Podcast 113 | Pad Pumps

I know lots of people here use pumps like the Flextail, but curious to know if anyone has moved over to the little tiny ones powered by a battery bank, and what you think of that style.

I have the PadPal v5.2 and I love it. It’s super light and works like a champ. It’s a little loud on the highest setting, but that’s a small inconvenience given it’s size, weight, and functionality.

I do have a zero pump, too, for weekenders when I don’t carry a power pack.

I think one of these might be an item I probably wouldn’t buy for myself, but is perfect for my girls to get me for Christmas. Even on a longer trip the battery life of my iPhone, Coros watch, headlamp, and inReach is so good I have juice left in my power bank so why not put it to use. Plus my jump to a wide pad from the regular width seems like more than 25% more breaths at the end of a long day!

Anyone know how much louder the Pad Pal is versus Alpenglow? On lowest Pad Pal setting is it still loud, and what is roughly the time difference to inflate a pad at lowest vs highest setting?

There’s a video on Alpenglow Gear’s Instagram  (@alpenglow_gear) that demoes how loud the Alpenblow is. I haven’t seen a comparison vs. the Pad-Pal but it is much quieter (albeit slower) than a Flextail Zero. (Disclaimer: I’m affiliated with Alpenglow Gear)

Alpenglow is supposedly quite a bit quieter but that’s compared to the pad pal at it’s highest and faster setting.  Would be nice to see comparison at the same CFMs

Justin talks about the difference between the PadPal and the Alpenglow including which one is louder and which one is faster(not in great detail) in this video

2024 Ultralight Backpacking Gear Awards

Alpenglow:Energy usage: 18 mAh at 5V
Noise Level: 48 dBA (similar to a moderate rainfall)

Pad Pal:On the low mode the sound is 50-54 decibels. On high it is 70-76 decibels. There is some variance in sound due to propeller imbalance.

Has anyone found a good way to carry a Pad Pal to keep it from getting crushed? I don’t like the idea of keeping it in my cookpot. I’d rather keep it in my gear ditty but I’d like to prevent crushing it.

Coin pouch?

I picked up an Alpenblow during the sale. Pretty sweet little thing. It blows up my XL sized Thermarest Uberlight in 3 1/2 minutes, and my size XL Xtherm in 4 minutes. I think the Xtherm takes longer because the fabric is stiffer and heavier and the pump produces very little pressure. It is a very quiet pump.

For protection I cut up and glued together closed-cell foam packing materials and made a pump ‘onigiri’. I am half tempted to paint it to look like a Twinkie. It weighs 2 g. The pump frankly does not seem that delicate, so I might end up just sewing a mini silnylon bag instead.

You could make a seal-a-meal pouch.

That case is wonderful. What type of glue did you use?

You could make a case with 3D mesh.

Pretty light, a little bit of protection.

If you need to protect from water, put that into a ziploc bag.

If you want to be anal, use a seal-a-meal to make the ziploc bag the right size.  And save a gram:)

The glue is E6000. I held the pieces in place with a bit of tape until it set. Cheers

I found a little plastic case that seemed the right size. I can’t remember where it came from. I think it had some electronic components in it at one point. It was just a hair too short, so I trimmed the pump nozzle adapter down and glued in a foam gasket to the adapter’s inside for a good seal around the pad valve. It weighs 9 g: the same as the pump itself. I’m happy with this set up and will stick with it for the time being. There are lots of mini pill containers available online that would probably do the same thing. I will add that my nozzle modification did not affect inflation time.

I’ve been using the pad pal for a while and also using it on my AT thru hike attempt. I just throw it in my electronics bag… have not smushed it yet.

I’ve used the Pad Pal on a half dozen 2-4 day trips over the past few months.  I’ve just been throwing it into my sleeping bag and pushing by bag to the bottom of my pack.  So far no problems.  My biggest fear is putting my knee on it while I am messing around setting things up for the night.   It is a bit loud at full speed.  In fact a few times  when others were around  I have stopped inflating early because of the noise.  So far I think it is pretty darn groovy.

Grumpy old man here. I was astonished when I learned how light the pad pumps were. then I realized they required recharging. And recharging requires carrying a recharging source. and that weighs a bit and requires fiddling with technical issues and where to place it on a pack. And what if the angle to the sun isn’t right as I hike north or south or into the woods? And then I went back to being a grumpy old man.

the Schnozzle inflates a pad in the same time frame as a pump. It also doubles as a dry bag, and weighs even less than the admittedly very light pad pumps. However:

a Schnozzle requires no batteries, and all of the apparatus required to re-charge batteries.

did I mention that I was a grumpy old man?  Anyway, I would love to see an episode on this forum that explored just how much weight and anxiety and fiddling around could be eliminated if a hiker were to go out into the wilderness without a phone and a battery pump and the recharging apparatus these require. I seem to recall we used to do this as a matter of course and somehow survived.

In other words, an episode that explored the benefits of simplicity and lightness of being in the wild.

for me, the point of venturing into nature is to conform my senses and thoughts to a wild surrounding. Fiddling with technological devices interrupts this conformity/confirmation to nature. I’m asked to leave my usual self behind and come into something new and fundamental. Carrying the weight of the familiar technology with me, and spending my time fiddling with it , defeats the purpose of my venture. Or anyway, that’s how I see it.

It takes a bit of faith to cast off electronic technology and trust the wilds, and your own abilities.

Muir went off without even a tent and a map. I’d never do that! the Schnozzle is my kind of high tech.

You never had your phone die and had to wait until you got home to see the end of the movie. As a young man living in the city, I felt a need to escape and to test myself. As an old man living in the country, I just do what I like.

The Schonozzle makes a good stuff sack. You can bleed the air off.

Just stumbled onto this thread. For those of you with an alpenblow, does it fully inflate the pad? I found this video, and while it doesnt show if she stopped it prematurely, it does look like there is a bit to be desired on firmness? Anyone have any comparison to the flextail?

Hey Michael, Alpenblow designer here to chime in– I contacted then re-ran the creator’s test on a new Rapide SL to replicate the issue, since a poor inflation like that should be a fluke.

It turns out that the Rapide SL takes longer and looks less inflated than other Big Agnes’ products. I suspect it’s the extra internal baffling weighing down on the top fabric surface, so the final pressure reached will not appear very “full”. I’ve seen the same issue on NeoLofts where the wide version can’t be inflated nearly as full as the regular version.

Visual difference between the two pads:

If you’re using a Rapide SL or another pad with similar baffles (like a Klymit), the Alpenblow will struggle to really fill it out, and I think you’d be better off with a Pad Pal by Rex Creations- it can generate a higher static pressure. I’ll work on improving the Alpenblow’s static pressure but that could be years off.

If you’re using a Thermarest or another pad with simple linear baffles, the results should be much better. Cheers!

Also, I sent the creator a replacement nozzle just in case a poor fit was contributing to the slow time.

New player in town: Giga Pump.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gigapump4/giga-pump-air-the-worlds-lightest-air-pump-only-1oz?

They are incorrectly claiming they are the lightest in the world. Wonder how it compares to Pad Pal.