How to Blow up an Air Mattress

If you have never used an air mattress before, then you might be left wondering how they work, and how you are supposed to inflate one.

Thankfully, the entire process is really straightforward and requires very little work at all. You can use a variety of different methods to do this, and we are going to explain some of the best and most effective ones here in this article. 

Most people will typically use a pump, which we will talk more about further on, but there might also be circumstances where you do not have a pump or a source of electricity available for you to utilize.

Therefore, you are going to have to get creative when it comes to blowing up your air mattress.

If you have a camping trip coming up and you are wondering how on Earth you are going to inflate an air mattress in the middle of a field or forest somewhere, then just keep reading to find out. 

Electric Pump

This isn’t an option that you could opt for if you are camping out in the wild with absolutely no electricity, but it is a great option for those who are going glamping or who need to set one up at home for whatever reason.

Air mattresses do not typically come with an electric pump unless you are specifically buying one that comes as a set, so more often than not, you will have to purchase the pump separately. This is probably the quickest and easiest method of blowing up your air mattress, and it requires hardly any work at all. 

All you have to do is to plug in the electric pump, open the filling hole on the air mattress, and connect the two together.

Once you have done this, all that is left to do is to turn on the electric pump and watch as it works to fill up your air mattress in no time at all.

It typically doesn’t take longer than a minute to fill, but once it feels sturdy enough to sleep on, you can disconnect the pump and close everything back up again.

Foot Pump

This is pretty similar to the first method, but it does require quite a bit more effort than simply standing and watching electricity do its job.

Essentially, this is the manual way to pump up your air mattress while still using a pump, and it shouldn’t take much longer than around ten minutes, depending on how quickly you are able to pump the air in.

The set up for this method is the same for the last one, but this pump will need to be set on the ground and it doesn’t get plugged in.

You will need to step on the pump repeatedly to push the air into the air mattress. The faster that you are able to pump, the quicker the air mattress will be able to fill up. While it shouldn’t take too long, it will be longer than the first method. 

Hair Dryer

If for some reason your electric pump has broken, but you still have access to a supply of electricity, then you will more than likely be able to use a hairdryer to pump up your air mattress.

This will take a little bit longer than it would have done if you were using an electric pump, but it shouldn’t take too long at all.

All you need to do is hold the hairdryer in a way that blows air into the hole of the air mattress, and get it as close to the sal as possible.

The mattress will start to fill up, and you will have a nice and comfortable bed to sleep on in no time. Something that you will need to remember is that you need to use the cold air setting on your hairdryer, as the hot air will only melt the plastic of the mattress.

If your hairdryer does not have a cold setting, then it will not be suitable for this purpose.

Blowing Air

Another, more unfortunate, way of blowing up your air mattress is to do so by using your mouth. This is going to be much more difficult and take much longer, but if it is your only option, then it might be worth giving it a shot.

Of course, you will need to start by opening up the hole on the air mattress, and then you can proceed to blow the air into the mattress using nothing but your mouth and lungs. 

You should be careful when doing this, as you don’t want to end up passing out or making yourself dizzy. If you are going to blow up your air mattress using your mouth, then you should take your time and do it in intervals. It probably isn’t wise to try and do it all in one go as it is going to take more air and effort than you have. 

If you have a single air mattress, then the end result is much more achievable, but for a double mattress, you might want to try and find another alternative.

Using Household Items

Sometimes, we need to get creative to produce the end result that we are looking for, and if you have had no luck with our list so far, then you are going to need to start thinking outside of the box.

One way or another, you will be able to blow up your air mattress, but you might just require some creative thinking. Do you have a leaf blower in the garage that could be of some use to you now? Is there a vacuum in your house that would be suitable for the job? 

Have a look at the tools that you have available and see if any of them could work. There are lots of different things that can produce air, though some more than others, and there is bound to be a solution somewhere. However, you should make sure that any methods you are using are going to be completely safe.