Prolite Plus won’t self inflate

Let it sit open over night (24 hours) and it should work just fine.

Also store it with the valve open (not rolled up), this will help to maintain the interior foam.

The Prolite uses a much lighter (less dense) foam to achieve the light weights, but somethings got to give somewhere.

When these foam core air mats first came out, the Thermarest ones actually did self inflate, as we have both experienced. In good weather, I'd open the valve and just throw it over the tent top, and after while it was ready to put in the tent.

Lately, however, haven't seen any light ones that do. Roger Caffin posted a while ago that keeping the valve open and the mat inflated when not being backpacked helps; but not much for me. Just one more item that I have to keep unpacked, along with the sleeping bag and the other puffy stuff, when storing at home or travelling to and from the trailhead.

So I decided the heck with it, I'll just blow them up. I like the Nemo because it is very light and has a softer feel, but it is the least self-inflating of them all.

Thanks Tad and Samuel. I'll try leaving it out overnight and see what that does. It's not horrible to inflate so not a deal breaker but I wish it would perform like the older ones. The changes in foam to lighten them up makes sense though.

My prolite should be here later this week so it'll be interesting to see how they compare.

I have a 1/2" or 3/4" Thermarest I bought in 1997. I replaced it recently with a Pro something or what. It is much thicker. I was surprised it didn't inflate itself when I unpacked it.

The directions said I might need to inflate it by mouth the first time. I don't like blowing in them so I waited. Nothing.

I blew it up and after that, it has inflated itself. I store it inflated with the valve open. Except for moving from one place to another, the first has been inflated long enough to have a license to drive at night…

One thing I did notice. With the old TR, I would unscrew the valve and the inflating action began and continued until it was ready for me. The new TR has a very touchy valve. I can open the valve and then bump the mat and the valve will close enough to suspend the inflating action. I have to be sure I have it open and then leave it be. This was also part of the trouble with initial self inflation…

I have a guidelite from 2002 and a prolite from 2012. Neither self inflated for very long. Even when they did, I still had to blow them up to get the proper firmness. It doesn't matter to me though. Self inflating seemed like a gimmick.

You have to believe. From Dorothy to Tinker Bell, nothing happens without believing makes it so.

It just makes sense to store Thermarest foam cor mattresses flat with valves open. All three of mine are like that and when I use them for backpacking they do "self-inflate (after 30 mins. for the ProLite).

"It just makes sense to store Thermarest foam core mattresses flat with valves open."

I'm sure you're right with the new ones and I believe that after purchasing this one. This isn't a requirement with the older ones (at least mine) but it also weighs 2.5 lbs so "something had to give somewhere" as mentioned above.

I still have my original one from the '80s with the metal valve and I've always stored it deflated and rolled up and in my garage. Same same for my military Thermarest from the '90s which went through Hell and back. They both will still self-inflate within a few minutes. They obviously made some changes along the way to help reduce the weight which had an adverse effect on the mattress' ability to self-inflate.

The lower weight is a bigger selling feature for me than self-inflation so not the end of the world but I just wanted to get an idea if I had a random dud or not. Looks like this is typical for this generation.

oh dear. one must certainly store a t-rest unrolled and open valve. if only for the moisture to evaportate over time. (free weight savings right there…)

one can find all sorts of places behind furniture to store them.

so :
open valve. unrolled. 24/7 x 365.
after that, it will reliably puff up.
note : the prolite's don't really get all that hard, you still need a breath or maybe two to firm them up enough, but heck, you can dot that even after you are laying on it.

we'd not store out sleeping bags compressed. it is as such with the t-rest.

cheers,
v.

Just wanted to share something I learned about this sleeping pad.

I don't think I mentioned it earlier but I've only owned this pad for a couple weeks.

I left it out for several hours yesterday inside my house and it never inflated. I threw it in my truck so I could take it to REI to compare it with another Prolite Plus pad. It was pretty hot out (~95*) and I had to leave it in my truck for a couple hours. The valve was open.

I found that the pad was inflated when I came back to the truck and has no problems self-inflating now.

Oh dear?

I think mine inflates better when it's warm.

I just leave it inflated with valve open at home. Probably it doesn't matter much. You could roll it up partially inflated with valve closed if that was easier. Even if it took one extra breath the first night, so what…

I think the newer, lighter weight ones don't self inflate as well as older ones. I have a Guidelite from way back that inflates better, but it weighs twice as much. They use lighter foam now. They stamp out holes in it. I think it's a good trade-off – lighter weight but you have to put a couple breaths in it to fully inflate.

The worst thing about the newer mattresses is that they delaminate – the mattress fabric seperates from the foam, creating a bubble that gradually gets bigger. Maybe letting it get hot could make this worse? The other thing is that the bubble on mine was where I put the palm of my hand and put my body weight on it when I got into bed. Now I don't do this. I bet it's especially bad to put my hand on, apply weight, then twist it.