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New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

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Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#41

These guys have taken the same physical phenomena used in the newish Dyson fans and hand dryers and found a radically different way to use it. This looks as simple as a paper clip and I think in years to come many people will wonder why they didn't think of it first. True genius EDIT: I stand corrected by HN. There are number of bags that use similar techniques and apparently airplane evacuation slides inflate using…

Speaking of which, I wonder if they'll need to deal with patents. From what I understand Dyson has that technology wrapped up tight. PS - Dyson's fans are also terrible. Great concept, poorly executed. They wanted them to be sleek, so they used tiny motors which are LOUD making Dyson's Air Multiplier far louder than other fans WITH blades. PPS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVbEE0Qe4BQ

I'm planning to buy a Dyson Air Multiplier heater/fan very soon so this comment intrigued me. I'll be sure to go to a store to check them out in advance. I didn't really like the video you linked as I find it to be a bit of a red flag when someone calls something "overpriced", especially when they go on to be very negative about it - it almost feels like jealousy.

Still, I'll look into it before I buy. I don't suppose you know of any other fans/heaters that you would recommend?

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#42

These guys have taken the same physical phenomena used in the newish Dyson fans and hand dryers and found a radically different way to use it. This looks as simple as a paper clip and I think in years to come many people will wonder why they didn't think of it first. True genius EDIT: I stand corrected by HN. There are number of bags that use similar techniques and apparently airplane evacuation slides inflate using…

Example of the the baader-meinhof phenomenon? I learnt about this it a few days ago, as its the same phenomena used by Brain Brushwood in this weeks scam school - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at0xRBacJF8 where he attributes it to the 'bernoulli effect'.

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#43
post #9
post #6

I don't really see the appeal for mattresses. I have a very comfy foam/air mattress just about fits in my pocket and inflates faster than their demo. My tent, on the other hand, has an inflatable beam that takes a good minute to blow up...

What brand of air mattress do you have, if you don't mind my asking?

The Klymit Inertia X-Frame is like what he described. A Balloonbed is even smaller, but takes a fair bit longer to inflate.

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of which, I wonder if they'll need to deal with patents. From what I understand Dyson has that technology wrapped up tight. PS - Dyson's fans are also terrible. Great concept, poorly executed. They wanted them to be sleek, so they used tiny motors which are LOUD making Dyson's Air Multiplier far louder than other fans WITH blades. PPS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVbEE0Qe4BQ

I'm planning to buy a Dyson Air Multiplier heater/fan very soon so this comment intrigued me. I'll be sure to go to a store to check them out in advance. I didn't really like the video you linked as I find it to be a bit of a red flag when someone calls something "overpriced", especially when they go on to be very negative about it - it almost feels like jealousy. Still, I'll look into it before I buy. I don't suppos…

I've played with Dyson's Air Multipliers in a department store and they really are that loud when you turn them up to mid-high setting. "Too loud."

I wish I could recommend you a high quality fan, I've looked, and frankly it is pretty slim pickings out there. Currently I have an unbranded Chinese-made one.

I'd kill for an ultra-quiet nighttime one, and pay good $$$ for it too.

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#46
I'm afraid there's already a matress that does this. It's from exped, I own one and it's awesome, and better implemented than this because you're only inflating a small pump sack, and can use it to build pressure in the mattress.

Here's a video: http://www.exped.com/exped/web/exped_homepage_na.nsf/b43popu...

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#47
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By laying on it, you're compressing what's in there, and it pushes back on you. There's no need to ever inflate a mattress like a bicycle tire.

My back hurts just thinking about sleeping on an underinflated mattress. More power to you if it works for you.

The opposite is actually true. I sleep a month a year on a camping pad, and it's well known among avid backpackers that air pads like that shown in the OP are most comfortable when under inflated enough to keep your hips just above the ground.

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#48

These guys have taken the same physical phenomena used in the newish Dyson fans and hand dryers and found a radically different way to use it. This looks as simple as a paper clip and I think in years to come many people will wonder why they didn't think of it first. True genius EDIT: I stand corrected by HN. There are number of bags that use similar techniques and apparently airplane evacuation slides inflate using…

Speaking of which, I wonder if they'll need to deal with patents. From what I understand Dyson has that technology wrapped up tight. PS - Dyson's fans are also terrible. Great concept, poorly executed. They wanted them to be sleek, so they used tiny motors which are LOUD making Dyson's Air Multiplier far louder than other fans WITH blades. PPS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVbEE0Qe4BQ

I haven't (and will not) invest any time doing the numbers but, a quick think about the Dyson fans leads me to conclude the whole thing is a big marketing scam. Kudos for pulling it off, but the thing ain't magic.

For starters, it has blades. It definitely has blades. They are simply concealed. It's like saying my computer has no fans when the fans are not visible from the outside. Nonsense.

Second, it takes a certain amount of power to accelerate a mass of air to a given speed. That does not change magically because the thing has a Dyson sticker on it. The most efficient way to accelerate a mass of air is, wait for it, a properly designed fan. It am pretty certain the Dyson contraption is actually much less efficient than a properly designed plain fan which produces the same airflow. It absolutely could not be more efficient, no way. Nowhere in conventional physics do you get more --of anything-- than you are entitled to.

In fact, the larger the fan the more efficiently it can accelerate a mass of air. Because the Dyson fans are constrained by the small space of the base they have to use screaming little fans to push against the back-pressure produced by the path the air has to follow.

Maybe not as sexy, but a really well designed fan with optimized airfoils and balanced rotor IS magical in the sense that it can be so much better than the stamped metal contraptions one usually finds at the store. I have seen fans like that come-up here and there but they are rare.

I did a project many years ago where we had to design and optimize an efficient cooling system for a 1500 Watt LED array. We ultimately ended-up going with a hybrid fluid/air system. However, for the bulk of the project we tried to make an air-only approach work because it was deemed simpler and easier to manufacture. I learned a lot from running tons and tons of FEA fluid and thermal simulations as making a number of prototypes. There is no free lunch (AKA: Conservation of Energy).

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#49

I'm afraid there's already a matress that does this. It's from exped, I own one and it's awesome, and better implemented than this because you're only inflating a small pump sack, and can use it to build pressure in the mattress. Here's a video: http://www.exped.com/exped/web/exped_homepage_na.nsf/b43popu...

That looks much slower, more complicated, and more expensive.

Re: New closure allows camping mattress to be inflated in seconds

#50

The stuff about inflating with your mouth is a bit of a straw man. If you inflate say a Thermarest NeoAir or a Packraft you're more likely to use something like an Instaflator now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJLVYfg88TE (Thermarest have their own variant on the bag inflator for the neoair - but the principle's the same)

The backpacking mattresses are still inflated by mouth - I’m certainly not carrying another 2 oz on my back for a week just to save a minute on inflating. And neither are any of the folk I go into the backcountry with.

But this mattress is not aimed at us either - it weighs in at 24 oz with an R value of 1!

So perhaps the Thermarests owned by people who’d buy this are currently being inflated by Instaflators...

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