Neo air Xlite’s appear to be shipping

Dan asked a couple questions:

"How does the Instaflator attach nicely to a pad? I wouldn't mind using something to keep the moisture out of my Exped Synmat UL."

It comes with three fittings to fit various pad nozzles. The typical twist-to-close valve on a BA Air Core uses a simple plastic tube segment. I cut the others off to save weight, a whopping half ounce or so :-)

"The Instaflator seems like a neat idea. Do you inflate your pad from outside or inside of your shelter? From the video on their site, the instaflator looks pretty long, so you'd probably have to stand outside your tent and inflate it through the vestibule……which would be fine as long as it's not pouring rain."

In good weather I do it from outside. You can do it inside by not filling the Instaflator to its full length. It just takes an extra filling or two to get the pad inflated.

Either way, the Instaflator does about 95% of the work. I like my pad very firm, so I do a final puff by mouth.

Thanks Todd. It definitely looks like a neat option. Too bad the Synmat UL has such weird (and high effort) valves, but this still might work.

double post…

I have an instaflator (3 actually, one from kookabay and another I bought for the neoair and a backup considering it was pretty cheap).

I have my pad inside but use the instaflator outside of the tent, it is at least 6ft long I think.

Though it does feel very fragile, mine has held up fine. I roll slow and steady; takes a bit more than 2 the volume of the instaflator to fill up a 72x24x3.5 pad fully.

It shouldn't take more than 2 mins.

I need to get a piece of tubing and change the other one for the neoair (It was suppose to be able to inflate the neoair, I did ask, but it seems like I got an older model).

My son and I both have NeoAir mattresses, large and regular. I bought an instaflator last summer and it has worked great and is ingenious in its simplicity. I blow up the mattresses while they are inside the tent (I'm standing up outside).

I bought a Microburst a few weeks ago. It isn't as fast as the instaflator, and also doesn't inflate the mattress all the way full (although it only takes one full breath to finish it off). The advantage of the Microburst is you can hook it up to the mattress and then go do something else while it's inflating.

If you have an air mattress that you have to orally inflate, then I would HIGHLY recommend getting either the Instaflator or Microburst… and I would probably choose the Instaflator over the Microburst.

I ordered a small XLite from backcountry.com. The thought of an 8 ounce sleeping pad is great. My current lightweight sleeping pad is an ancient short size untapered Thermarest prolite that completely deflates a few times during the night, but I haven't been able to find the leak.

For those who are using the inflators with the neoairs, is the reason only for time savings/convenience? Or is there an aspect of maintaing warmth by not having moist/humid breath inside the bag?

"For those who are using the inflators with the neoairs, is the reason only for time savings/convenience? Or is there an aspect of maintaing warmth by not having moist/humid breath inside the bag?"

Part of it is that if you inflate the pad with warm, moist air (breath) it will deflate somewhat when it cools. That humidity can also help breed mildew. I don't really worry too much about it in warm weather, but in cold weather, especially when inflating a pad with foam in it, I do what I can to keep the humidity out of it. A few people here have written about the Klymit pads (I think it was the Klymit ones), which are nearly transparent, and mentioned that they could see the mold growing inside the pad. The mold isn't a Klymit thing, it's just that the Klyit pads happen to let you see it.

Cool information about the mold, something I will be thinking about from now on

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