Mountain Designs Comfort 10 mat: Tested
One of Australia’s most popular family-oriented activities is car-based camping. With a plethora of national parks, state forests, caravan parks and private campgrounds, it’s a rite of passage for any Aussie family. And it can be a tough one, especially when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep at the end of an (over) exciting day. This is where a comfortable, reliable sleeping setup is key; get a good night’s sleep and you’ll be ready for that next day’s short bushwalk or bike ride no probs. Don’t have a good night dossed down, and it can be a killer. The Mountain Designs Comfort 10 aims to solve that problem.
A car-camping based mat needs to combine a decent (read: relatively compact) packed size with comfort; go too thin and light and you’ll feel all the bumps underneath, go too thick/big and you won’t fit all your family’s camping gear in the car. To this end, we spent a few weekends dossing down in the outdoors to see if the Comfort 10 offers the (comfortable) solution to your sleep system problem. (For our extensive guide to outdoor sleep systems, see here.)
Design
The Mountain Designs Comfort 10 hits the mark for nailing the balance between comfort, warmth portability and affordability. At $199 this self-inflating mattress is well priced for the car camper who prefers not to dent their back, or the bank, on an ultra-light sleeping pad however would also rather not kick the kids out to fit their bedding in. As the name implies, the Comfort 10 is 10 centimetres deep when inflated, thick enough to keep hips and shoulders off the ground whilst not too thick to become overly bulky when packed away.
The anti-fungal foam inner self-inflates rapidly thanks to dual reversible oversized valves and provides the right level of ‘squishiness’ (tech term) and an R value of 8.5 for a warm and comfortable night’s sleep. The 30-denier (D) stretch top fabric is smooth on the bum cheeks for those sweltering nights, but hard wearing enough to handle kids shoe scuffs. At 3.2kg and 83cm long x 22cm circumference when rolled, this tidy package will stuff nicely into a standard car boot with room to spare for tent, sleeping bag, chairs and Esky. Inflating to 198cm in length x 76cm wide, a couple of Comfort 10s will fit inside the average three-person tent (we all know they’re two ‘real-person’ tents) and also deliver a lengthy enough mattress for a 6ft-plus snorer like myself.
In the field
On paper the Mountain Designs Comfort 10 appears at the pointy end of the field for self-inflating mattresses in the warmth for weight battle, a standout at its $200 Club price. In the field the Comfort 10 proves its mettle. Packed size is compact for a 10cm mat and at 3.2kg it’s lighter than most, which just makes everything that little bit easier when manipulating the chaos of the car. Like all 10cm self-inflators it takes a while to inflate, and so if you’re in a hurry to setup camp or hit the beach then a sneaky battery powered inflator helps.
Fortunately, the Comfort 10 has a trick up its sleeve in the form of dual reversible valves that allowed us to simply flip the valve for either inflation or deflation in seconds. Once inflated, the mattress firmness is adjusted easily by adding or removing air. We tested the mattress on a balmy evening, and it performed brilliantly but we look forward to testing the R value of 8.5 in winter; being one of the warmest 10cm mats on the market we expect it to excel.
The final word on the Mountain Designs Comfort 10
A great all round sleeping mat, the Mountain Designs Comfort 10 ticks most of our boxes for car camping comfort with the bonus that it doubles as a stow-able emergency mattress for ya mountain-biking buddy when they’ve rehydrated with one too many post-ride beers at the local craft brewery around the corner from yours.
RRP: $300 ($200 Alliance Club member pricing). See Mountain Designs for more info on this and other MD products.
