Exped Schnozzel Pumpbag

This is a great multipurpose backpacking accessory for use with Exped sleeping Pads. Worth every penny of the cost.

I bought one of these to go with my DownMat 7 mat. I had to buy a small adaptor so the connectors of this bag would fit onto the built-in pump of the Downmat 7. You may ask, if it already has a built-in pump why would you buy this accessory and add weight and bulk to your setup? Two reasons, ease and speed of inflation and dry bag stuff sack for my down mummy bag.

First the pump function. This bag connects, via adapter in my scenario, to the Exped mats very easily. Then all you do is open the bag up so it is "inflated" like a balloon, close the top, and roll the air into the mat. I have an XS size mat and it literally only takes two bag fulls of air and it is completely full! It is WAY faster than using the built-in pump and much less effort too, and after a long day of hiking it is worth every penny!

Second it doubles as an extremely lightweight dry bag/stuff sack for my 20 degree 800 fill power down mummy bag. My bag (Exped Waterbloc 600) fits easily in the Schnozzel bag with some room to spare. It keeps it nice and dry and since I open up my mummy bag to loft when I also want to inflate my mat it works out great. I can also use it as a dirty clothes bag if it's a short trip and I'm NOT moving from place to place (requiring me to use it as a pump again).

The material is very thin and light and seems like it would be easily punctured, but after about 5 trips it is holding up just fine. Still I'm careful not to put any jagged or pointy items next to it in my pack. Normally it goes in the sleeping bag compartment which is separate in my Osprey pack. The tube at the bottom of the bag works as a relief valve when compressing the mummy bag inside of it.  

It is the one frustration I have because of how the tube attaches to the larger bag. It makes it hard to force the air out of this small tube (about 2" diameter). I think I'd just make the whole bag taper down to a point where the Schnozzle can connect to the mat. This would make it much easier to push air out of the bag when trying to compress your sleeping bag inside it and probably easier to push air into the mat too.

Having said that, I would still buy this again and again because of the ease and speed of using it as a pump. It really is ingenious. If I was an engineer I'd make adapters for this thing for every brand of sleeping mat out there, they would sell like hotcakes and Exped wouldn't be able to keep this Schnozzel bag in stock!