Purchasing a camping air bed can make your camping experience infinitely more comfortable, but if you don’t purchase a good-quality mattress, your dream can rapidly turn into a nightmare of midnight deflation and general discomfort. As with so many things, you get what you pay for when you buy camping air beds; a cheap mattress will only deflate or tear at an inconvenient time–like when you’re sleeping on it! Keep reading for tips about buying a good, quality camping air bed that will accompany you and your family on camping trips for years to come.
Before you make your purchase, you should carefully assess the quality of the material from which the air bladder is made; if the bladder is made from synthetic rubber, PVC, or nylon, the bladder will be strong, but it will make your mattress uncomfortable for sleeping. A better choice for strength and comfort is vulcanized natural rubber, particularly the rubber known as fabric packet. This type of mattress can survive for many years. However, you should always be careful to keep sharp items far away from your air mattress–no matter the quality, an air mattress can always fall prey to puncture. A repair kit, usually sold with the mattress, will usually be sufficient to repair a quality camping air bed.
Your camping air bed can come in several different models. They can range from multi-chamber beds that have digital controllers on the high end, to simple single chamber models on the lower end of the spectrum. This is simply a matter of personal choice for you. You can find excellent quality single-chamber camping air bed and less than excellent multi-chamber camping air beds, so the main thing to remember is to assess the quality of the product. More chambers and fancy gadgets can’t make up for a cheaply made mattress. Some people believe that the multi-chambered camping air bed provides a more comfortable night of sleep, and others find that they rest better on a single-chamber camping air bed. You might see if any friends have beds like this that you can test out for a night before you make your decision.
Another major consideration in choosing your camping air bed is the thickness of the foam layer that is found in the mattress. This layer of foam should measure somewhere between three and six inches thick, and the foam must be high-quality foam. If the foam is of lower quality, you will find the air camping bed to be more uncomfortable and inflexible, thus ensuring a poor night of sleep for the unlucky person who chooses this one.