This is because the air pressure inside the airbeams can increase in hot weather and decrease in cold weather.
However if there are large changes in temperature, there is a risk of slight deflation or over-inflation (and potential bursting). We’ve found that once the inflatable tent is pumped up and the air valves are correctly closed and capped off that the tent will happily stay up for a week’s holiday without further air being needed. We’ve had some success using a battery-powered pump in the past, but again you need to check that you can get a converter valve for your particular airbeam tent.
Pumping of an individual airbeam should not take more than a minute or two, but it can get quite tiring if you have 4 or 5 pipes to inflate. One slight problem is that different manufacturers often design their own valve systems for their range of airbeam tents – this means that you often have to use their specific pump for their tents. One obvious area of difference between pole and airbeam tents is the requirement of a pump to inflate an air tent. To all intents and purposes, their weights are quite similar though and we don’t feel this is a significant differentiator. The pole version weighs 17.6kg and the airbeam version is 19.7kg – a difference of 2.1kg. In terms of packed weight, the airbeam tents are often very slightly heavier by a few kg than the equivalent pole tent – for example the well known Kampa Hayling 4 tent comes in both pole and airbeam versions. We feel that the ease of use outweighs the slightly higher cost. It is true that the inflatable tents are typically slightly more expensive than their pole-based siblings, but the price differential is reducing as the technology gets more mature. It can also require quite alot of strength to secure the bent pole using a pin anchor at each end.Īirbeam tents certainly have less bits in the bag to lose, and are often backed up by a lifetime guarantee against leaks and punctures – however, repairs are fairly easy to fix yourself – think of a bike puncture repair kit. Pole tents on the other hand require a process of a) searching through a bag for the folded poles, b) unfolding the poles (often many metres in length) and then c) painstakingly threading them through the tent before trying to bend them and secure them into shape. This is because the inflatable struts come ready-integrated into the body of the tent and simply require the attachment of a pump to a valve on each airbeam. Perhaps the most important advantage of ‘airbeam’ tents is that they can be set up more quickly and easily than pole tents. Advantages and Disadvantages of Inflatable Tents
In this article we outline the main considerations to look for when choosing the best inflatable tent to cater for your particular needs. The old ‘bendy pole technology’ which could sometimes be fiddly to set up for large family tents (not to mention the risk of pole-snapping) is slowly getting superseded by tents using easy-to-inflate air pipes instead. The times have been changin’ in the world of tents in recent years.
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