Balloonbed's overall performance and it's Limitations

We now sell balloonbed all over the world and have been delighted with the very positive feedback we have had. Please remember though, it was designed for use by lightweight kit enthusiasts who need their sleeping mat to be as small and as light as possible. The balloonbed should perhaps be considered as merely one step up from either bubble wrap or a thin foam carry-mat. It is not an air bed for camping trips. It's also not really suitable for multi night expeditions or challenges. 

Balloon strength - The balloons are very strong but due to the inconsistencies inherent in the manufacturing process they are not all identical - some are stronger than others. The balloons we supply have not been previously inflated and tested for strength (as condoms are). This means that there is a slight chance balloons may burst the moment you try to inflate them or when you first lie on them - this at least weeds out any weak ones straight away. It's hard to put an exact figure on this but is we recommend you take a few spares with you. Interestingly, some colours of balloons are stronger than others  - we have found that the red 260Q’s are one of the strongest and that's why we use these in the original version. 

You do need to treat the balloons with a certain degree of care. They are not totally ‘bombproof’ and are after all, simply the same balloons that magicians use to make giraffes, swans etc.  It's probably best to use your bed inside the tent because thistles may obviously cause bursts. When we take part in events we tend not to inflate the bed straight away. When you sit on the mat you are putting the balloons under much greater stress. The bed was designed for sleeping on and performs best when your whole body is covering the majority of the balloons – your weight spread over 6 or 7 compartments means that each one has little weight to carry. While you change, brew up, cook food, study your day 1 route etc. it may be best to use your sleeping bag to lie or sit on.

Feedback suggests that tying the balloons can be a vulnerable time for them. There is definitely a knack to knotting and this is aided by careful inflation. We hardly ever get bursts during inflation but then we've practiced it 100's of times. Perhaps the most important single piece of advice we could give, is to hold the end of the balloon close to where it is attached to the pump to prevent this part from inflating. This means that after full inflation a 2-3 cms neck will be formed at the end giving you loads of spare latex to stretch over your fingers to affect a knot. We'll give you loads of advice about this when we send you your bed.

You may feel that the balloonbed has too many limitations but in reality, what can you expect from a bed weighing less than 100g that's made from balloons? If we could produce a bed as durable as a Therm-a-Rest® and as light and as small when packed as a balloonbed we could corner the world market in camping beds. The balloonbed will take up hardly any room in your sack and add hardly any weight and as we said earlier, should only be thought of as one step up from bubble wrap or a thin foam pad. 

As well as using the beds ourselves and finding them a real improvement over a piece of bubble-wrap or a foam carry-mat, we have had very positive feedback from competitors in the LAMM, SLMM and Polaris. Rob Howard at Sleepmonsters gave us a very balanced but overall positive review. Follow the link to Reviews to see what others think about balloonbed. We have confidence in it as a viable product for a niche market of lightweight kit enthusiasts. We do not expect to corner the market in outdoor sleeping mats. Therm-a-Rest® have already done that.

Using some data-logging equipment we carried out a test using a block of ice and 3 temperature sensors. We put one sensor on top of  the ballonbed, one on top of an 8mm closed cell foam carry-mat and the other had no insulation so would rest directly on the ice. Once we placed the whole set up on the ice, we then placed a sleeping bag over everything in order to simulate actual camping conditions. As you can see, they all started off at room temperature but once placed onto the ice the temperatures all went down -  the ballonbed though, faired significantly better than the standard carry mat.

Now, this is all hardly a totally 'fair' test as clearly the balloonbed does become thinner when you lie on it. Also, due to the fact that the air-cells within the balloonbed are quite large some heat is lost through convection.