Four season camping isn’t for everyone but if you enjoy braving the cold weather to be outdoors the NeoAir All Season SV mattress is compact, warm and comfy. The NeoAir features Therm-a-Rest’s SpeedValve technology that makes it easy to inflate your mattress without the aid of a pump or CO2 cartridge.
Keeping your body off the ground is key for keeping the cold from creeping in on you and your slumber. But mornings can be chilly, doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be a 4-Season camper to consider one. Combine the NeoAir with the LuxuryLite Mesh Cot for the perfect sleeping apparatus.
Specs
The NeoAir All Season SV comes in any color you like as long as it’s Gecko Green. It is designed with 50d mini Hex Rip Polyester Top Fabric and 75d Polyester Bottom Fabric. Measures 20″ W x 72″ L and weighs 23oz. Multiple layers of ThermaCapture technology reflect body heat and baffled construction help to retain heat.
No Pump Required
Depending on how firm you like your air mattress to be, you can always undo the SpeedValve and blow more air inside. Do not try and bunch up the end and blow into it like your trying to blow up your brown paper bag, instead blow into the opening from a about 4 to 6 inches away. The SpeedValve uses physics or more specifically what’s known as Bernoulli’s Principle of fluid dynamics to make it all work.
“When you blow into the valve from several inches away, your breath sends fast-moving, low-pressure air through the neck of the mattress, causing the static, high-pressure air outside the mattress to rush in to equalize the pressure.”
Inflating the NeoAir
It’s super easy to use, unpack/unroll the NeoAir flat, open the SpeedValve blow and close to push air into the main cavity of the mattress and repeat. Blow a couple of last breathes into the opening and roll it up and use the attached clips to secure the SpeedValve closed. The process is very quick and you’ll be good to go within a few minutes.
The inner flap on the SpeedValve discourages the air from flowing back out while your inflating it. After a few breaths you can choose to partially roll up the opening if you need a break. It doesn’t take much to inflate the mattress, so don’t hyper ventilate. With a tiny bit of practice we’re able to firmly inflate the mattress in just a few minutes.
When using the SpeedValve for the first time you might feel awkward and like it’s not working, it is. The first couple of times try it out at home. Even if it feels like it’s not working, just go through the motions.
Therm-a-Rest suggests to blow from about 4 to 6 inches away, for us it was about 4 inches or slightly less. You’ll need a breath strong enough to penetrate the open inner flap/bladder. It worked best for us with the mattress fully layed flat and kneeling next to it. Make sure to double check that the plastic release valve is turned to it’s closed position or you’ll be getting nowhere fast.
Once you’ve gotten enough air inside, you’ll want to fold the SpeedValve collar tightly over itself 7x as per the instructions. Ours folded up 6x. The closing action of the SpeedValve will also help to compress the air a bit and give you a little more fullness.
Packing it up
When packing up, twist the release valve to let the air escape. Also open the SpeedValve and roll it up full width first, the inner flap/open bladder will reverse itself and stick out of the neck. Once you’ve exhausted the air inside, unroll the NeoAir All Season SV flat again and then begin to fold it neatly into 3rds length-wise.
Once it’s in thirds, tightly roll the entire thing up like a sleeping bag, then you can tuck it away neatly into your stuff sack. As with any packable camping gear, the tighter and neater you roll it up, the easier it will be to put it back in the stuff sack.
The only drawback we found is that OMG is it noisy. There’s a pretty prominent crinkle factor with the ThermaCapture. The multiple reflective thermal layers create lots of noise with every movement. The noise that emits may be disturbing to any neighbors. Most camp grounds have plots within spitting distance so bare this in mind. Update: Therm-a-rest suggests that the noise factor reduces as the mattress gets broken in a bit. This does seem to be the case as the noise has already reduced a bit.
Conclusion
The redesigned for 2017 NeoAir All Season SV Mattress is lightweight, warm and comfortable. It will help enhance your camping trip and keep you just a little more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed out in the field. The NeoAir features a patented SpeedValve design that allows you to inflate the mattress with no pump required!
Therm-A-Rest NeoAir All Season SV Mattress – $159.95 – $179.95
