When buying an air mattress, pick one which can be returned easily (just in case). Also, price is no indication of quality or reliability.

When I created this site I planned to only write about topics related to remodeling, but I recently realized that I had overlooked topics that really should be included in this blog. For example, I can post product reviews. I’m not the first (and I won’t be the last) person to buy an air mattress to sleep on while staying at a house I am remodeling, so a product review is entirely in keeping with the focus of this blog.

Hence this post.

I bought an air mattress in February in anticipation of using it while at the house in Clendenin. It came highly recommended by the NY Times’ Wirecutter review blog, so even though it cost a little more than other models I went ahead and bought it online and had it shipped.

Here’s the model I bought; note that it is sold and shipped by the manufacturer.

My first impression was that the built-in pump was rather loud – like “annoy the people down the hall” loud. This wasn’t an issue for me, but it might be a problem if you’re using it in your home for guests to sleep on.

Another problem with the air mattress was that it did not stay inflated. I had to get up at 3 in the morning to turn the pump on and re-inflate the mattress because it had lost over half its air. This happened on both of the nights I slept on it. Also, I had to re-inflate the mattress before going to bed that second night.

While I did expect the air mattress to eventually deflate, I really think it should have lasted at least several days without needing to be re-inflated.

It was reasonably comfortable to sleep on, though. I would have gotten another one to replace it except I have since decided to only buy the air mattresses I can pick up in store. This air mattress had to be shipped to the manufacturer, but if I have problems with my next one I can simply take it to the nearest Walmart.

EDIT: The Beautyrest air mattress I bought as a replacement has proven to be satisfactory. The pump is just as loud, and this air mattress is not as tall, but at least this mattress stays inflated for more than 5 hours.

While we are on the topic, I actually bought two air mattresses this time around. I never open the second one because it had warning stickers which said it could not be returned if opened, only exchanged. I didn’t want to run the risk of being stuck with an unsatisfactory product, so I am returning it unused. (Just an FYI.)