The Flextail Light Repel is a small lightweight portable heater element that takes less than a minute to activate mosquito repellent soaked pads. How useful is it to the backpacker and camper?

The Flextail Light Repel is a very small device. With its hanging loop unfolded, its maximum dimensions are 98mm x 48mm. The case itself measures 63.5mm x 44mm. Without any repellent tabs installed, without cable, it weighs 41.77g. Flextail advertise it as weighing 42g. It is good to see a gear supplier actually using accurate weights, a practice almost unknown these days. By way of comparison,  the Nitecore EMR05, that has very similar features, weighs 39g +/- 5g.

Most backpackers are already carrying both powerbank and cable to charge their phone and other battery powered devices so there should be no need to carry the additional 300mm 10g Flextail cable unless doubling up is required. Note that the Flextail will not work unless connected to a power source. The Light Repel is rated as IPX4 water resistance. This means that: “water splashing against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect for at least five minutes, utilizing either an oscillating fixture or a spray nozzle with no shield“. Which suggests protection against light rain only.

The reason for the extreme light weight of the Light Repel is its simple and mostly plastic construction. Importantly,  this simple design means that no internal battery is fitted. To operate, it must be connected to a power bank. Most backpackers are carrying these, but you may be attempting to jealously preserve that precious power for your phone, GPS, or watch. If hiking with an operating Light Repel, then an external power source has to be connected via a cable somehow. Flextail are open about this requirement in their advertising and images, but countless reviewers seem to remain unaware and disappointed as a result. Flextail sells other mosquito repellents with internal batteries, but the weight of those is considerably higher as a result.

With preferably two repellent mats installed, one each side of the device, the Light Repel is then connected to a power source to work. The connector type is USB-C. Once powered, the LED light in the device turns green. The device then draws 3W and heats both heater plate in the device to 110°C. This purportedly provides a 10 foot (3 metres) no-fly safe zone. This may suit a static position such as in and around a tent. This is what Flextail call ‘Camp’ mode. Pressing the button again turns the LED red, increases the draw to 5W and heats the heater plate to 165°C and we are informed that this boost mode then provides a wider 30 foot (9 metre) zone that should provide greater protection while hiking, what Flextail call ‘Outdoor’ mode. Pressing the button again turns the device off. With these temperatures, even though the heater element is centrally positioned in the device and isolated behind both pads and removable protective ‘heat dissipation’ grid sides, there is still substantial heat and care should be taken when placing it on or against some materials, particularly flammable materials. I have hung it from a pack while hiking in outdoor mode and had no issues.

There are a great many different mosquito repellent tablets, or mats, for this type of heater element device. Few sellers list any ingredients on their packaging or websites. How they are allowed to get away with this I don’t know. Any other product would be required to list this information, by quantity. Repellent tablets should contain ingredients such as meperfluthrin and allethrin, the latter is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring insecticide found in chrysanthemums. Other synthetic insecticides listed as ingredients in these tablets might include d-allethrin, prallethrin or transfluthrin. All are pretty toxic substances, especially to aquatic life and care should be taken to not let them enter water sources. These chemicals are not known to be toxic to mammals or carcinogenic but ideally, try not to directly handle the tablets, which may be awkward to achieve. Other ingredients might include binders or perfume. The dangers of d-allethrin as a biocidal product has been raised by the European Commission and an initial response can be seen here.

Flextail sell their own mosquito repellent pads. The active ingredients in each of their pads are 5mg prallethrin and 5mg meperfluthrin. Pads last around four hours on Outdoor mode and up to eight hours on Camp mode. So you will not get a full day’s hiking with just the first fill.

I did already have some sealed mosquito repellent tabs in the gear locker but they must be getting old (note to self, start dating these with a marker on delivery) so ordered another twenty refills at the same time as I ordered my Flextail Light Repel via Amazon. The refills cost £7.93 and the Light Repel £17.25, each with free delivery. Each took a day or two to be delivered.

The scented cloud of protection emitted by the device is invisible so it is just about impossible to determine how effective it is. The proof can only be in using it and seeing how it disperses mosquitos and protects the user.

I am not overkeen on the fitted hanging loop, that has a spring wire gate. I don’t think I can even remove this without damaging the plastic that it passes through. It is an awkward shape, overlarge and the gate looks like it could fail without warning. Not what I want to happen if it is hanging from the back of a pack when it does. I would have preferred a simple open hanger hole to which I connect a mini biner or Niteize S-biner of my choice.

Note that by pivoting the hanging loop back on itself the Light Repel can be stood up on a surface such as a table and can be used around camp or even around the home. It may be a useful device to have around on those muggy summer evenings.

I took the Flextail Light Repel with me while backpacking the Corfu Trail in early spring. When wildcamping in some wetter olive groves mosquitos and biting insects were in profusion and the Light Repel appeared to do a decent job in, well, repelling them! What was all too apparent, however, was the rate at which it sucked the juice from my powerbank. Those winking blue lights on my Nitecore powerbank decreased in number with alarming rapidity. A 10000mAh power bank will be fully drained in less than 16 hours in ‘low’ mode and half that time on ‘high’. This is power that I prefer to keep for other purposes. Long sleeves, headnet and decent bug netting on a tent don’t drain any power. I decided that the Flextail Light Repel may not be a piece of equipment for my longer, multi-day hikes while off-grid but it will be accompanying me backpacking in the arctic circle tundra later this year for another ‘proper’ test in a mozzie filled environment. I do suspect that after this it may be confined to day hikes or accommodation-to-accommodation hikes, where I expect to be able to regularly recharge my powerbank.