Plastic Bag to Blow Up Sleeping Pad ..?? How attached to valve??

I tried out a Big Agnes Pumpsack on my new Kookabay pad for the first time the other day.

It has a cord and cordlock that wrap around the valve. You fill the sack with air and roll it up, pushing the air into the pad.

You only need it with a down pad to prevent moist, hot air from your breath getting to the down.

Thanks for commenting … I have seen BA's pump bag but it looks like using a large garbage bag will inflate the pad a whole lot faster.

I will see if making a small hole in the garbage bag, sticking the valve through and wrapping with a piece of paracord will seal it.

I simply hold it around the valve with my fingers in a ring.

I use my large stuff sack or a compactor bag if I have one in my pack. The last little bit you have to do by mouth as its not a perfect airtight fit with your fingers, but its close enough for me and saves me all the huffing and puffing.

Perfect … I will give that a try!

I can use a pack liner for water proofing my clothes and quilt, my black bear food sack (fine against Mid-atlantic bears) … AND blowing up my pad!

If anyone has other techniques please post them!

Cheers!

I'm going to second Mark on this. I need the big open end to wave around like a maniac to fill up the bag, and the i just hold that closed and slip the valve of the pad into it.if the valve is a one-way, you can get it pretty full. the plastic bag works best when it is most full, you'll have trouble with the last 1/3 or so. just fill it up again and start over.

also works for pool toys and those big air mattresses, and sames ALOT of lung power for the bigger ones

-Will

I'll get my wife to roll across the bag… that'll be fun to see. : )

I will see if making a small hole in the garbage bag, sticking the valve through and wrapping with a piece of paracord will seal it.

or perhaps this is another use for a ponytail mini-shockcord binder?

I have a 5" piece of tubing, with a bite valve on it, on the output end of a Sawyer filter that I use for sipping like a straw from small water sources. To blow up a pad, I take it off the filter, hold the bite valve in my mouth, wave a garbage bag around with both hands to catch air, and gather the open end around the tube sticking out of my mouth. I grasp the bag around the tube in one fist (a little twist of the bag helps seal it better) then put the bite valve over the valve to the pad. It needs to be pinched a little to hold on to the pad valve, to keep a good seal. I just kneel straddling the blown up garbage bag, and slowly sit down on it. Video of this process will cost you $10 (; ]

Dale

Have you looked at the instaflator? You should be able to pull the two pieces of plastic apart and put a larger bag then the one provided.

There is a video on youtube Jason Klass put up you may want to look for.

Found it.

love my instaflator.

OK … the instaflator is really cool! I am ordering that.

I also just took a thin plastic kitchen trash bag and used my fingers to close around the valve and laid on top of the bag with my chest and blew a Big Agnes medium size pad, full with 2-1/2 bags very fast.

There was no air loss from holding it with my fingers and I think the thin plastic sealed better than a thick bag would.

I am wishing I had known this a long time ago.

One more reason I love this site!

info… thanks…

For the visual learners –Look Here.

I’d guess there is more volume in a raft than in a pad.

I notice air doesn't escape out of the Alkapaka raft in between "puffs" — most likely due to the design of the valve. But Thermarest pad valves are different as air will escape in between puffs. Any Thermarest user care to comment?

"Any Thermarest user care to comment?"

You can walk up the side of mountain but blowing up an air mattress is too hard?
What a bunch of woosies!

Comment enough? HAH!

My Therm-a-Rest Z Lite is easy to inflate. My Prolite takes a little more air ;)

Last time I was at REI and buying something from the Gear Garage with a totally lame excuse for the return, I kidded the cashier about having Arnold Schwarzenegger work the Customer Service desk:

"Yoo kahnt be a girly-man undt climb zee mountains!" [SLAP, SLAP]

With all the hot air on these fora, I'm amazed that blowing up an air pad is an issue :) Of course I understand the problems with a down-filled one. Alas, I guess you can't fill one using a keyboard….

Dale W-

I think many light-weight on-trail hikers, on multi-day trips, carry closed cell pads now because of simplicity, speed of deployment, reliability, weight, insulation, and price. All good reasons, and that is what I do on that kind of trip. However, the bulk and shape of a closed cell pad can be an intereference for some types of trips where you are wearing a pack off the trail, and need agility and a small pack profile, such as hunting, fly fishing, or scramble-climbing. For these trips, an inflatable torso pad is much better for reducing pack size, but adverse to moisture, and I am already carrying a garbage bag. Even now, some people are willing to deal with the prices, delicacy, an fuss of inflatables for their comfort in on-trail hiking. In a few years, as prices go down and durability goes up for insulated inflatables, closed cell pads may have gone the way of external packframes.

Dale C

I have a nice fat torso-sized air mattress too, but it's not that big a deal to blow it up.

Dale,
I agree that any set of lungs can easily get the job done.

The issue for me is cold weather camping, where I want to avoid condensing moist breath in the foam (which, when cold does not want to expand to anything near useful).

Ha, video link was funny.

Yes … I know it's wimpy to not blow up a sleeping pad with your lungs!

But hey … I'm not blowing up a torso pad but two full sized pads. I blow up my wife’s pad too.

I been doing that for a long time now … but, I’m not going to any more : )

… Unless we are with Dale W. and Greg!

Then I'll Man Up like they do.

Cheers

Dale W and Craig-

Condensation in an insulated inflatable is the issue, not lung power. For an uninsulated inflatable, no harm in using your breath.

Dale W- Perfect Bogart clip. Love it.

Dale C

This is cool. I just got my neoair (thanks bpl for gear swap) and tried this technique and it worked really nice. I used a small bag, the ones you get at supermarkets, the clear ones. Hold it around the valve, squeeze the air into the neoair and while still holding the bag around the valve pull a small opening to blow more air into the bag. And then repeat process.

Pretty nice.

I must admit I laughed really hard on the guys comment on walking half a mountain and not being able yo use your lungs. Hahahha

I'm breathing anyway…

And it's not a race.

I ordered the Pumphouse "Dry sack and pad pump" from Big Agnes. Wnen it arrived, it was NOT waterproof (I think others have addressed this issue) and the "spout" at the bottom where it connected to the matterss had an elastic draw-string to cinch it down…it can't close tightly, but may be OK for pad inflation. But… The top of this "dry sack" has the typical stiff flat strip to aid in a tight rolled closure. This strip — which is only on one side of the opening, is longer than the other side of the bag top! If you try to straighten it out to close it, the top of the bag works kind of like a bow (archery type) with the stiff band curved and the opposite side stretched tight. IT DOESN'T CLOSE!!! After fiddling a while trying to make it work, I called Big Agnes and all they would say is "It's supposed to be that way. If you try, you can make it work." Say what???!!! I do notice a "Made in China" label. (3 paragraphs of political/economic rant suppressed here.) It's going back…my recommendation: DON'T BUY THIS! It's blatant false and deceptive advertizing.

But, while looking about on this subject, I happened on references to the Instaflator. Looked it up and found it's sold at Leslie Pool Supply (which happens to have a store near me). Off-the-shelf price (at my store, at least) $.99. I bought one just to try it out…which I plan to do this weekend. It comes with several mating attachments, so I'll just keep the one I need. Will try to get back with an update after I play with it a bit…

I just bought the NeoAir inflator/pack liner at REI to inflate my Peak Elite AC inflatable pad. Initially I had planned to just use my lungs but after reading multiple comments about condensation build-up in the pad and potential for mold etc. I decided that I would rather have a few ounces extra weight and use the inflator. I like that the hole in the bag has a very tight seal (it actually takes a little work to get the pad nozzle in there) and it took four pumps to fill my pad vs. 14 breaths. That it doubles as a pack liner makes it multi-use and I'm also trying to figure out if there's a way to seal the hole and use it as a pillow.