort Plus SI Double Sleeping Pad!