This little home-made thingie
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+ thermarest + leather jacket (on the bottom) + full set of clothes (including thick synthetic under-jacket) on me + extra sleeping bag on top of regular sleeping bag + low setup & snow walls - helped this guy to survive his first hang.
I'm not trying to be annoying, but I thought this deserved another look.
It seems as if most people have condensation issues with pads at lower temps. To me this points to not enough insulation. If the problem was that they are vapor barriers was the only issue, it stands to reason that you'd have both problems with condensation at all temps, and that every ground sleeper would have the same condensation issue, as pads are almost ubiquitously common on the ground.
I'm sure that it being a vapor barrier has some impact on it. But I'm also fairly certain that some of the problem is the top of the pad reaching its dew point, as that same problem exists on the ground, but it is perhaps less frequently seen there because of the lower temperature differential.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone else has information on this.
And this is I guess my long way of saying to the OP, that I've not had a problem with condensation yet on my pad. But I'm of the opinion that this might be because the temps weren't low enough yet.
The only way I see this happening, which may be wrong, but think about your windows on your house on a cold day. Warm inside, glass being a vapor barrier, cold outside. Condensation forms from the temp difference without the ability of vapor to pass through. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it working. Hot above your pad, cold below, moisture can't pass through...
That's exactly what is happening as far i understand it. And more specifically, its when the inside surface of the glass reaches the dew temperature. In other words, because the insulation (glass in this example) isn't up to the task of keeping the part next to you warm enough, water condenses on the pads surface because its too cold.
Alternatively, think about how much better double paned glass does with condensation in comparison to single pane.
It all makes sense in my head, but I'm not sure I'm explaining it very well. Perhaps a good way to check is to use either two pads, or a pad and an underquilt at the same time?
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