How to care for travel mats — Articles: online store

Com­fort­able sleep is the key to a good rest and the suc­cess of the entire trip. In order for your trav­el mat to last as long as pos­si­ble and remain com­fort­able all the time, it should be reg­u­lar­ly main­tained. How? Read on for easy tips on car­ing for your hik­ing mats.

Storage of a tourist inflatable mat

After each hike, the mat must be thor­ough­ly dried in the open air (at least 24 hours). Avoid long-term stor­age of rugs — espe­cial­ly self-inflat­ing and insu­lat­ed ones — in their cov­ers. Com­pressed foam and insu­la­tion lose their abil­i­ty to restore their orig­i­nal shape over time, they are com­pressed. As a result, their elas­tic­i­ty and ther­mal insu­la­tion per­for­mance are reduced. It is best to store the rug flat or loose­ly rolled in a dry, cool place out of direct sun­light. Open the foot pump valves to release the foam. Do not store the mat inflat­ed.

Cleaning and drying an inflatable, self-inflating mat

To clean the mat, wipe it with a damp cloth. For heavy soil­ing, use a lit­tle deter­gent. Avoid mois­ture get­ting into the valves, keep them closed while clean­ing. Rugs can­not be washed in wash­ing machines.

Dry the rug out­doors in a spread state, do not use a tum­ble dry­er. Dry in a shady place — UV radi­a­tion from direct sun­light short­ens the life of fab­rics.

Repair of inflatable and self-inflating mats

How to seal an inflatable hiking mat?

Holes can be sealed with fab­ric patch­es that come with the mats. Cut out a patch of the required size that com­plete­ly cov­ers the hole. Round off the cor­ners of the patch so they don’t bulge. For bond­ing, use McNett Seam Grip or sim­i­lar (fol­low man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions). You can also use Gear Aid’s Tena­cious Tape patch­es. Clean the dam­aged area, cut the patch to the desired size, remove the pro­tec­tive lay­er from it and glue it.

How to change the valve of an inflatable hiking mat?

If nec­es­sary, the Micro Adjust Valve can also be replaced. Hold­ing the base of the valve, unscrew and pull it out with a pair of pli­ers. Apply a thin lay­er of Super Glue or McNett Seam Grip to the threads of the new valve and insert it into the mat. Allow the adhe­sive to dry com­plete­ly before use (fol­low the man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions).