Nemo Fillo Elite Cover

Nemo Fillo Elite Review: Next Level Comfort

Hi folks. Today on the blog, we’re all about getting a good night’s sleep. We’ve said before that being comfortable on the trail can be make or break for your trip, and a good camping pillow is one of the essential elements of your sleep setup. That’s why we’re about to look at a real hum-dinger of a pillow: The Nemo Fillo Elite. I picked this up on a recent trip to REI, and thought I’d report back on my initial findings. One thing I love about reviewing camping pillows: I don’t have to wait until I’m in the wild to try them out!

Overview / Specs

Design and Features

The Nemo Fillo Elite packs some handy features into a pretty small bundle. First, it has an integrated stuff sack – a fact I didn’t even notice until I took it home (it was nice surprise!). Second, the cover is removable and therefore able to be washed separately. Lastly, it includes a layer of insulated padding for cushioning, and believe me when I tell you this pillow is a lot more comfy than it should be given its size.

The Nemo Fillo Elite inside its stuff sack
The Nemo Fillo Elite inside its integrated stuff sack

Size, Materials and Weight

The pack size of the Fillo Elite is a tidy 10 x 8cm. Unpacked, the pillow is 39 x 27 x 8cm. That’s 3 inches of thickness, which isn’t a whole lot for a camping pillow, but we’ll get to that soon. The weight of the Fillo is 80 grams – not terrible, but it could be better. The removable cover is made of an ultrasoft cotton and polyester blend. The actual inflatable inside the pillow is a baffled plastic cell – it looks a little bit like a giant ziplock bag!

Nemo Fillo Elite Review

Inflation and Deflation

I’ll admit I had a little bit of trouble with the nozzle – for some reason the Fillo uses a ‘twist, then pull’ system, which I hadn’t come across before. Once I’d figured it out, the pillow was up in just two full breaths. There is a tiny bit of work to be done on deflation, however. Once the valve is open for deflation, you compress the pillow down until the air is out, before pushing and twisting the valve shut again.

As for overnight deflation, the pillow did go down by about 50% or so when I slept on it. However, this was because I cleverly decided to leave the valve in the unlocked position for the night. Realising my mistake, I tried it again the next night and found the pillow had still deflated but only by about 30%. To be honest, with only two breaths to inflate, I wouldn’t really care even if I had to resuscitate it every day.

The Nemo Fillo Elite, Inflated
The Nemo Fillo Elite, inflated

Comfort

Right, let me just say first of all that I didn’t even need a camping pillow when I bought this. In fact, of all the stuff on my to buy list, a new pillow ranked somewhere near the bottom. Having said that, the reason I bought it was because of how soft and comfy it felt in the shop. I kept picking it up over and over again as I couldn’t believe how different it was from other camping pillows I’ve tried.

This is, without question, the comfiest camping pillow I’ve ever owned. It’s certainly in an entirely different class from something like the Aeros Traveller – although the Aeros still holds the weight advantage. For me, the extra 40 grams or so on the Fillo is totally worth it, given the luxurious feel. This pillow just seems like it shouldn’t be as comfortable as it is given the small size, light weight and relative lack of padding.

In fact, if this thing was even a little bigger, I would seriously consider using it as my actual pillow at home! Don’t just take my word for it though. See if they have it in stock at your local camping store, and go have a feel. Then remember to buy it online and save yourself a little scratch 🙂

Verdict

The Nemo Fillo Elite pillow has shot straight into my go-to sleep setup. If there’s a more comfortable camping pillow out there in this weight class, I’d seriously love to hear about it. Add to that the integrated stuff sack, removable cover and Nemo’s impressive lifetime warranty, and you’ve got yourself a game-changing product. In the interests of balance I’ll point out that the nozzle can be very slightly fiddly sometimes. That does feel like an almost trivial gripe on an otherwise great product though.

Well, that’s it for this week folks, hope you enjoyed this review of the Nemo Fillo Elite. Don’t forget to check out the rest of our blog for more tips, tricks and gear reviews from the trail. Until next time.

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