How To Inflate An Air Mattress Without A Pump? Pro Tips!

Air mattresses are considerably more affordable and are way more convenient to use. The only downside to these kinds of mattresses is that they require inflation.

A pump should solve that problem. Oh, you don’t have a pump?

Want to know how to inflate an air mattress without a pump? Stick around with us till the end of this article cause we are about to provide you with a bunch of solutions!

How To Inflate an Air Mattress?

Generally speaking, inflating an air mattress is super easy! All you have to do is blow air into the mattress using some sort of air-blowing tool (that may include blowing into it with your mouth as well).

Using a pump would be the ideal way of inflating the air mattress. These generally come with the mattress in the package, so you need not worry about that. Use the pump to inflate the mattress; goodnight and sweet dreams!

• You Don’t Have a Pump?

Oh, you’re still here? We suppose you didn’t get a pump with your mattress. Yeah, some brands do that. But worry not, for we have you covered. Below are some solutions and hacks that you can implement in order to fill up your air mattress without a pump.

• Use a Tire Pump

When we ask how to inflate an air mattress without a pump, we don’t mean without all kinds of pumps. We are talking about specifically the pumps that are used to inflate air mattresses. So, using a tire pump definitely qualifies as a solution here.

If you have a bicycle lying around in your garage, you probably own a tire pump. Bring it out and put it to use to fill up that mattress.

• Go Fetch your Vacuum Cleaner

Every vacuum cleaner has a reverse-blowing option. This is why we think it would surely help you inflate your air mattress. So, if you own a vacuum cleaner, the first thing we suggest is you clean the vacuum itself up at first and then put it on the reverse.

Open the inflation valve on your mattress, and lay it flat on the ground. You need to get a thinner nozzle that you will attach to the vacuum and then secure the nozzle into the mattress’s valve. Turn the vacuum on and let your mattress get filled up with dust…we mean, air.

• Blow Dryer to the Rescue!

So, you don’t have a bicycle tire pump or a vacuum cleaner? Consider using a blow dryer. But you must note one thing: DO NOT set it at high heat. When hot air flows into the mattress, it is more prone to blowing up. You want to inflate your mattress, not blasting it off into smithereens.

Set the dryer to cool air mode and let the air flow into the mattress. This will take slightly longer compared to the vacuum cleaner, but it’s not like you have a train to catch or anything, right?

• Got a Leaf Blower in your Garage

If you do, go get it. You’re also going to need a thinner nozzle that you will attach to the leaf blower’s nozzle, so it fits into the opening valve of your mattress, just like the vacuum cleaner.

This will be pretty quick, just make sure you turn off the leaf blower before too much air gets into the mattress. Again, you don’t want to blow it up.

• A Plastic Bag?

Now, this one may come as a surprise to you, but you can actually use plastic trash bags to inflate your air mattress. However, this solution applies to people who have all the time in the world and don’t mind struggling to inflate a mattress with a plastic bag!

Unless you are completely hopeless and have no other way of inflating it or no other tools to use, use this technique. Although we really do not recommend it at all. This may take all day, but it does work, though!

Swing the plastic bag around and fill it up with air. Once filled, aim the opening to the valve of the mattress and press the air out of the bag. Continue doing this for the rest of the weekend, and you’ll have successfully wasted your holidays inflating a mattress. Congratulations, moving on.

On a serious note: It really does take an entire day to inflate the mattress using this method.

• Use Your Lungs Dummy!

Get an operational knife and cut your chest open to take out your lungs to use them like plastic bags. We’re kidding! Just blow into the valve with your mouth. We must warn you, though, you’ve got to have strong lungs to be able to inflate the entire mattress just using your breath.

This one, similar to the plastic bag hack, will take a really long time and is way more time and energy-consuming. So, make sure you’re willing to waste that weekend of yours doing this.

• Bonus Tips

We have some tips to share with you regarding the methods and hacks we mentioned above. Here are a few things you need to take care of while using any of the above tricks.

Make Sure The Valve Is Secured to the Blowing Tool

No matter what kind of blowing tool you are using, you need to make sure that it is securely attached to the opening valve so that no air is wasted. If it is not secured, it’ll take you longer to inflate than it would otherwise.

• Getting the Right Size of Nozzle

You need to get a separate nozzle to attach with the nozzle of the blowing tool. None of the blowing tools we mentioned above, like the tire pump, leaf blower, or vacuum cleaner, would have the perfect nozzle for the mattress.

So, it is important that you get another nozzle that would fit into the mattress better and ensure that the air is flowing into it properly.

• No Hot Air

We cannot stress this one enough! If you are going to be using a blow dryer, be sure to set the air settings to cool air, or else you’re in for a heap of trouble.

• Clean the Insides of the Blowing Tool

This one mainly applies to the vacuum cleaner, unless your leaf blower or hairdryer has a lot of dust in them, too (disgusting). Make sure that your cleaning bag has no dirt and the nozzle of the vacuum is clean as well. You don’t want your air mattress to be filled with a lot of dust and dirt now, do you?

Final Words

So by now, you should know how to inflate an air mattress without a pump. We hope the tips and tricks that we shared come to your benefit and you don’t have a hard time inflating your air mattress.

We also hope you found this article informative and had a fun time reading it. Let us know which method you found the most useful and which one seems the most bizarre, in your opinion. That’s it for this one, see you next time!

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