Imaginair Aerobed – Sleeping on Air
Written: Aug 31 '01 (Updated Aug 31 '01)
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Pros: Speedy inflation and deflation; long electric cord; comfort pure comfort.
Cons: Light-weight composite seems flimsy.
The Bottom Line: For a make-shift guest room, the Aerobed works well. We found it comfortable; easy to set up and deflate.
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| pogomom's Full Review: Aero Raised Aerobed (Twin, Full, Queen) |
Sleeping on air never entered my mind as a possible pastime. A recent visit with relatives put the old adage, “Fish and houseguests begin to stink after three days,” to the test. We planned a full week of reminiscing, rough housing and recreation while staying with my Equal Half’s brother and his lovely wife. This amazing duo plays host to friends and family on an all too regular basis. If I was the hostess with the mostest Valium®, I still could not tolerate such a constant influx of vacationing guests.
For those finding my extended personal commentary too much to take, please scroll down to Oo-oo-ooh! Make Yourself Comfortable – Baby! for the bare essentials.
I laughingly kid my in-laws that I submitted their home to the Mobil, AAA and Michelin travel guides as a bed and breakfast of the highest recommendation. Aside from their truly beautiful and sprawling ranch style home, Casa Welcome Mat houses an enormous pool, lush vegetation and three additional buildings.
The Tiki Hut provides shelter from the sun for swimmers, sun worshipers, one heck of a stereo system along with a refrigerator packed with every snack and libation imaginable. The Pool House serves as a second home for this lovely couple and a private gym for anyone who happens to share the bloodline. The final out-building is simply a storage space for every tool ever put out by Craftsman®, Black and Decker®, DeWalt®, etc…
All this seemingly unnecessary background falls into place when you consider our many options for sleeping accommodations. Brother and Wondrous Wife invited our entire tiny clan, which consists of two bipeds and dog-child, Pogo. At fifteen years young, Pogo leans towards grumpiness and rarely tolerates others of his kind. Our hosts’ pet, Happi, another senior petizen, feels protective of her charges, home and the surrounding property.
The twosome met face to face; circling one another with tails held high, teeth bared and quivering lips. Immediately, the calmer two (we female types) decided separation of our furry folks was necessary to achieve nirvana or something like it.
Happi, banished to the main house, grumbled under her breath. Pogo, panting as if he faced the devil (all six pounds of her) trotted into the pool house where he immediately gobbled up the treats Happi forgot to hide. Being the ideal Doggie Daddy, Equal Half decided to take up residence in the Pool House. Not wanting to sleep on a convertible sofa bed, I opted for the guest room in the main house. That first night, we kissed good-bye and ambled off to our private quarters.
Sleep! Sleep! Why hath thee forsaken me?
Chimes ringing each quarter hour combined with the softest, fluffiest bedding ever encountered by this writer produced a sleepless night and one sorely aching back. Mentioning the lovely anniversary clocks, (not one but two!) our hosts laughed and immediately turned off the dingdong features. Consigned to the luxurious guest room, my second night proved just as wakeful thanks to the feather bed and softer than a cloud mattress.
Bleary eyed and incoherent by night number three; I professed to all who approached how much I missed my darling Equal Half during those long lonely nights. At bedtime, I grabbed my toothbrush and headed for the pool house to join Pogo and his papa for some badly needed shut-eye.
Hubby soundly snored while Pogo paced the room in concentric circles. The sofa bed’s supportive bar hit me square in the kidneys and I wanted my Mommy. Finally, after surveying the possibilities, I picked up the neatly stacked couch pillows and laid them end to end forming a narrow but comfortable bed in between the exercise bikes and the Weider Work-out Station.
Brother-in-law interrupted my third hour of heavenly slumber with a wake up call to my fisherman spouse. So much for waking at dawn, I headed outside to see if the full moon caused my sudden urge to murder anything bearing testicles.
Do You See What I See?
A tiny bit of background goes well with what follows. That day consisted of hour upon hour floating in our hosts’ near Olympic size pool. Post raisin-time, we all donned pajamas for a barbecue with Brother-in-law opting for a lavish silk kimono his wife sewed up one rainy day. Well fed and yawning, we waddled to the pool house, ready to take up the now usual positions of hubby on the couch, Pogo and me on the floor.
Three days of sleep-deprivation put my mood somewhere in the category of dangerous but unable to inflict bodily harm. Brother-in-law insisted upon fetching an air mattress for the fourth night of torture. Suspecting mayhem, he insisted on inflating the blue plastic bag without assistance from his still somewhat welcome guests. Alas, the electric pump disappeared into the bowels of their attic so a handy foot pump became the savior of the night. I volunteered to serve as second in command of the task and received my battlefield commission in the process.
We positioned the flattened blue baggie on the approximate point agreed upon by all attendees. I inserted the adapter into the receptacle and Brother-in-law began trouncing the pump with his foot. Keeping a close eye on the progress, I failed to notice from where the slight breeze originated. He rapidly compressed the small pump and I continued monitoring the evolution of bag to bed.
Halfway through the development, I glanced skyward only to notice Brother-in-law’s colorful kimono flipping and flapping in the breeze created by his actions. Laughing with enough fervor to draw attention to our quest, I infuriated my Equal Half by my inability to contain myself or answer his question, “What’s so damn funny?”
Sometimes we just do not need to know that much about our relatives. Now, I adore my brother-in-law and feel even more of an attachment to his wife but leaving something to the imagination is nice. True, in my gales of mirth I cannot say what I glimpsed but I still break up when conjuring that memory.
I Dreamed I Was Flying in my Maidenform Bra
The queen size mattress filled to a firm consistency in less than five minutes. Equal Half’s face bore a scowl similar to those in portraits by the Dutch Masters. We unfurled the sofa bed and placed the mattress on top of the miserable innerspring. Trying it out solo, I found the air mattress comfortable and just firm enough to support my throbbing back. Using regular queen-sized sheets, we made the bed and crawled in for a night of uninterrupted bliss.
Five minutes later, I began searching for those errant couch cushions to create another bed on the floor. Every movement and snore seemed to swell the inflatable bed. I bounced and rolled with each shift of my husband’s body. Exhausted and beaten, I climbed onto my makeshift cot with Pogo happily joining me. We slept through the usual wake-up call and well into the morning.
Night number five brought sanity back to the forefront as I insisted upon having full rights and privileges to the inflatable bed. No longer drained from lack of sleep; I placed the mattress on the floor and fought Pogo for possession of the pillows. We ended up sharing and spent that and the remaining night in peaceful slumber on the big blue bag of wind.
Oo-oo-ooh! Make Yourself Comfortable – Baby!
Once home, I kept returning to the idea of owning one of those comfortable inflatable airbeds. Our three-bedroom home boasts one guestroom with one full size bed. While I get a kick out of seeing my mother and sister tucked neatly under the sheets, any average sized couple might find the cute bed a bit constricting.
Festering like some boil, the idea of purchasing an inflatable mattress burst forth. Equal Half agreed that we required some additional sleeping facilities for those visitors that insisted upon arriving en masse. Less expensive than putting up scads of close friends and relations in the local Comfort Inn®, we chose to purchase a queen size Imaginair Aerobed Mattress.
Our few demands consisted of the size requirement; electric inflation pump and a storage container of some sort to keep it clean in between each use. The necessary ability to support larger individuals and couples steered us to the comfortliving.com web site for all the specifications including weight restrictions. Noting the recent price reduction ($179.00 and free shipping for the queen size) on certain models, we placed our order online and received our Aerobed®, via UPS Standard Delivery, in less than a week.
The Out of Box Experience
• Queen-Sized Aerobed® with Built-in Pump
• Duffle Bag for storage
• 14 Foot Power Cord (110 Volt)
• Quilted Blue and White Mattress Cover
• Use and Care Pamphlet
• One-year Limited Warranty
Set up required little more than unpacking the components, plugging the power cord into the pump and wall outlet and waiting approximately ninety seconds for the mattress to firm up to our taste. The machine washable mattress cover fit snugly after one run through the washer and dryer. Our own standard queen-size fitted bottom sheets hugged the mattress. With the bed fully inflated, that wrinkle-free condition I so love remained just that – wrinkle free and tight as a drum.
Pros, Cons and One Crooked Judge
The Pro or positive findings concerning the Imaginair Aerobed® Mattress include the following:
1. Easy clean up – simply wipe with a damp sponge and let dry before stowing in the included duffle bag.
2. Quick setup - takes only minutes from closet to full-blown bed.
3. Quickly deflates - it helps if you or your guests are willing to roll around on the mattress as it deflates. This particular activity is also fun to watch.
4. Standard size sheets - nicely fit these seven-inch thick mattresses. If using sheets manufactured for extra deep mattresses, consider using an egg-crate-foam pad to add a bit more depth.
5. Storage requires very little space; our Aerobed® spends off hours in our overcrowded guestroom closet.
6. The Power Cord - is long enough to reach almost any outlet in our living room no matter where we decide to inflate the mattress. We judge the supplied fourteen feet of electrical cord more than adequate for this purpose.
7. Comfort - the key word in this review and main goal behind this purchase appears to be optimal. We tested this mattress solo and as a tag team and in each instance woke up refreshed and pain-free. That makes for a big thumbs up from this Princess and her pea.
The Con considerations are few but require quick mention:
1. The Duffle Bag dimensions appear skimpy for easy stowing of the deflated mattress, pump and power cord. We keep the included mattress cover in our linen closet, as the duffle bag cannot hold the added bulky item.
2. Claims of fifteen second deflation are untrue, even with a pair of hefty baby boomers rocking and rolling like Little Richard in the throes of pseudo seizure activity. Make that boast “two minutes,” dear manufacturer, and I will still be suitably impressed.
3. The skin or rubberized plastic of the mattress seems a bit flimsy for use on a regular basis. If choosing an airbed for extended use, I would go for one of heavier composition. If your guests have a tendency to wear spike heels or smoke in bed, send them to the local Holiday Inn®.
I did come across a great little hint from a friend whose experience with these inflatable items spans a wider scope than my own. She suggested I use fine talc applied sparingly with a body-sized powder-puff on the slick surfaces of the mattress before attempting to pack it away in the duffle bag. This little trick turned the wrestling match of forcing the mattress into the bag into a simple task.
Is That Your Final Answer?
No, Regis, you annoying little gnome of the small screen, my final answer is as follows:
When comparing the comfort and easy setup of the newer Imaginair Aerobed® Mattress and our relatives’ older version we have to give the Aerobed® our unwavering thumbs up. Aside from the pure entertainment value of watching a man in a housecoat (and little else) manually pumping the mattress into shape, the ancient model never quite reached the extra-firm comfort level I require. For anyone in need of an additional though temporary guest room, I highly recommend this member of the Imaginair® line. For those into whips, chains and other accoutrements, I suggest intensive therapy with a qualified professional while reclining on a non-inflatable couch. That is my final answer.
Recommended:
Yes
Mattress Size: Queen
Mattress Firmness: Extremely firm
Amount Paid (US$): 179
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pogomom
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Web/puter person who, disguised as mild-mannered Pogomom, offers unsolicited opinions to all she encounters.
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