Whether at home or on the move, best air beds provide affordable and comfortable sleeping solutions. And given their compact and light weight nature when not inflated, air mattresses offer the most convenient option for campers and overnight guests.
Trust me, you’ll find them life-saving if you’ve ever slept on them while away from home.
So, what’s the best way to deflate your air bed once you’re all done? While there are less conventional ways to get this done, using a pump makes the process faster and smoother. Here’s how to deflate your air bed with a pump the right way.
Prepare the Air Bed for deflation
It’s very important to remember that air beds usually pack a lot of air under high pressure to support your weight. So first off, you’re going to want to respect the power of air and make sure your air bed if secured on the floor or hard surface.
If you have any pillows, toppers, duvet covers, blankets or any beddings, go ahead and remove them immediately. You’ll also want to make sure there are no fragile items such as glasses, computers, or phones on the bed.
Now, the next step might sound as simple as letting air out of your mattress to flatten it. However, the method of deflation will largely depend on the type of mattress you own and the pump that it relies on. Either way, this guide step by step guide covers it all.
A: Deflating an Air Bed with a built-in pump
The great thing about air beds with built in pumps is that they are already designed to provide effortless deflation and inflation. Unlike other types, these don’t have any valves or openings for external connections. So if you own one of those, then you’re in luck because pumping the air out will be a breeze (pun intended).
Step I – Identify the inflate or deflate buttons that are usually located right near the built in pump. If there are no buttons, then there should be a switch marked with the minus or zero sign.
Step II – Flip the deflate switch. Once that’s done, the built in pump will start sucking out air of the mattress until it’s completely flat. Depending on the brand and pump power, the deflation process could take anywhere between 30 seconds to 4 minutes.
B: Deflating an Air Bed with a separate pump
Some types of mattresses don’t necessarily come with luxury of a built in pump. If you own one of these, you’ll need to get your hands on an external pump to make the deflation as quick and effortless as possible.
Step I – Identify the correct opening. Most air beds without built in pumps usually come with two very distinct pump openings. One is narrow for blowing air into the mattress while the other opening is wider to suck air out.
Step II – Attach the external pump to the air bed using the wider opening. This wider airway is solely designed to suck out lots of air from the mattress for faster deflation. Make sure the nozzle is tightly secured to avoid any mishaps.
Step III – Switch on the pump to begin the deflation process. The pump will immediately start sucking out air and should be done in a couple of minutes. If you want to speed thing s along even more, you could get someone to lie on the air mattress and apply pressure for even faster deflation.
Deflating Air Beds without a pump
So, what do you do when you want to deflate your air bed but no pump is around? Simple, use the conventional way of deflating your air mattress of course. All you have to do is open the wider deflating valve and place as much weight as you can on the air mattress. Keep applying pressure until the mattress goes flat. However, this will take very long and won’t get all the air out.
Final word
Now that you’ve made it to the end of the segment, we trust that you won’t have any more trouble deflating your air bed. If it comes with a built-in pump, then the deflation process is already super easy. The only drawback with built in pumps is that they usually render the mattress less portable and unsuitable for outdoor use. Air beds without built in pumps might also take more effort to deflate, but they’re cheaper and far more portable.
