Neoair repair

[nathan matthews]

I'm looking for advice from people who have successfully repaired neoair mattresses, or at lease people who know more about materials science than I do. I have a pinhole in my mattress. I don't want to buy the "universal" patch kit from Cascade Designs: I have a half-used, pre-neoair patch kit already, so I don't want to buy a whole new kit with things I will never use just for the sticker that repairs the neoair.

This BPL post
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=15373&nid=161628&print=1&id=Ivo8hMIE:69.233.68.199 says that "TearAid Type A" or "McNett Seam Grip and Tape" will work. This information is corroborated by (or taken from) this post at Mountain Equipment Coop: http://answers.mec.ca/answers/9421-en_ca/product/0899-120/questions.htm . That sounds good: what I'd like to do is use seamgrip and one of the nylon fabric patches from the old therm-a-rest repair kit to repair my pad. Can anybody confirm that this actually works? Or do I need a different fabric, maybe a film rather than a woven, such as one of the tapes named in the BPL post?

I've also been looking at alpacka repair, since my understanding is that both the neoair and alpacka rafts are urethane-coated nylon. I have an alpacka patch kit, so I could also use aqua-seal on the pinhole, or use aqua-seal + patch-n-go. See http://www.alpackaraft.com/index.cfm?section=repair-and-custom&page=Field-&-Home-Repairs&viewpost=2&ContentId=2622 . I'm worried, though, that treating the neoair and an alpacka as equivalent is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

To summarize: should I repair my mattress with (a) seamgrip + nylon fabric from therm-a-rest, (b) patch-n-go + aqua-seal, (c) some other combination of the above, or (d) something else (that I'd have to buy).

Thanks, and sorry if there has been a more recent discussion of this that I somehow missed.

[S Long]

I have had good luck repairing a 1/2" tear in the bottom of a Neoair using nothing but Seamgrip. I laid it out fully deflated and painted a coating of seamgrip over the tear. I waited twelve hours and painted another thin coating over the first. After it dried it held air fine (and, more importantly, me).

[Lawson Kline]

One of my air mattress's had 1/4" hole in it so I repaired it with some clear GE silicone I had laying around and it worked perfectly.

Good Luck.

[JR Redding]

Go back to REI, go to the bike department and get a package of "Slime Skabs" for $2.50. There will be five skabs in the package. Use those for pinhole or very small tears.

[Jeremy Platt]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the advice about the seam grip, I double coated my small puncture with seam grip (10 hr interval) and now it holds my weight without any problems. This has restored my faith in neoairs.

Thanks again,

Jeremy.

[Mike Stromsoe]

I've had good luck with the Park Glueless Patch Kit from REI. It appears to be the same materiel as the neoair specific patches included in the Cascade Designs pacth kit, only much cheaper. $3 for six patches

[Mike M]

thanks :)

[Greg Mihalik]

IMHO the Parks are OK for "on the trail" repairs, but I would peel, clean and SeamGrip once I got home.

They are intended as bike tube patches, and as such are "backed up" by the tire and held in place with 50 to 100 psi of pressure. Not quite the case on the outside of a air mat.

[nathan matthews]

I ended up using seamgrip and nothing else, and only one layer (albeit a thick one). I've since slept on the pad for maybe twenty nights and it has held fine. I now travel with a small tube of aqua-seal and bit of patch-n-go, just because I have these in "travel size," which I think would get the job done in the field.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

[Ceph Lotus]

Do a Google search on "neoair leak durability", and you'll see you are not alone with the leaking issues with the Neoair.

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