AeroBed Active Bed

I brought this product because i was going to be sleeping on my parents lounge floor for a week or so, and after that it could be used as a guest bed if any good. The main concern with any airbed is the air loss over night, and the first night i seemed to have some noticeable loss though not enough to cause discomfort. After that i started pumping it up to be quite firm so that any loss wouldn't be too much and it would lose a little but nothing significant to comfort. After the first week i stopped pumping it up to firm as i was finding it more comfortable to be less so, and since then i haven't topped the air up, which is now a couple of weeks ago, and everyday the bed is moved into the conservatory out of the way so i think this is holding air very well. The pump is easy to operate, just make sure you give it the full initial charge, i found it retains charge well for the top ups when i was doing them. The valve doesn't appear easy to get excess air leakage from. Comfort wise i have added a duvet under the bottom sheet but then this has been my bed for almost three weeks now, i imagine as an extra layer when camping it would be just fine, and as a guest bed i might put a spare duvet on still for additional comfort but overall as a temp bed it does a good job.All this is based on one person of average height and weight, though my cat sleeps with me also. The height is nice, that bit raised but not too bulky. I've been pretty pleased with it and the air retention, but i also haven't taken it down at all so i can't vouch for how it might be once its been deflated/stored/inflated a few times, but so far so good.

Ok so this is an expensive airbed... (not if you shop - around though, I got about £90 off!) The design of everything is well thought - out.The valve especially is an eye - opener; cubic feet of air either inflating or deflating in seconds due to the inlet/outlet being so large. I wouldn't dispense with a pillow just yet - the "built in" one is not much more than a gentle slope. I threw my mattress off the bed last night to test (and stretch) the Aerobed... true to form, it sort of expanded and therefore deflated a bit but to be fair they all do that on first use. The cordless pump is also an innovation; please don't forget to charge it for 24 Hrs. before setting - off to the Loire Valley! Says it holds charge for up to 90 days... but I wouldn't trust that figure and intend to follow the advice to completely discharge it and then charge 12 Hrs before setting - off anywhere.I can imagine it being a Godsend in the middle of the night if it ever goes a bit flat in the early hours; turn off the cap - turn the pump onto the same connection and it starts automatically and take seconds to top - up. Not too noisy either!. Like you I have probably had about 6 airbeds... all of which have literally let me down at some point. You pays your money and you takes your choice! (say 2 yr guarantee ; can't see them honouring that one! For a start it says it must be inflated at room temp....

I bought two of these beds for a 7 days camping trip and they were generally very comfortable but I have a couple of issues with the product, paricularly with the pump.The rechargable pumps dont have any indication of when they are fully charged so although I set my alarm for the recommended 12 hours charging period, this didn't put emough charge into the pumps to inflate the beds adequately. There is a feature that allows you to inflate the beds using using a cable that attaches to your car cigerette lighter direct to the pump which is a very effective way of inflating them and without that feature these beds would have been useless on my camping trip as the pumps dont seem to hold enough charge to inflate them fully.Whilst you can use the car cigarette lighter direct you cant use the mains cable direct, only to charge the pump, which means if I want to use these beds as overnight beds at home then I will have to drag them out to my car to inflate them properly and as I only have street parking which is 50 yards from my house then this is going to look pretty stupid and is going to be a real drag.My other slight issue is the integral pillow which is not high enough to be supportive on its own but too high if you have to put a pillow on top of it which effctively shortens the length of the bed as you have to slide down the bed to get below the pillow line. As I am 6 feet tall it meant the bed wasn't long enough for me to do that without curling up onto a ball. My 13 year old son who is a lot shorter had no problem with this and just used the built in pillow and slept well but I am old with a bad back and would have preferred a completely flat surface.With a decent pump that showed when it was fully charged and had an effective charge, these would be 5 star beds but the weak pump is a real problem that could have ruined my camping trip and stops these beds being useful at home too.

Inflatable beds proved excellent for visiting guests. Having tested this one for two nights, it inflates in 60 seconds, hardly needed topping up, and the guests were very happy. They will get one themselves actually! Make sure you read the instructions though. I thought the battery powered pump would stop when the bed reached certain pressure, but it doesn't (not that it is needed anyway). After 20 mins, the motor started losing power, eventually stopped, and the bed deflated. I had to recharge for another 3 hours, which according to the manual gives a single full inflation. None of this would have happened if I read the instructions more carefully and removed the pump after 60 secs.Cons: (a) I wish you could use the pump while it is plugged into the mains. This way you wouldn't have to wait for at least 3 hours charging for a full inflation. I presume the battery won't hold the charge for months while stored away, so unless a visit is planned, you may find that you can't inflate the bed, unless you wait for a few hours for the battery to charge. Also, as the manual says, the very first time you have to charge the battery for 24 hours. (b) it smells of PVC a lot initially and some people find the smell disgusting. Things improve after a couple of days, but the smell doesn't seem to go away completely.