Air Mattresses

An air mattress is bought for a night, a weekend or a house full of guests, and the wrong one announces itself at 3 a.m. when the middle sags toward the floor. The beds below are judged on the things that decide that night: how high the bed sits, so getting in and out is easy; what kind of pump fills it, and whether that pump works away from a wall outlet; whether the top is flocked, so sheets stay put and skin does not stick to vinyl; and how the bed behaves over several nights, because new vinyl stretches and every air bed loses a little air at first.

The twelve beds cover the honest split in the category. Raised guest beds from SoundAsleep, Serta, Insta-Bed, King Koil and EnerPlex sit at 16 to 22 inches and run on built-in mains pumps, with two of them adding a second pump that tops the bed up through the night. Intex covers the value end with three Dura-Beam beds at three heights and three sizes. Camping beds from SoundAsleep and EnerPlex trade height for pack size and a pump that runs off a rechargeable battery or a car adapter. Amazon Basics offers the simplest raised queen of all. Every pick is sold on Amazon, every ASIN is wired from two agreeing sources, and every image is the listing's own main photo, curl-verified.