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Reviews > Sleep Gear > Accessories > FlexAir Travel Pillow > Roger Caffin > Initial Report
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Reviewer Details
| Reviewer: | Roger Caffin |
| Age: | 60 |
| Gender: | M |
| Weight: | 63 kg (139 lb) |
| Height: | 167 cm (66") |
| Email address: | r dot [surname] at acm dot org |
| Home: | Sydney, Australia |
I started bushwalking at 14 and took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became my wife and my permanent walking partner. Ski touring and canyoning followed. Winter and summer, we prefer long hard trips by ourselves: about a week in Australia, up to two months in Europe/UK. We prefer fast and light in unfrequented trackless country. We would be out walking and skiing for at least three months a year. We have now moved to lightweight gear, much to our backs' relief. I designed and made much of our lightweight gear myself.
I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.
Product Information
| Manufacturer: | Little Rapids Corporation | www.flexair.com | |
| Year of manufacture: | assumed 2006 | ||
| Country of manufacture: | assumed America | ||
| Model | Mfr size | Measured size | Measured wt |
| Standard | 10.5" x 14.5" (267 x 368 mm) | 10.2" x 14.2" (260 x 360 mm) | 0.63 oz (17.7 g) |
| Airline | 12.5" x 19" (318 x 482 mm) | 12.2" x 18.8" (310 x 480 mm) | 0.89 oz (25.3 g) |
| Double compartment | na | 12.5" x 18.2" (316 x 462 mm) | 1.15 oz (32.7 g) |
| Material: | Non-woven flocked synthetic (plastic) | ||
| Colour: | White | ||
| MSRP: | not stated | ||
| Review Date: | 10-May-2006 | ||
Notes re specifications
Product Details
The letter which came with the pillows explained their origin: pillows for ambulances. Reading between the lines, it would seem that many expensive ambulance pillows were 'disappearing' at too high a rate, and this created a market opportunity. The company is now 'testing the market' to see what other consumer areas might be interested. Full marks to them for selecting BackpackGearTest for this!
The letter explained how to inflate and deflate the pillow: the straw is not necessary, but does make it easier. Other methods were mentioned.
An interesting observation from the letter was that the different sorts of pillows - one and two compartments, may be suited to different sleeping positions. Clearly, there is a lot of scope for testing here.
The writer suggested wrapping the pillow in a T-shirt or similar 'to make the experience more comfortable and quiet'. Well, my previous experience with other air bags as pillows has certainly highlighted the noise they can make, so the author gets credit for making the suggestion up front. On the other hand, the non-woven layer on the outside may muffle the noise a bit: testing required.
Initial Impressions
The material seems to be a fairly standard but quite thin non-woven synthetic bonded over a layer of plastic film. It is reminiscent of modern hospital practice - which figures. The non-woven surface makes a tolerable contact surface for a face, while the plastic film retains the air. How well the surface of the pillow will survive when I sleep on it for a number of nights is at present very much an unknown. Will it get seriously greasy, wear down to a smooth surface, start shedding loose ends everywhere - all these need to be monitored.
The material does seem reasonably strong. Some packaging air bags I have also tested as pillows were much lighter than the FlexAir pillows, being designed as one-shot packaging items. The life of the packaging airbags was a bit of an open question. The FlexAir pillows look as though they should last longer. I will have to monitor the FlexAir fabric itself, the welds around the edges and the valves. However, these are made to be used as pillows, after all, while the others were just disposable packing.
The three sizes supplied seem to cover a fair range of requirements, so it will be interesting to compare them. I think I am going to have to sleep on these at home as well as on trips to get enough experience with them.
A recent addition to the company's line is the model with two compartments. In theory this might limit the amount of head rolling. Will my head nestle comfortably in the gap between the two, or will I find the single-chamber pillow better? The double compartment design features two narrow tubes: would the design be better if the dividing line went the other way?
On hot nights I tend to leave sweat and skin grease on my pillows at home. How fast will I 'contaminate' this fabric? Is the fabric (and the pillow) washable when I get home? It might be better if I wrap the pillow in some other fabric, as recommended. How much material is needed over the pillow to make for a really comfortable night, and what sort of material is best?
As mentioned above, I have tried other air bags as pillows, and a major problem with the ones I tried was that they allowed, even encouraged, my head to roll around and fall off the pillow. This problem did not lead to a good night's sleep. These FlexAir pillows are bigger and may need less inflation to give the right height: will that help control the roll? Also, those other air bags made quite a crinkly noise when I moved, and that tended to wake my wife up. She would then poke me and tell me to be still. I dare say my wife will let me know what she thinks of the noise these ones make. [See below for this!]
Field Report
This test did not go into Field Testing with the author. After about half an hour of use in bed at home it became obvious that I would not be able to take these pillows on walking trips for testing, nor could I even continue to test them at home. They made considerable noise whenever I moved my head or my body, and my wife found she was being woken continuously. I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that this was not acceptable. The pillows were therefore passed on to another Tester, Ralph Ditton.
