Customer Reviews

Thermarest Compressible Pillow

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I own two of these Thermarest Compressible Pillows. I take the small pillow backpacking. No more smelly rolled up pants etc. for a pillow. I have a Medium pillow which I take car camping. They both loft up wonderfully if you unroll them as soon as you get to your destination. If towards morning you want more loft, just flip it and drift back to sleep. It is by far the very best backpack pillow I have ever tried! I have hiked 600+ miles on the AT.

I need at least 3 pillows to sleep comfortably, and when I had to go backpacking, I was in trouble... until I found this one. It compresses nicely, and then "fluffs up" nicely too. The fabric is soft but dirt repellant: doesn't feel quite like a bed pillow but is more comfortable that couch upholstery!
Also, it folds into itself and secures with a built-in drawstring, so you don't have to stuff it into yet another bag or keep track of a bag when it's "inflated".

I am now visiting England for two weeks and bought this pillow just before my long trip from California. I am not a big fan of airline pillows, but I do like to have a pillow to place in the window of the plane so I can lean against it and sleep during flights.

This pillow does not need to be inflated, and it fits nicely at the bottom of an inflight carry-on bag. It rolls up quite small which is ideal, but comes out a decent size. It is very comfortable and I like the fact that it doesn't need to be inflated. I just "puff" it up a bit with my hands and it expands nicely. I slept on all three flights to England and was very comfortable. I also felt safer, not using a pillow previousy used by other passengers (who might have been sick. There were plenty of sick passengers around me, coughing and sneezing), and I fell into a peaceful, restful sleep in my window seats. Perfect!

When I return home from England, I will be glad to know that I have this pillow with me!

Here's my review I left on Backcountry dot com.

"Everyone's captured it... these things are crazy good pillows. I'm not one for camp pillows, having no problem using a sweater or my arm but my wife always brings a bedroom pillow out when we car camp. What a perfect excuse to buy new gear. So I purchased the medium and was concerned whether or not it would/could really fluff up once I saw how hard packed it compresses down. But sure enough, after 20 seconds or so of punching and fluffing this thing shocked me. I immediately wanted to sleep three nights on it in the house. I was more than pleased, granted you can sort of feel the little foamy clumps it's still better at providing support while remaining soft and inviting than your typical pillow. It even put to rest my concern of failing over prolonged use. I still don't know how a pillow designed to compress supports the weight of your head all night (it doesn't have an opportunity to spring back). Great product, my wife immediately wanted one because I decided I was keeping the medium."

Addressing some of the negative complaints about it not fluffing up- I have no idea if it's a quality control issue with thermarest but I doubt it. You are supposed to fluff it with your hands a bit. And I had no issues. It FAR exceeded my expectations as far as fluffing up goes. The picture doesn't do it enough justice, I'm still surprised how well it works.

I don't know who these people are that complain about the pillow not fluffing up but they seriously must be retarded and never fluffed up a pillow. They were right that if you just open it up, it doesn't fluff up quickly but if you fluff it up a bit, it grows to full size in 10 seconds. I didn't even wash it yet, like the directions say, but once I do, it sounds like it performs even better. The foam is in small enough bits and soft enough that it doesn't bug me and it rolls up pretty good, enough to let the built-in fold flap grab it and hold the smaller size. It also have a loop thing that can be tied to a bag or hook. It's not a must have or even necessary but if you want to save space and have extra $23 to spend on something cool to own, this isn't a bad thing to have. I plan on using it for camping trips and airplane rides. No one better try to steal it while I'm sleeping on the airplane!

But it works as described and the people who complain about theirs "not working" are seriously retarded. I want to verify this for everyone. Just fluff it up and it's golden.

I took 1 star off since it's not cheap and it does't have a washable cover. You can't unzip the cover and wash it but the directions say you can just wash the whole thing so I guess I will do that.

I bought this pillow due to the fact I was heading out to hike the AT and knew I had to have a pillow or I would not sleep. I found this pillow, read the reviews and decided to give it a try.

When it arrived I unrolled it and noticed as everyone else did you could feel the stuffing, I gave it about an hour and it did fluff up a good bit but not to what I wanted so I washed and dried it as the directions stated, when I took it out of the dryer this pillow was huge, it fluffed up beyond my expectations and was super soft.

For the reviews that stated theirs never fluffed, I'm sorry for your bad luck but I just cant see how it didnt work for you, I rolled it back up and was happy with its size and then unrolled it and in no time it was back to full fluff.

I ordered a medium and would surly buy another if I had too, great product and well worth the money.

When this pillow arrived it was rolled up in travel mode. When I unrolled it it was completely flat and stayed that way for two days. I washed it to see what would happen and it plumped up beautifully. It looked like it was going to be a really great pillow at that point, at least until I rolled it up again. When I unrolled it on the trail for my first nights sleep it was flat again. I tried to plump it up with no avail. This would be a good pillow if it had batting inside instead of foam cubes. I will be replacing the cube foam with something else. The pillow is pretty much useless like it is.

I have bought three of these [small size] pillows for my children and me for camping and traveling. They are lightweight and compressible; although they need some time to expand after being compressed. For those interested in a LOT of comfort, these will not be for you, but for those looking for a lightweight, compressible, relatively comfortable pillow for camping will probably not be disappointed for what you get for the price. However, this pillow may compress somewhat during the night.

This pillow makes sleeping on the ground much more comfortable. It stays under my head much better than a rolled up sweatshirt. It is not going to replace the good pillows on my bed at home. When you first unpack it, the compressed memory foam inside the pillow makes it feel like it is filled with packing peanuts. After it sits a while, the foam expands and the pillow is very comfortable. In a perfect world, it would pack down smaller, but that is being nitpicky. The mere fact that I pack a pillow means I am not an ultralight/ultracompact fanatic. I don't think the small size would be practical for me, but I am not willing to sacrifice the space required for a large one.

I bought this pillow for backpacking. It doesn't pack down that small, but it is very comfortable and well worth the weight and space.

One note of caution for potential buyers: I've found that the firmness of these pillows varies from unit to unit. I bought the "denim" model and it was EXTREMELY firm. My girlfriend also bought one of these, but in a different fabric, and it was significantly softer.

Preferring a softer pillow, and confused by why these pillows were so different, I returned my unit and went to a local REI to actually try out the pillow before buying it. In general if found the "denim" models there to be much firmer than any of the other fabrics, and in general there was no consistent firmness from pillow to pillow. Same pillow size, same fabric, but different densities.

Various factors can affect how firm these pillows feel, i.e. how long it was last compressed or if it was washed, but given my experience the density of these pillows is somewhat unpredictable. My recommendation is to go with the "denim" model if you like a firmer pillow and one of the other fabrics if you like it softer.