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Comment by devit | Hacker News Reader

Seems very uncomfortable and only useful if someone really can't afford the $100-300 for a normal camping air or self-inflating pad, which seems miles better than this.

And if you are OK with uncomfortable then a simple closed-cell foam mat, while possibly a bit more expensive, seems far more reliable, durable and cleanable than this.

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Your options are sleeping on a concrete floor (if you're lucky) or more likely dirt... or this bed? This is an amazing option. Is it the bestest life of luxury? Hell no. But your home has been destroyed by a war or disaster and you're lucky to get a warm meal. Now you get a bed? Even if not an amazing bed? It's worlds better than the alternative.

I have a cheap folding metal cot that is likely a significantly better alternative for not much difference in price.

These cardboard beds cost 16-17 euros to produce. There are 100 million displaced people in the world. Your cheap folding metal cot will never be so cheap as to even come close to being a competitor on economic terms.

Why on earth not? Tube steel and canvas are incredibly inexpensive. The article is blatantly lying about the wholesale cost of traditional cots to make their pricing sound reasonable. At even modest bulk quantity, folding metal cots can be obtained on alibaba for $14/ea or less. At humanitarian scales, quite a lot less.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HOMFUL-Hot-Sale-600D-...

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Outdoor-Aluminium-Fol...

The article doesn’t mention how long the cardboard beds are intended to last before being disposed or recycled.

Between the cardboard bed and one of those I know which I’d prefer, and since cost is not actually a factor, I’m not sure what the advantage of the cardboard beds is.

What happens when I click and buy 30000 of these beds?

And it probably lasts 1-3 days a week max before it needs to be replaced. That camping cot will last long enough for the war or disaster to play out which could be years

And any water on them instantly ruins them?

Waterproof sheets exist and pack down quite small for logistics purposes.

That's good for the top of it, what about the bottom, on the cement? If someone spills water, or mops the floor, it will get damaged very easily.

Silly idea IMO - metal framed beds are extremely durable.

And much harder to pack and ship. You could probably fit 1000 cardboard beds in the same volume of a cargo hold as 100 metal cots. Also, there are many local shops who already have the tools to mass-produce cardboard boxes with arbitrary shapes; the same cannot be said of cots.

And as the article explicitly states, these are intended for the first responders, not for long-term infirmary. They don't need to last more than a few days.

I don't think it's 10:1 volume, maybe weight.

"Don't need to last more than a few days" well, maybe not, but they will be used for a while absolutely.

Dirt (in a forest) is a great option by the way (just need an insulation layer because it is cold). Concrete is of course horrible.

People in refugee camps can't spend hundreds of dollars on a bed, not to mention that even if they could, you can't get tens or hundreds of thousands of those short notice.

This can be used with a closed cell foam mat, It's about getting people off the ground in emergency situations where the low cost means the difference between beds for everyone or beds for 10% of them or even less

The specially mentioned refugee camps who often come with no money or supplies and only the clothing on their back. Or disasters where people gather in haste with no access to supplies as infrastructure has been destroyed. The logistics of sending larger mats is also harder. These can be made with existing facilities in any large city and deployed almost immediately. Of course there are better options or even sleeping on the floor would work in a pinch.

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