NEMO discontinued the Nomad Insulated mattress in 2020.
REASONS TO BUY
Light
Packable
Integrated foot pump for easy inflation
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Not very warm
Bouncy feel
NEMO Nomad Insulated Review
This lightweight pad is a good choice for travelers
Nemo Equipment Nomad Insulated
Credit: Nemo Equipment
RELATED: Best Camping Mattress of 2024
Our Verdict
Our Analysis and Test Results
Comfort is this pad's biggest weakness, as all our testers preferred the foam core mattresses for their firmness and lack of bounce. Regarding packability, it reigns supreme and is one of the lightest pads in our review, even with the integrated foot pump that saves your lungs from having to inflate this 80 x 30 x 6-inch behemoth.
Performance Comparison
This pad inflates to a massively thick 6-inches but isn't as warm as a foam core mat.
Credit: Matt Bento
Comfort
The Nomad scores on the lower end of the comfort metric, but keep in mind that we work with a relative scale. We slept on some very comfortable pads in our lineup, but the Nomad is by no means uncomfortable, especially compared to a standard lightweight backpacking sleeping pad. What we didn't like was the bouncy feeling of the nomad and the noticeable horizontal air channels. Again, we're splitting hairs here, and a few of our testers weren't bothered by the baffles at all, but in the pursuit of the best, we must sleep critically!
Using the integrated foot pump works better if you use your hands to better cover the valve when you compress the pump; either way beats using your lungs to inflate this beast.
Credit: Matt Bento
Ease of Use
The built-in “foot” pump inflates this pad to a satisfactory level of firmness with many, many pumps. We're hesitant to say foot pump because the pump works much better with your hands. It's easier to cover and uncover the air hole as the foam pump expands to draw in air and then compresses, forcing air into the rest of the mattress. The pump is big, but it's tasked with moving a lot of air to get the pad inflated. If you pump up the mattress once a week, it's not a big deal. If you're moving every day, pumping gets a little old. But we feel it's far superior to trying to blow up this 6-inch thick mattress by mouth. We also think it's way cooler than a loud, battery-powered pump.
The Nomad features a bonus twist valve so you can easily adjust the firmness to your liking, and two big deflation valves when it's time to blast the air out, fold the pad in half, roll it up and hit the road. The whole deflation and packing process takes an easy 60 seconds.
The Nomad (top) is a much lighter, and more comfortable air mat than the larger, PVC constructed Soundasleep Camping Series, and the foot pump won't bug your neighbors like the loud motorized pump used by the Soundasleep.
Credit: Matt Bento
Warmth
Nemo doesn't give the Nomad an R-value, but the insulated version is lined with PrimaLoft. Compared to foam core mattresses, this one feels noticeably less warm. There are 14,400 cubic inches of freely flowing air in this puppy, and that makes for a poor insulator. Nemo recommends this pad for temps down to 25 degrees. We'd go with a pad with an R-value of 3 or higher for temps that low. For fair weather summertime camping or indoor use, the temperature rating or R-value isn't a problem. Remember, a pad that insulates you from the cold ground will not affect your body temperature when it's hot out unless maybe you're sleeping on hot pavement, in which case you should look around for a better place to camp.
The Exped (top) may be thinner, but it's a much better insulator than the Nomad, though it has a much larger packed size.
Credit: Matt Bento
Versatility
At 80 inches long, this big guy isn't going to fit in many lightweight backpacking tents, so pay attention to your tent's dimensions when you're considering one (or a pair!) of these mattresses. Thanks to its relatively light weight of 3.75 pounds and its small packed size, this pad can go anywhere. It can fit in a carry on, and you could be sleeping like a baby on your own deluxe mattress during your next 12-hour mega layover. Pull it out of the closet, pump it up, put a sheet on it, and your next overnight guest has a much better place to sleep than the couch.
This model packs down to around a third of the size of the foam core mats in our review.
Credit: Matt Bento
Packed Size
The Nomad stows away in a nice 11 x 5.7-inch package, considerably smaller than the foam core mattresses in this test. While all of those mats received higher comfort ratings, you're probably not going to bring them on a trip that involves air travel (they're mostly huge), and a whole family's worth of these pads takes up loads of space in the minivan. If having a very packable mattress is important, this model is worth a look.
Value
The insulated version of this pad that we tested is on the high end. If you only go camping a few days a year, it is not a great value. However, do keep in mind that all the top camping mattress competitors come in at close to the same price. So to get the most out of your mat, go camping more! This pad comes with a patch kit, which we didn't get to use thanks to the durable 75 denier puncture-resistant fabric.
We slept noticeably colder on this mat than on the Megamat, the Alps Mountaineering Outback, and the Therm-a-rest Dreamtime.
Credit: Matt Bento
Conclusion
The light and packable Nomad surely lives up to its name. It's one of the most versatile mattresses we've tested. While air-core mats like this one aren't our favorite regarding comfort, it is a good balance of packability and comfort for camping in warmer temperatures.
—
Laurel Hunter & Matt Bento
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