Welcome to our FAQ page!
Our system is available for weekly rentals with a minimum rental term of 4 weeks. If you decide to keep the system at the end of the rental period, the rental amount paid can be applied to the purchase price. Rentals begin when you receive the system and end when you return it to us (you do not pay for transit time in either direction). The rental system comes with exactly the same equipment as a purchased system.
Users experience a 4% improvement in recovery times when sleeping at elevation. Once you're acclimatized to your sleeping elevation, this becomes that baseline. Then, when you're awake and at your ambient elevation, you're in a hyperoxic state because your physiology is adjusted to the higher elevation. That means improved recovery scores.
Our web store allows for automated shipments within the USA and Canada. If you'd like to ship outside of North America, please
contact us and we can arrange that for you.
Mountain Air Cardio is geared towards athletes and mountaineers looking to improve their cardio performance.
Mountain Air Health is geared towards those looking to lose weight. The products from either website are in fact identical and trigger the same physiological responses (improved cardio, increased metabolism, reduced appetite, and weight loss). MountainAir
® is a registered trademark and refers to the branding of the product.
One of the best aspects of our system is that once it is set up, it takes no more time away from you. It isn’t ‘one more thing’ that needs to be scheduled, fit in, or made into a daily habit. Once the decision is made to adopt the MountainAir® system, no other physical or mental energy is wasted trying to make yourself live up to the commitment – that happens all by itself by simply going to bed. If you're training for an event or an expedition, we recommend a minimum of 4 weeks (good), 6 weeks (better), or 8 weeks (best) of sleeping at elevation for best results.
In addition to slowly ramping up the initial elevation, the automated controller (PAT PEND) monitors oxygen, temperature, and humidity levels within the tent and makes adjustments as needed. It also logs your daily usage and elevations achieved. The controller is the ‘special sauce’ of the system and is critical to the safe, comfortable, and effective use of MountainAir
®. Please visit the Apple App Store to download the Mountain Air Health companion app:
Click here for Apple App Store
People with the following conditions should not use MountainAir®: hard-to-control hypertension, heart failure, anemia, symptomatic coronary disease, obesity hyperventilation syndrome, severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), cardiac arrhythmia, lung disease, sickle cell disease, patients who require oxygen therapy, or women who are or who may be pregnant. Users should seek their own professional counsel for any medical condition or before starting any elevation training plan.
Yes! If the system were to fail while you were using it, the tent would slowly revert to whatever your ambient elevation is. The automated controller monitors environmental parameters once per second and if anything is out of specification, the air unit is automatically shut down. This is the only safe and effective way to sleep at elevation.
With our system, you increase the elevation gradually over a 1-2 week period so users have time to adjust and do not experience mountain sickness. In contrast, if you go to a higher elevation rapidly (such as flying from a coastal city to a Colorado ski area), some travelers experience headaches, nausea, and other symptoms. This is because the body has not had time to adjust to the higher elevation. However, over a gradual period, your cardio capacity increases, and symptoms are avoided.
Definitely! Many of our customers use our system to improve their cardio performance before a mountain trip. We recommend a minimum of 4 weeks (good), 6 weeks (better), or 8 weeks (best) of sleeping in an altitude tent prior to your trip.
Inside the tent, the system produces a sound level of approximately 40 dBA @ 1m which is approximately equal to the noise of a small desk fan. The air separation unit itself runs at approximately 55 dBA @ 1m so we recommend that it be installed in an adjacent room or hallway. MountainAir® ships with a 25-foot length of air hose to allow for this. The low noise levels inside the tent are thanks to our silencer installed at the end of the air hose.
It's different for everyone, but a good rule of thumb is that the beneficial effects of sleeping at elevation will wear off over about a 2-week period in a roughly linear fashion.
Yes! You can provide your coach or trainer with your MountainAir login credentials. They will then be able to view your past two weeks' history. They will be able to see how high you went each night and for how long and can then incorporate this data into your training program.
The temperature inside the tent is approximately 5-10° higher than ambient air. Our tents stay cooler and less humid than older systems because fresh air is continually drawn into the tent.
Our systems can be set up in under an hour by the average user. It's useful to have a second person to assist with the initial tent setup. We also offer telephone support during mountain time office hours at the number shown on our
contact page.
No. MountainAir® operates on a normal household plug and consumes approximately 5 amps (less than a toaster). With typical usage of 7-8 hours/day, this works out to an electricity bill increase of approximately $15-$30/month depending on your local electric costs.
MountainAir® is sturdy and reliable and comes with a 12-month warranty against manufacturer’s defects.
There is very little maintenance required for the air separation unit. A small filter is changed after the first year of operation or roughly 3,000 hours based on average usage of 8 hours per day. There is also an inlet filter that can be manually cleaned twice per month. There is no major maintenance required until 10,000 hours of service (3-4 years of using the system each night). The system automatically senses the number of operating hours and will email you a reminder when you reach each service interval.
You may want to get your iron levels checked prior to starting an elevation training program. Healthy iron levels are required to achieve the desired hemoglobin mass increase and increase in red blood cell count.
No. Everyone responds quite differently and physical fitness is not necessarily a good predictor of how a person's physiology adapts to altitude. In fact, there are even a few people who are "non-responders" and find it difficult to adjust to altitude even after prolonged exposure. That said, most people are "responders" who adapt well to altitude, especially after a 4-6 week exposure. The graph below will give you an idea as to the range of responses among different people.
No. MountainAir® is considered a wellness device.
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The statements made on this website are not intended to be a substitute for individualized, professional medical advice.
Users should seek their own professional counsel for any medical condition or before starting any altitude simulation plan.
Mountain Air Health products are not FDA Certified and should be considered a wellness product.