Air bed

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Air Beds can be broken down into two categories, guest use in the home, or as permanent beds in the bedroom or RV. Guest bed brands include AeroBed, Intex, Coleman, Air Cloud, Wenzel and others. Sizes range from twin to king, however few guest bed manufacturers offer king, as the majority of guest air beds are sold outside the United States, where king size mattresses are not standard.

Twin - 75"x39" (190.5 x 99 cm)

Twin long - 80"x38" (203 x 97 cm)

Full - 75"x54" (190.5 x 137 cm)

Queen - 80"x60" (203 x 152 cm)

King - 80"x72" (203 x 183 cm)

Raised beds are typically 20-26" (50-66 cm) off the ground to keep users away from the floor and offer a more traditional mattress experience.

Permanent air beds, designed to take the place of a conventional mattress or waterbed, are often mounted on a special foundation. Other innovations allow for a specific firmness setting to be applied to each half of larger mattresses. Air beds with latex rubber air chambers can last for years in daily use, and typically will have multi-year guarantees. Prices are roughly comparable to good quality coil spring mattresses.

Light duty inflatable guest mattresses can be packed into a small space for storage. These are generally made of plastic (polyvinyl chloride, PVC). Some have an electric pump and a firmness controller. Vinyl is far less elastic than rubber (but more elastic than textile-backed rubber -- durability is really about material toughness, not material elasticity) and will eventually fatigue, making vinyl mattresses unsuitable for everyday use. But a vinyl air bed might well be sufficient for several months of frequent use, or years of occasional guest use.