My Life Outdoors

Cascade Designs, the parent company of MSR, Therm-a-Rest, Platypus, and SealLine, announced a new all-season NeoAir mattress. In 2009 the Therm-a-Rest three-season NeoAir won acclaim due to two new technologies: a multi-layer Reflective Barrier and Triangular Core Matrix. These technologies are said to dramatically boost warmth by minimizing thermal heat transfer. The Reflective Barrier radiates heat back to the user while reducing conductive heat loss to the ground. The Triangular Core Matrix technology utilizes hundreds of individual cells to restrict movement of warm air in the mattress, effectively limiting convective heat loss. The matrix of cells also creates an internal truss system making the NeoAir the most stable non-self-inflating air mattresses avalible.

Therm-a-rest recently announced a second mattress the NeoAir Trecker which utilizes the Triangular Core Matrix but leaves out the Reflective Barrier in exchange for an advanced fiberless insulation. Down and fiber-based insulation is useless when wet. If you blow your mattress up with your mouth the moisture from your breath wets the insulation. Fiberless insulation allows the user to manually inflate (use your mouth to blow it up) without worrying about exhalation moisture reducing insulation.

Both the original NeoAir and the NeoAir Trekker are limited (by designation only) to three-season use. The best I can tell the New NeoAir utilizes all the technologies above (Reflective Barrier, Triangular Core Matrix, and fiberless insulation) to create the lightest, warmest, all-Season air mattress on the market. Well…its not on the market yet. The new NeoAir should be available sometime in July 2011. 

No word on how light or how warm the mattress will actually be. The original and Trekker NeoAir mattress are 14 oz and 1 lb 4 oz respectfully. 

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