Episode 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 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?

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.