Air Mattresses

Air Mattresses in plain terms

Height is the figure that decides how a guest sleeps, and it does more than anything else on the spec sheet. There are two here, 18 inches and 20. Both put the surface at ordinary bed height, so getting up is a normal movement rather than a push off the floor, and both give a fitted sheet enough depth to grip rather than snapping off a corner at two in the morning. The 20-inch beds simply have more air under the sleeper, which is what you feel on the second night rather than the first.

The footprints are set to standard mattress sizes: 75 by 39 for the twin, 75 by 54 for the full, 80 by 60 for the queen, 80 by 76 for the king and 84 by 72 for the California king. That matters more on an air bed than on a real one, because household sheets are the ones that will actually be used and a bed an inch under standard will not hold them. Weight limits climb with size, from 400 pounds on the twin to 850 on the king and California king.

The pump is built in across the range and runs from a wall socket, taking roughly three minutes to fill on the 18-inch beds and four to five on the largest. Powered deflation is the underrated half of that: an air bed that has to be knelt on to force the air out is an air bed that quietly stops being used after the second visit. Two models step outside that pattern: one adds a wide velour headboard with a gap for a pillow, and one ships with a removable machine-washable microfiber fitted sheet, deep-pocketed and elasticated, over coil-beam support and a charging port in the pump housing.

Common questions