Inflatable Air Mattresses for Camping

Sleeping pads come in two basic flavors: foam filled and air filled. Their purpose is twofold: to provide a layer of insulation between you and the ground and add cushion against it. Backpackers often choose solid foam or foam filled pads because of their minimal weight, ruggedness and ease of use. Car campers don’t necessarily have these restrictions. And, if you do most of your car camping in mild or summer weather, insulation concerns are minimal as well. It really just comes down to sleeping comfort, and that’s where inflatable air mattresses for camping really do a great job.

In my companion article, Foam Mattress Pads for Camping, I talk in great detail about the various types of foam pads available. In this article we’ll look at the options available when choosing the best inflatable air mattresses for camping.

Types of Air Mattresses

Inflatable air mattresses come in many configurations and types from thin and lightweight mummy shapes to thick and large king-sized beds that rival the cushion and comfort of a home mattress. So, to make sense out of so many choices, I first need to define a few terms.

Air Pad vs Air Mattress vs Air Bed – Air filled sleeping pads designed with backpacking in mind are thin, lightweight and very compact when deflated. They are typically referred to as Air Pads or Air Mattresses. And although any type of camper can use an air pad, backpackers tend to choose them most often.

In contrast, Air Beds are designed for car camping. They are thick, heavy, and come in common bed sizes. They are designed to fit standard-sized sheets and although bulky, car campers, like myself, enjoy the extra cushion air beds provide.

Throughout the remainder of this article I will use the term Air Pad to mean any inflatable sleeping pad designed more for backpacking and the the term Air Bed when talking about inflatable sleeping pads designed more for car camping.

Sizes and Shapes

Similar to foam pads, Air Pads come in various lengths to accommodate all body sizes. Short (3/4 length), regular, and long length sizes, are the most common. They are available in a standard 20 inch width. Longer sizes are often available in 25 – 30 inch widths. Air pads are typically 2.5 – 3 inches thick.

Air beds designed for camping are more like a mattress for home use. In fact, many people, myself included, will occasionally use an air bed at home for guest to sleep on. Available in twin, full, queen and king sizes, they are around 5-6 inches thick. Some manufacturers even make double thickness beds that keep you more than a foot off the ground.

Insulation and Comfort

Because your own body is what eventually heats the air in a sleeping pad, manufacturers often design air pads with internal cells or chambers that help trap smaller volumes of air. This makes it much easier to quickly heat up the pad. Advanced air cell designs incorporate multiple layers stacked on top of each other. This way, your body just needs to warm only the top layer to quickly feel warm – a very smart idea.

Another method used to to increase warmth in air pads is the use of goose down or synthetic fiber fill. This insulation is added to the inside of the individual air chambers and can greatly increase the warmth (R-value) of these pads. The warmth of an air pad is indicated by its R-value. Air pads typically have an R-value between 1.0  – 5.0. The higher the number, the better it will insulate you from the cold. Both down fill and synthetic fiber fills make excellent insulators. However, they are not without flaws you need to be aware of.

First, synthetic and down fill decrease their ability to insulate if they become wet. Down fill is especially prone to this and is nearly useless when wet and can take a very long time to dry out. And because of this, it’s safest to inflate using a pump rather than blowing it up. This is really only a concern, however, in cold weather when your warm breath can cause condensation on the inside of the pad.

Both down and synthetic fill looses its ability to loft with time and usage. Though likely minimal, you should expect a decrease in R-value of the pad over time. And, the pad must remain inflated for long term storage.

It’s also worth noting that down fill is NOT 100% hypo-allergenic. For some people, this can be a real problem. I, myself, was allergic to feathers as a kid, but eventually outgrew it. This is not a problem with synthetic fills.

Unlike air pads, air beds do not have internal insulation because their large size and thickness make it impractical. For this reason, air beds are best for mild or summer weather camping. They do, however, provide excellent comfort with plenty of cushion. If you are looking for the same comfort level when camping as at home, then an air bed should be your first choice. Most air beds incorporate internal air coils for even firmness.  Many are available with a flocked, soft top and some come with padded pillow tops similar to expensive home mattresses. Coleman even offers a model with detachable Memory Foam – talk about cushion!

Pumping It Up

Both air pads and air beds have very innovative methods when it comes to inflating them. Of course, there is the old fashioned way of manually blowing air into them using your mouth. But this usually leaves you feeling lightheaded if not close to passing out, especially at high altitudes, and can take a really long time. Years of improvements, especially with air pads, have all but eliminated the need for this time consuming process. Now a days we have both manual and electric pumps. Some are integrated into the pad, and some are external.

Internal Pumps – Many quality air pads come equipped with built-in hand pumps. I personally think this is a very cool feature because it eliminates yet one more piece of camping gear. Most air pads can be pumped up in about a minute with these very efficient pumps. This is possible, in part, because air pads don’t hold a large volume of air. Operating the internal pump is done by simply holding your hands over an air intake hole and pressing down and back up several times until fully inflated. Check out this short video from Exped showing just how fast the process can be.

However, due to the large volume of air required to inflate an air bed, internal hand pumps are not an option. You will however, find higher priced air beds equipped with electric internal pumps. Both 12v DC and 120v AC pumps are common. The 12volt internal pumps work with your cars cigarette lighter plug. Coleman has several models available.

External Pumps – External pumps come in both manual and electric versions. Several companies offer manual hand pumps for air pads including Therm-a-rest, Big Agnes, and Exped. Exped, in particular, has some of the most innovative pump options for their air pads from super compact mini-pumps to mid-sized pumps designed to double as a head pillow to a product called the Schnozzel. This ingenious product uses any one of their compression or stuff sacs to capture air. The sac is connected to an air pad using the schnozzel tube-like device. Air is trapped into the stuff sac which is then easily rolled up or compressed transferring the air into the pad. It takes maybe 30 seconds tops to completely fill the air pad! You’ve got to check it out. Air sacs, sometimes called dry sacs, are not a new concept, but none are as versatile as Exped’s method.

Other types of manual pumps include bicycle style and foot operated bellows. These are both great options for manually inflating air beds, but can still take a while. Air beds are large and require much more air to fully inflate than smaller air pads. I find it takes me 8 – 10 minutes using a foot operated bellows pump on a full sized air bed.

Electric pumps make life good when it comes to roughing it in the outdoors. As long as you have got an electric source such as flashlight batteries, your car battery, or even a 120volt generator, why not let an electric pump do all the work? They are available in many sizes and shapes designed for quickly inflating air beds. Coleman covers this market pretty thoroughly.

Alternatively, I have found that auto tire pumps will work on most air beds. And they are designed to plug into your car’s cigarette lighter. Plus, it’s likely you already carry one in your car for roadside emergencies. The only real drawbacks to using one are they are slow at pumping and very often noisy. To deal with the noise, I place the pump on the front seat of my car, plug it into the cigarette lighter and open one window just enough to get the pump hose through. Then I place my air bed on top of my car and connect it to the hose nozzle. It takes 15 – 20 minutes to pump up one full sized air bed. Yes, it is slow, but I use the time to set up camp while waiting.

Brands and Models

There a several brands and models of Air pads and Air Beds available. The biggest players in the market include Coleman, Big Agnes, Kelty and Exped. Each of these companies offer a variety of quality sleeping mattress products. The chart below details several of their popular models of air pads and beds and makes it simple to compare features. Therm-a-Rest has been omitted from the chart. Although they do offer a few air pad products, they are really known as the pioneer of open-cell foam pads and have, understandably, put most of their efforts into that technology. I cover several of their popular products in my companion article.

From the chart, we can see that Coleman is a big player when it comes to Air Beds, yet they offer no Air Pad products for backpackers. The opposite is true for both Big Agnes and Exped whose focus is more on backpacking products, at least when it comes to sleeping mattresses. And Kelty covers both market segments providing great products favored by many outdoor enthusiast.

Choosing between an air pad or air bed is really a decision based on the type of camping you do. Outdoor product manufacturers continually update and improve their products. Because of this, you should consider renting various camping products first. Tents, Sleeping bags, Sleeping pads, and Backpacks are readily available from outdoor retailers like REI and Lowergear.com. This is a great way to test out high quality equipment without spending hundreds of dollars and is especially helpful if you are just getting started with camping.