Flextail Max Pump 3

Disclosure: Although I received this pump at no charge in exchange for social media content, in no other way am I compensated by Flextail. I do not receive commission for any affiliate links or discount codes associated with my social media accounts. This review is based on my personal experience with this product over the last year.

Flextail has become a fairly well-known brand in the outdoor tech industry, specifically for their wide and ever-evolving range of rechargeable air pumps. The Max Pump 3 is one such iteration, blending their well-known inflation power with an equally powerful lantern. For me, any piece of camping equipment that serves a dual purpose is alright in my books. This pump checks that box!

Product Information

I’m not going to go into great detail about the pump specs or how many sleeping pads it can inflate, as all that information can easily be found online. What I will discuss is my real-world experience with it. The number of sleeping pads it inflates matters very little as this device is not designed to do just that, and that number will change drastically depending on the size of the sleeping pad you are inflating and the amount of time the lantern is operating. So really, this metric is completely useless and could result in disappointment for the user.

The Pump

There’s not too much you can say about the pump. It does what it’s supposed to do. It inflates sleeping pads (it’s not half bad at inflating whitewater float bags, too). Most of my experience with this pump though, is with the Eureka Green River Air Pad and its big brother, the queen-sized Rio Grande (the latter of which inflates shy of 2 minutes). 

The pump comes with an assortment of ends to fit various sleep pads. If the stars align and you can find a perfect match with your sleeping pad, hands-free use is possible. It’s not quiet. I didn’t expect it to be. It’s not unbearably loud either and for the short period of time it’s going to be running, it’s worth sacrificing a few brief moments of solitude. Compared to a little bit of swearing and a whole lot of sweating, I’ll take it!

The Light

This thing is bright. Almost to a fault according to some owners. I, for one, appreciate the brightness. I've seen many complaints that the bright white light is just too bright for many users and that they would much prefer it to be a softer warm light or that it had a diffused lens that is easier on the eyes. It seems Flextail has listened to these reviews as several newer products that have been released recently have done exactly that (the Tiny Repeller S, Tiny Pump 3X and Zero Lantern all offer a more subdued ambient light lantern mode). 

That ultra bright white light came in very handy for a fall trip though, where daylight hours were short and dinner prep was happening in the dark most days. That being said, on the highest setting, you’re likely to drain the battery completely in 3-4 hours (accurate to the website). Still pretty reasonable if you ask me, just make sure to inflate your sleeping pad first. This, of course, is an extreme use case. On the lowest setting you could see up to an 11 hour runtime.

Charging

For longer trips or heavy use, you’ll want a means for charging the pump. Most of us bring power banks or solar panels into the backcountry now as almost all battery powered camping equipment runs on rechargeable batteries (gone are the days of fighting AAA batteries out of my Petzl headlamp!). Flextail also has a line of power banks here. I have not tried them yet. 

The pump comes with a small USB-C cord. Make sure any power source you have uses this connection. I remembered the hard way that my secondary power bank doesn’t have a USB-C connection...maybe time for a new one?!

Other Notables

• The pump is also capable of deflating. I have not had a use for this feature, but it could be handy if your air pad does not purge air easily (foam core - does anyone still use those torture devices??)

• The pump also comes in handy as a bellows if you’re having difficulty starting a fire (it works pretty well lighting my charcoal BBQ too!)

• The carabiner clip makes it easy to hang from multiple attachment points and it also comes with a tripod adapter.

Conclusion

A battery powered pump is not for everyone. Many people will argue that a stuff sack pump can do the job equally as fast, it’s lighter, quieter, and it won’t run dead when you need it. I can agree on all those talking points. Where this product excels is for high volume use. Think families with multiple sleeping pads to inflate, whitewater trippers with float bags that may need to be inflated at a remote put-in (or possibly inflated again after a patch job). For me, it was an easy decision as I was looking to replace an old cheap lantern with something a little brighter and more robust. A product that checked that box and then made my least favourite camp chore a breeze (ha-ha) was a win. 

It hasn’t let me down in the last year I have been using it and I don’t expect it will any time soon!