Instaflator... airmat and alpacka rack inflator?

[mmeiser]

So... many is the time I've seen pictures or videos of people using a trash bag sized bag to inflate their alpacka rafts.

Indeed I'd considered something like this myself for quick inflation of my smaller nozzle air mats.

Anyway, I just stumbled upon this:

http://www.themillair.com/

They're cheap $3-4... and weigh only about 1.5oz. Essentially a big inflation bladder.  What sets them apart from the inflation bags that come with the alpacka rafts seems to be a little bit of science which then equates to a huge increase in ease of use.

Basically with one breath due the bernoulli principal a person can fill the entire bladder.

It's not a completely original concept. It seems to be based off a similar science gadget, the "wind bag" or "bournoulli bag" that demonstrates the bernoulli effect:

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1479


I don't particularly like any commercial that starts out portraying its would be consumer as a moron, but this video does get the point acrost:

The Instaflator

What's more the backpackinglight.com forums seem to have taken an interest in them.

Here's a video by jason Klass on them:

The Instaflator - Blow up your sleeping pad in one breath!

Just thought some Alpacka raft users... and perhaps some air mat sleeping mat users might be intrigued.

[Beaglesdadi]

Now that's thinking outside/over/around/above, "the box"......that's a great idea, thanks for sharing!

Matt

[Slowerthensnot]

hummmmm

[davedivided]

Just ordered one. Very cool.  Been blowin my brains out into my own insulpad in all kinds a Sh%$ for tooo lonng.

 

[mmeiser]

Mostly I posted this for the alpacka raft users. I don't think I'd carry one of these for my average sleeping pad, but you must admit there is a huge advantage to anything with any insulation in it. No moisture.  For a DAM (down airmat) it would be essential. What's more you could forgo bulky/heavy internal pumps... which are becoming all the rage. Internal pumps become a mute point.

As per using this with my airmats:

1) my Exped Airmat doesn't need any assist because the valves are huge and gulp air.

2) My big agnes primaloft insulated aircore could hugely benifit. It's got a tiny valve impossible to blow air into and using a seperate inflator will avoid excess moisture in the bag, which will hopefully keep it's r-value higher.

I'm intrigued by the though of how moisture affects the r-value of insulated airmats. I've seen no though or study on it. Perhaps I should challenge the guys at backpackinglight.com. They did a recent "state of the industry" report which seemed pretty thorough.