Following trials, a ‘final’ production version of the Pad-Pal electric sleeping pad inflator is now available. Weighing less than ten grams, including valve adapter, this bit of luxury on trail is now an ultralight option for all.

Back in October 2022, Three Points of the Compass wrote about the Pad-Pal v4, a lovely little piece of lightweight gear developed by US ultra-lightweight backpacker Tyler Reeves. This was a self-designed, home-made sleeping pad inflator powered by a powerbank rather than holding internal batteries like almost all of the competition. It weighed just 10.6g, which included a valve adapter for my preferred sleeping pad. Following feedback, Tyler continued to work on the design, shave the grams and came up with a prototype smaller, stronger, more powerful inflator with a greatly extended life, that he sent out for beta testing. I was fortunate enough to be amongst those testers and wrote about that 7.6g v5 inflator in April 2023. Once he had received feedback from trials on trail, Tyler completely revised the design and it is a far better product as a result, striking a balance between durability, inflation power and ease of use. Even with all of the necessary changes, the weight still remains under 8g. He was kind enough to send me, gratis, a production copy of the Pad-Pal v5.1.

The Pad-Pal has moved a long way during its many iterations and is now looking much more the finished product. Thankfully, the dangling control board from the previous prototype has gone, now integrated in to the side of the inflator. It retains the four speed element and now has a guard over the rotating fan. Power consumption and pressure are-

• mode one: ~ 0.25 hPa, 0.4 amps
• mode two: ~ 0.85 hPa, 0.86 amps
• mode three: ~ 1.5 hPa, 1.5 amps
• mode four: ~ 2.5 hPa, 2.3 amps

One nice little touch was that my Pad-Pal came with a print out of the quality control checks carried out on my specific inflator. This includes Thermal Test, Pressure Test and Current Test, the latter revealing that my Pad-Pal drew a minimum of 0.1 amps (when plugged in) and a maximum of 2.54 amps (mode four). Maximum pressure for my inflator was 3.15 hPa actual on mode four. QR codes on the print out takes me to my User Manual or the Rex-Creations website.

It will use 30mAh to inflate a regular Thermarest NeoAir Uberlite on mode four (loudest and most inefficient, power wise) That’s about 250 inflations from a Nitecore NB10000. If you inflated a pad once each day on a week long hike, it would use around 2.7% of a 10000mAh battery bank. The Pad-Pal has a life of around 1800 inflation cycles and this can be extended by occasionally adding a drop of sewing machine oil to the motor bushing on the bottom of the inflator, perhaps an end of season cleaning and maintenance of gear task.

It is also a great deal more crushproof and the 3D printed duct would take a great deal of pressure to deform. Waterproofness has been further improved but an exposed USB-C port is an exposed port nonetheless, just as it is with any competitor inflator. It does make a bit of noise when running, but even on the maximum, mode four, this is far less than the very loud Flextailgear Tiny Pump, and if you want to keep the noise down, simply run it on one of the slower and quieter modes, which just takes a little longer to inflate a pad.

The Pad-Pal v5.1 inflator measures 45.2mm x 36.2mm x 17.2mm and weighs 7.56g on my calibrated digital scales. To this has to be added the weight of a valve adapter, to enable it to hook up to your chosen pad. I am currently using a Thermarest NeoAir XLite NXT with Winglock valve and Tyler has recently been producing two versions of Pad-Pal adapter for this valve. One is a stiffer, more robust option, weighing 1.77g, the other is a far thinner and more flexible option that comes in at just 0.73g. I have found the thinner option too fiddly and awkward to attach to both the inflator and my pad’s valve so use the stiffer option. The extra 1g goes a long way to making this inflator far easier to use. I will not be surprised if the lighter valve adapter is abandoned. As with previous versions, the Pad-Pal v5-1 can also be used to deflate a pad. All the various adapters that have been made for other makes of pad are forward compatible with the v5.1 inflator.

This inflator is lighter than any alternative, other than lungs. It weighs less than any pump sack on the market. The little Pad-Pal v5.1 inflator has accompanied Three Points of the Compass while backpacking in Iceland, Scotland and Sweden so far this year and will almost certainly be in my pack for future trails.

This is likely to be the final version for quite some time and is the one currently on sale. It is gathering considerable interest from both the ultra-lightweight and lightweight crowd and Tyler sold out his first batch of 80 the day he made them available. It costs $46, which sounds expensive, which is expensive, but as I write this I see that the heavier Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Micro Pump can be purchased from Cotswold Outdoor for £52, or for £43.99 from Ultralight Outdoor Gear. So, if you are in the market for something to remove that slightly onerous task of blowing up a pad each night, while also reducing the amount of moisture being put into a pad, the Pad-Pal should warrant serious consideration.