On a recent backpacking trip, my air mattress sprung a leak. It was entirely my fault. I was using it outside the tent to lie on while I propped my feet up, and apparently didn’t clear the ground thoroughly enough. At bedtime I discovered that the pad would slowly deflate, bottoming out in about 5 minutes.
I made several unsuccessful searches for the leak. In the darkness, lit only by a headlamp, and in the confines of the tent, I couldn’t locate it. Eventually I consigned myself to a bad night’s sleep, blew the pad up as fully as I could, and tried to fall asleep before the pad deflated. After a few dozen tries, I actually succeeded, at least for a little while. But the cold always woke me up pretty quickly.
You see, a sleeping pad under your sleeping bag does two jobs. Of course it provides some level of comfort, but more importantly it provides insulation. The insulation on the bottom of your sleeping bag provides very little warmth, since it is compressed by your body weight. To insulate you from the cold ground you must rely on your sleeping pad.
Michelle and I use Thermarest Neoair Xlite pads, and quite like them. They’re extremely light (our long and wide pads weigh a pound each), and in ordinary circumstances they insulate well. They’re also quite comfortable. But on this night I was reminded of two critical facts: the pads are so light because they’re somewhat fragile, and they only insulate if they’re inflated.
Finding the leak
I planned to go home anyway, so there was no point in looking for the leak the next morning. I packed up, hiked back to the car and drove home. Once I got unpacked it was time to find the leak.
The time-honored way to find a leak is to submerge the item in water and look for the bubbles. But wrestling a 6’6″ long pad through a 5′ bathtub didn’t look like much fun. The other time-honored method is to cover the item with a bit of soapy water, and look for soap bubbles. Since it was a nice day outside we set up on the back stoop and set to work.
We found the leak eventually, but we actually did it as much by sound as by the bubbles. It was a tiny, tiny leak. Just a pinprick. Just enough.
The patch kit
Thermarest includes an “Instant Field Repair Kit” with the mattress. Even though I was no longer in the field, I wanted to try it, just so I’d have the experience. Besides, I didn’t have anything better to use. Since I was trying to understand how it would be to use it in the field, I stretched the area with the leak over my knee, rather than using a table.
The kit includes the following:
- (2) alcohol prep pads
- (2) Tear-Aid Patch Type A
- (2) Glue Dots
- Instructions in English, French, and a language I couldn’t identify
The instructions were straightforward. First, find the leak (already done), and let it dry (also done). Then, clean the area with the alcohol swab. Since the patch kit is pretty old, I wondered if the swab would be dry, but it was actually fine.
I then had to wait for the alcohol to dry. The instructions were very clear on this point. This may have taken as much as five whole seconds, time that I could have used getting the repair bits ready or something. That’s another little slice of my live, gone forever. Thanks, Thermarest!
The repair
In the next step you stick a Glue Dot over the leak. I had never heard glue dots before, but apparently it’s the stuff that manufacturers use to stick together cartons. They’re pretty much exactly what they sound like, a blob of glue stuck between two bits of release paper. You peel off the paper on one side, stick it down, and rub it down to the mattress quite firmly, trying to smooth out the edges while you do it.
Once that’s done, you peel off the other piece of the release paper.
I had some misgivings about how well the glue would work, and whether it would peel back. After all, the glue was at least a few years old. But it did just fine.
Finally, it’s time to apply the patch.
It’s your basic clear adhesive patch, and the instructions are the usual thing: peel off, handle by the edges, work from the center out, don’t let it wrinkle, call your mother once in a while, etc.
So, one more picture of my hands on a yellow thing.
Well? Did it work?
You betcha!
I blew it up and laid on it in the living room for about a half an hour. No leaks!
Sherrey
Love the “call your mother once in a while”👌