When you’re camping, having a friend or family member over to spend the night, or you are simply looking for a convenient place to crash, an air mattress is a way to go. Air beds are a handy solution that is comfortable for sleeping and typically compresses to a fraction of their full size, which makes them highly portable and incredibly convenient.
Whether you’ve chosen a mattress-compatible pump or you are planning on using tools you have on hand, inflating an air bed is as simple as pushing air into it and keeping it there.
That’s why in today’s article, we’ll teach you how to inflate an air bed and what are the different ways you can do so.
How to inflate an air bed?
In recent years air mattresses have been rapidly growing in popularity, and one of the common errors people make is thinking all options can be pumped up by mouth. However, this isn’t true, and it’s a total waste of breathing, even if you could pump it up with your mouth.
Many people buy air mattresses but forget to purchase a pump or forget to bring it with you on your camping trip. That’s why to save you the panic, we will show you five easy ways to inflate a bed without the need for a pump.
Blow Dryer
If you are planning on using a blow drier to inflate your mattress, you should make sure it’s set to cold. Hot air coming from a hairdryer can permanently damage and melt the valve and airbed material, which is the worst result you can get.
After you’ve set the cold feature, you can place the nozzle against the valve opening of the bed and turn it on. If you’ve purchased a product with a one-way valve, it should allow the air to flow automatically into the air mattress to inflate it. However, you might need to pinch a two-way valve open for the air to flow through freely.
Understand that this process isn’t as effective or fast as using an actual electric pump, but it will allow you to inflate an airbed to almost maximum capacity, which is great for emergencies and unexpected situations.
Garbage Bag
Another way you can inflate a bed is by using a garbage bag with air by swooping it through the air and creating a big bubble inside.
Start by quickly closing the open end in your hand to prevent the air from escaping. Then open the centre to match the size of the valve and then place the bag over the valve. After that, you can squeeze the air from the bag into the mattress.
The best way to do this activity is to lay it flat on the ground and then lie on the air-filled trash bag in order to squeeze the air faster.
However, it would be best if you kept in mind that this is a process that might take longer, as you’ll need to repeat the process until the bed is fully inflated. The method is ideal for camping as you don’t have access to electrical outlets.
Vacuum Cleaner
If your plan is to use a vacuum cleaner for inflation, you’ll need one that has a reverse function, enabling it to blow air rather than suck.
You can do so by removing the bag from the vacuum and placing the pipe in the hole that the bag would normally be attached to, which should force it to blow instead of suck.
All you have to do is place the vacuum nozzle or end of the set pipe over the valve and let the airflow into the mattress. By using this method, your bed should inflate very quickly with very little effort on your end.
This is a hands-on solution that can be quick and easy, but it’s not very practical when you are in the great outdoors, as the chances of you having a blow dryer are very low.
Leaf Blower
If you are at home and you have access to your tools and gadgets, using a leaf blower over the valve and allowing the air to fill the airbed might be an easy solution to your problems.
Keep in mind that this is a slower process compared to the vacuum cleaner but still faster than both the garbage bag and the blow dryer.
Most likely, you won’t have a leaf blower on hand when camping in the wilderness, so this is a method that will only work for at-home circumstances.
Use Your Lungs
To be honest, this is probably the least effective, time-consuming and tiresome method you can choose. However, you can still try it by taking a deep breath and then breathing the air from your lungs into the air mattress.
You’ll have to repeat it until the bed is inflated, which takes forever. Be careful and take breaks while inflating in order to prevent hyperventilation.
Bottom line
In general, there are two options, mattresses are either self-inflatable or need blowing up manually. Let’s be honest even the thinnest mat can use up all your lung power, so we strongly recommend spending more to get one that inflates fast without too much effort.
Pumps can either be manual or electric, with foot pumps you can get tried, whereas with automatic ones you don’t have to do anything and the job will be done in a couple of minutes. Take a look at the battery-operated or electric pumps and see if they need to be bought separately or if they are included.
Finally, if you don’t have a pump, use one of the ways we’ve mentioned above to fill your bed with air in no time!
We hope we were able to answer the how and why when it comes down to ‘How to inflate an air bed?’ and now it’s our turn to hear from you if any questions regarding the subject were left unanswered. If you want to share some information, we would gladly hear about it in the comments below.