Published June 30, 2026 12:20PM
Since its release two years ago, Alpenglow Gear’s Alpenblow Micro Inflator has amassed a dedicated following among lightweight backpackers. The device, which is about the size of a half-dollar coin and weighs just 8.5 grams, plugs into a cell phone or power bank and can inflate most sleeping pads in a little over a minute. As a luxury item, it punches far above its weight.
In July, Alpenglow is releasing an updated version of the gadget that adds on a little more weight and a lot more uses. Besides inflating (and deflating) sleeping pads, the new Alpenblow Lux is a lantern with four different modes and a white noise machine with multiple settings, all in a 13.7-gram package. Backpacker got a chance to put the Alpenblow Lux to the test before release day. Here’s what we thought.
Transcript
Blowing up my sleeping pad is probably my least favorite camp chore. After a long day on the trail, the last thing I want to do is be bent over my sleeping pad, blowing it up with lung power, or wrestling with one of those inflation sacks. I know, I know, they’ve been around for years now, they’re standard, I still struggle with them.
So, the device we’re going to talk about today is a little gadget designed for people like me who really hate blowing up their sleeping pads.
This is the Alpenblow Lux. It is the newest version of the Alpenblow, the lightest sleeping pad inflator on the market. It’s a really neat gadget, weighs barely anything, and it can really smooth out your routine when it comes to getting your camp set up.
If you’re not familiar with the Alpenblow, it was the invention of a thru-hiker named Gadget who did the PCT in 2023. It hit the market in November 2024, and even in just a year and change, it’s become really popular. We’ve had more than one thru-hiker tell us this year that it was an indispensable piece of gear during their hike. It’s only about a third of an ounce. It weighs about the same, the company says, as two nickels.
So this year, Alpenglow is coming out with a new version of the Alpenblow called the Alpenblow Lux. It’s slightly heavier, just under half an ounce, that’s about one nickel more than the original one, if you’re keeping track, but it has a couple interesting new functions that really justify that little bit of extra weight.
It’s a really simple design. It doesn’t have a battery of its own. Instead, it plugs into your phone or your power bank and uses the charge from there.
The company says it’s about twice as powerful as the original. I wasn’t able to test them side-by-side because I don’t have one of the originals, but I did try it out with one of the mats in my collection. I pulled out a Big Agnes Air Core Ultra, which is a pretty thick, rectangular pad. I plugged in the Alpenblow and it inflated it in about a minute and a half to a point where I could sleep on it.
The Alpenblow will let you know when it’s done inflating your mat and it’s not able to add any more air because the lights on it will actually start to blink. I think most people, especially if you like a firmer mat, are probably going to want to add a breath or two to get it to the firmness they like, but you could totally sleep on it just the way it ended up.
Unlike the original Alpenblow, the Alpenblow Lux can also deflate your pad. So if you don’t want to spend a bunch of time squeezing the air out of it, you just reverse it, add the adapter to the other side here, and turn it on, and it’ll kind of suck all the air out of your pad, which is a really handy feature. Not necessary, but nice to have.
So that’s the core function of the Lux. It does what the original Alpenblow did, just a little faster and a little better. But there are a couple more features on this that I think are worth mentioning.
First of all, Alpenglow has added a lighting mode. This now functions as a reading light as well. You can set it to low, medium, or high brightness. It puts out this nice, warm yellow light that’s going to be a lot more comfortable at bedtime for most people than a normal headlamp’s cold light.
The Lux also comes with something called the lantern leash, which is basically a rubber band that holds the reading light to your water bottle, compatible with a lot of popular water bottle brands. It would also work with a Smartwater bottle really well, and that kind of turns it into a lantern by scattering the light and softening it.
There’s one more trick that the Lux has, which is it also functions as a white noise machine. There are two additional settings. One of them runs the fan at 40% to use as a white noise machine if you need to drown out other people or something like that. There’s also an ocean waves setting, which is really neat. It varies the fan speed to make it sound like waves.
So there’s one more thing we have to talk about, which is weight. I’ve already mentioned that this gadget is really light. But anytime you’re talking about a piece of gear that isn’t absolutely necessary, people want to know how the weight stacks up.
Well, one interesting thing about this is it’s actually a bit lighter than the inflation sacks that most companies make. The Big Agnes Pumphouse sack, for example, which they sell, is just shy of 3 ounces. This is something like 1/6 of that weight. So it really, even compared to less technological solutions, doesn’t weigh very much at all.
Could you just blow up your pad with lung power? Sure you could, but generally you’re adding moisture to the inside of your pad when you do that. That can lead to mildew, and besides being really gross, that can compromise the insulation in your pad, which is why brands have started adding things like inflation sacks to their pads when they sell them.
So, who is the Alpenblow Lux for? Well, I’m going to add a caveat here that I’ve just started testing it, but so far I could see an argument for this being for anyone who uses an inflatable pad, especially if you usually camp with a really plush one. It saves a lot of aggravation at camp time. It’s not necessary, but it is nice to have, and at this really low weight and with these extra features, I think it’s a really good addition to your pack.
