How to seal an air mattress

Even if the mattress is rarely used and carefully, over time it ceases to hold air. This may be due not only to the fact that holes, cuts or punctures appeared in the product. Sometimes it starts to deflate due to a malfunction and loss of valve tightness.

To check this, press on the product and listen to the valve. If air escapes from there, this part must be pulled out and cleaned, repaired or replaced with a new one. By the way, in order for the valve to last longer, when inflating the mattress, do not screw the pump too tight and tight.

If the cause is not in the valve, most likely a hole or tear has formed in the product. In this case, you must first find an air leak and then proceed with gluing. Let's look at how to seal an air mattress at home quickly and reliably.

How to find a hole in a mattress

Sometimes it's hard to find a gap. To do this, use bath foam or dishwashing detergent. Beat the product in a separate container until foam forms. Inflate the mattress with air and apply foam area by area with a soft sponge, brush or spray gun. First, inspect the product along the seam and at the joints, as these areas are the most vulnerable.

If large soap bubbles have formed in a particular place, then there is a gap. When you have found one hole, do not quit the process, but study the product completely. There may be several gaps! Mark each hole with a pen or other method so you don't forget where it is located. You can repair and glue the mattress only after it is completely dry.

If you are near a body of water or a pool, dip an inflated mattress into the water and you will immediately find a puncture. In addition, soapy water can be poured into the deflated product. Then the mattress is turned over in different directions, as a result of the damage, water will begin to come out with a slight whistle. However, this method is complicated by prolonged drying, since it is difficult and long to dry such a product from the inside.

Before sealing a hole in an air mattress, release the air and dry the product. Remove dirt and dust from the damaged puncture site. Then the surface is degreased with alcohol, acetone or gasoline. A product with a velvet or velor surface is thoroughly cleaned of villi. After preparatory work you need to determine how to glue the air mattress.

How to glue an air mattress

For gluing, you can buy special parts and patches that are sold in the same store or department as mattresses. But, if there is no repair kit, you can use improvised means. In this case, you can make an oval or round patch over size holes two or three inches in diameter.

The patch is made from any rubberized material. Use thin rubber, rubberized flock, velour, or bars. For a classic inflatable rubber mattress, you can take an old rubber toy, a baby life buoy or swimming armlets. The patch must also be degreased before use with gasoline, acetone or alcohol. This will ensure a strong and reliable adhesion of the material to the mattress.

It is not recommended to apply a patch to a vinyl surface using standard clear super glue as it may damage the material. In addition, after drying, such products vitrify and crack.

To seal an Intex or any other air mattress, it is better to use elastic glue for rubber, rubber glue made from natural rubber, or a special glue for rubber boats. If you choose "Moment", take a means for PVC.

How to glue a mattress

To glue the mattress correctly and reliably, you need to glue the product only when deflated!;
To seal a small or large hole on one side of the product, glue the patch on the outside. Apply a layer of adhesive to the surface and back of the patch, press the materials firmly against each other and wait five minutes. Then fix the patch with gravity and leave for a day;
Seal the mattress in the seams is much more difficult. The procedure must be carried out from the wrong side. To do this, pull the affected area through the opening of the valve and glue the patch from the inside. Press the materials to be glued tightly to each other, hold for about five minutes, put the load and leave for a day. After the manipulations, turn the mattress back;
The product can be used no earlier than 24 hours after gluing. It is important that the glue dries completely, and the parts are fixed firmly and securely;
If the mattress began to deflate on the way, for example, on a hike or a campground, where it is not possible to make and stick a patch, you can seal the slot with strong electrical tape. However, such a tape does not adhere well on the velor side.

To keep the mattress presentable for a long time appearance, not deformed or torn, you need to properly use and store the product. Before placing it on the ground or floor, carefully inspect the surface for piercing objects. Do not play with pets on the surface as they may scratch or damage the rubberized material with their teeth and claws.

After use in water, the mattress must be thoroughly dried and only then folded and put away for storage. Store the product deflated. For cleaning and washing, use ordinary soapy water. Do not use chemical compositions and abrasives! Do not pull the product along the floor or drop it on the surface, otherwise the seam may tear or come apart. And how to properly clean the mattress at home, see.

Inflate the mattress, remove all sources of noise, and listen carefully. Damage to the mattress may give off a slight whistling sound. For fidelity, the noisy part can be immersed in water: small bubbles will indicate the location of the puncture.

If the previous method did not help, it's time to feel like a real barber. In a container, beat the water with detergent and apply a thick brush with a brush. soap suds on the surface of the mattress. At the puncture sites, the foam will begin to bubble.

Once you've found the damage, circle it with a pen or crayon so you don't lose it.

How to prepare the surface

Before starting, release all the air from the mattress. Clean the area around the puncture from dust and dirt, degrease the surface with gasoline or alcohol. If a velor or flock covered mattress is to be sealed, it is important to remove the fluff with acetone or fine sandpaper before patching.

How to prepare a patch

Sometimes special repair kits come with the mattress. If you don't have one, take pieces of thin rubber from a car tube repair kit or cut a rubber toy. The patch should correspond to the size of the puncture with indents of 2–3 cm and be oval or round in shape. Before use, degrease its surface with gasoline or alcohol.

How to seal an air mattress

How to seal a hole in a mattress? Suitable glue for PVC, universal "Moment" or polyurethane shoe glue.

How to do it? We already have a mattress ready for repair and a fat-free patch cut to size. Now apply even layer glue on the mattress and the patch, wait 5 minutes for the glue to set a little, and align them. For greater effect at the place of gluing, you can put a load for a day.

What to do if you need to glue the mattress along the seam

If the mattress is torn at the seam, a patch applied to the outside may not help. In this case, it makes sense to seal the mattress from the inside. To do this, pull the damaged area through the valve hole with your hands or a ruler. Then glue the patch (according to the instructions from the previous paragraph) to the inside of the mattress. Turn the mattress inside out and use it as usual within a day after complete drying glue.

How to avoid new damage

In order for the repaired air mattress to please you as long as possible, follow the following simple rules.

Before laying the mattress on the floor, grass or sand, inspect the surface for piercing objects.
Do not play on the mattress with pets: they can pierce it with their claws or teeth.
Do not pull the mattress across the floor if people are lying on it: the seams may disperse.

Today I will share with you my experience in repairing air mattresses, namely: how to securely seal the mattress with your own hands and repair air valve.

PVC inflatable items such as pillow mattresses and boats are very practical due to their compact storage. One of the few factors against such purchases is their susceptibility to punctures and cuts. The thin material underlying the product often becomes a victim of paws, just like the mattress can fall the death of the brave at the hands of tin soldier who was forgotten to be removed from the floor after the game. In some cases, there are also problems with the valves: spacers burst in them! To questions about the maintainability of such products, sellers begin to shrug and say that this is all a useless undertaking and no glue takes such material ... well, in principle, their answer is clear, their task is to sell you one more product, and then another)). But, fans of the theme "!" such a people that he only needs to see for himself!

How are air mattresses and boats glued?

So the skills were remembered when the question arose sharply “how to glue PVC pipes” with it in such a way that it would be elastic! At that moment, I had to test the entire supply of various types of glue stored in the pantry, the result was negative. Searches on the Internet led to a modification of the well-known Moment glue, namely, Moment Crystal came up, it was specially “sharpened” for working with PVC. But, at the time of the puncture of the mattress, my Kristall glue had already dried up due to the expiration date.

All the air mattresses that I had to repair (in my case they were intexes with a velor top), I glued with boat repair glue, bought at a nearby store. Although, judging by its smell, a similar appearance during application and heating, we can say that this is practically the same "Crystal". This glue was not expensive, plus the kit included material from which you can make more than one patch, of course, no patches are included with the "Crystal".

How to find a puncture site in an air mattress

So, we decided on the glue, now we still have to find a puncture site)) if you have a pool nearby, this is not difficult to do, otherwise you will have to tinker. I was looking for a puncture site like this: I pumped up a mattress and looked for an approximate puncture site by ear. Next, I took shaving foam (you can use a soap solution or shampoo diluted with water) and began to apply the resulting foam to the surface of the mattress, bubbles and a small air fountain suggested the puncture site. But, do not rush to look for more “by” there is probably more than one puncture!

The site has been identified and restoration work can begin. By the way, perhaps someone who gives up on all these patches and fuss with glue will need this link: inflatable furniture, mattresses in Dnepropetrovsk, but those who are full of self-confidence read on)).

How to properly glue a mattress

In order to qualitatively put the patch, you must strictly follow the instructions for using your glue. In my case it was like this:

clean finely sandpaper puncture site and patch (do not make the patch small, because the larger its surface, the more securely it will be glued)
degrease both surfaces
apply glue to both surfaces and, not least, then warm up well with a hair dryer applied glue in a few minutes! This increases the reliability of bonding!
make sure to take a break 10 minutes indicated on the package and join the patch and the mattress (the mattress is in a deflated state!) And press down hard. The determining factor is the squeezing force and not time, so you can beat the patch with a hammer through several layers of fabric, well, without fanaticism, of course))
let the glue dry for the time indicated on the package(if you inflate the mattress before it dries completely, the mattress will begin to etch the air, the load in the place of the patch is large ..)

How to repair an air mattress valve

This is how the whole air valve of an Intex air mattress looks like

And, if you get carried away a little with an interesting film while inflating the mattress, you can damage the valve, this is an example in the photo. One of the two impellers on this valve burst.

Naturally, such a valve instantly released all the air. The owner of the mattress has already given up on him, because it is useless to glue it, the area of \u200b\u200bthe impeller is small, and the load is huge ...

Do you also have problems with Intex air bed? Or with an air mattress? I think yes. No wonder you opened this page. At first I was also glad that such a one appeared in the house. But then she, too, began to pass air. Slowly at first. Then in the middle of the night I had to get up and pump up. Then during the night I had to do this twice already, otherwise you would wake up lying on a hard floor in the arms of a deflated air bed. Everything ended very badly: the bed was finally "blown away" and removed until better times. When the summer season began and repair kits for sealing Intex inflatable products appeared on sale, there was a real chance to repair our leaky bed. I bought a repair kit and...

Where to buy a repair kit for gluing mattresses and beds Intex

The first place where I saw it for sale was the Sportmaster store. For only 199 rubles, you can buy a repair kit, consisting of a tube and a transparent patch. Good thing I never bought it. Indeed, in the Auchan store, the exact same set costs only 54 rubles:

No matter how much I tried to discern the differences in these products, I could not find it. The kits are identical. Probably, Sportmaster buys kits in Auchan and sells them at four prices.

Returning home, I pulled the long-suffering inflatable bed from the mezzanine, laid it out on the floor and decided to immediately begin repairs. First, I tore off all the previous patches. It’s embarrassing to even admit, but earlier, trying to solve the problem with holes, I sealed them with tape. You know, it didn't make much sense. Moreover, from the adhesive tape on the surface of the bed there was a sticky, viscous glue that was very difficult to remove.

But what was to be done? It was winter outside, repair kits are not sold in winter. This is a seasonal item. Therefore, if you become the proud owner of an inflatable bed or mattress Intex buy one or two repair kit. Who knows when your product will leak, in a year or tomorrow.

Finding old holes in the old places of the bed, I lightly cleaned them with alcohol. If there is no alcohol, vodka will do.

Unpacking repair kit And after reading the instructions, I became thoughtful. At some point, there was even a desire to abandon this whole undertaking, since it was fraught with the most "rosy" consequences if something went wrong. Read what is written about glue:

Can you imagine? Inhale random vapors of glue and that's it! Death. Maybe, well, her, this bed. Then I'll try normal rubber glue?

However, curiosity and the desire to solve the problem right now took over. As they say, fly so fly!

How I glued the Intex air bed

To begin with, let's give "praise" to the manufacturer for wrapping the patch material so tightly into a tube.

No matter how long I tried to straighten the material, each time it regularly folded into the same compact roll. Here, you bastards! Just bastards! No, to put two or three bookmarks in a straightened state. After all, the size of the package allows you to do this. In a word, I got angry at the manufacturer and for the second time I wanted to give up what I had planned.

Then, when the surging rage subsided somewhat, he nevertheless cut out a patch of the required size and prepared for the worst: it's time to open a tube of killer glue.

I didn't even doubt it! The glue in the tube, of course, was under pressure. It was worth piercing the protective membrane, and part of the "magic liquid" immediately appeared partly on the fingers, partly on the floor. But, as the old joke says, "Chukchi is not a fool"! Rubber gloves were prudently put on the hands, and the floor was covered with old newspaper. If not for the gloves, it is still unknown what could have happened. Perhaps you would not be reading this article now and would not have been warned about deceit. vinyl adhesive:)

Then the most interesting began. It was necessary to somehow manage to smear a patch with dangerous glue, which strove to twist into a roll. I tried on for a long time, but each time I realized that now she, already smeared, would again curl up into a tube and immediately stick together. This will end the game. And no pleasure, except inhaling the fumes of vinyl glue! How can you not be angry at the manufacturer!

Then came the saving thought. What if you glue not a patch, but the very surface of an air bed? Let's try, anyway, otherwise it will not work:

Is it clear now. There was no explosion or other chain reactions. Now quickly apply a patch on top!

Aha! Somewhere already "grabbed"! Quickly grease the rest of the area with glue and press:

This is where things got weird. The corners of the patch suddenly began to curl into reverse side- from the surface of the bed. I had to take action - grease the edges and press them into place.

More than once or twice during this time I again wanted to drop everything and return to the good old rubber glue. The patch turned out terribly ugly. I didn't like it. Moreover, somehow I could not believe that it would hold on and not fall off at the first inflating of the bed.

In a similar way, I glued a couple more patches to the holes in the air bed that I knew. Then, according to the instructions, it was necessary to leave the product for 12 hours for a complete setting.

It's been 12 hours (even a little more)

The sight of the glued patches caused despondency. They looked too primitive. Most likely, all this is an empty idea. But when I tried to pick at the edge of one of them, it turned out to be stuck tightly.

After inflating the air bed, I first left it alone and went about other things. What was my surprise when, after about a couple of hours, I came to the room where the experiment was carried out, and found that the Intex product did not even think to "lower". It looked exactly the same as immediately after pumping.

Deciding to try a more daring experiment (just in time for the afternoon break), I lay down on the bed. When I woke up about an hour later, I noticed that the bed had lost some of its elasticity.

One of the two - either some patch "departed" or there are one or two more "unaccounted" holes.

How to look for holes in an Intex air bed or mattress

This is the longest part of the work, but at the same time the most creative. Find a hole the size of a sewing needle prick in a huge double air bed It's a whole ritual. I'm not afraid to say that this is an exciting quest for real adventurers!

First, it is worth pumping up the product tightly enough and listening for suspicious hissing from any part of it. Before that, you need to close all windows, doors, turn off all sounding household appliances and remove the headphones from the player from your ears.

Try to listen to the mattress alone. Otherwise, your concentrated look, which is an example of embodied attention, will certainly cause an unhealthy reaction from those present. With their laughter and barbs, they can jeopardize the failure of your mission.

Sometimes just listening is enough to find a leak. However, very small holes are not so detectable.

Another way is to move your wet hand slowly over the surface of the inflatable, hoping to catch weak stream air escaping through the hole. Here you definitely need to be alone in the room. Indeed, from the outside it may seem that you are trying to treat the mattress with your suddenly awakened psychic abilities. Here you can not avoid jokes. Especially if you inadvertently tell someone that this is how you are trying to repair a mattress or bed.

Alas, sometimes neither hearing nor magical passes with hands over the surface of the product help to identify the problem area. Then you'll have to move on to Plan B.

Perhaps you remember looking for a puncture in a swim ring or a bicycle tube as a child? Right. They were simply lowered under water and watched where the bulbs would come from. But try lowering even the simplest single air mattress into the water, not to mention the huge bed.

Soap solution helps. Armed with a brush, first of all, it is worth "walking" with the solution in all corners, ribs and seams. Look carefully to see if bubbles have begun to inflate in the place where they just smeared. Try to do without witnesses in this case too, because in your work you will resemble an outstanding artist who is concentrating on the next greatest canvas of our time.

If you've gone through all problem areas, but the bubbles were not seen, we begin a total check of the entire surface. You will need a wider brush. For example, painting. This work is quite painstaking and wet, but it is guaranteed to lead to results. The main thing is not to rush.

There is still the potential for air to pass through the pump valve. There's nothing to be done here. Fate, as you know, will not go far.

The internal partition in the air bed burst

There is another "ambush" that can lie in wait for the owner of an air bed. It's a broken interior wall.

One day in the middle of the night I suddenly woke up from some strange and rather loud sound. First thought: the cat is tearing up the air bed with its claws. Is very similar. However, turning on the light, I realized that the beast had absolutely nothing to do with it. It's just that the outermost partition of the bed has burst.

As a result, a slight elevation appeared on one side. It didn't cause much inconvenience. Rather, on the contrary - now there was no fear of falling out of bed during sleep.

About a month later, another one burst - the next from the same edge. The inflatable bed from a double bed turned into some kind of fancy single sofa:

What to do in such cases? I'm afraid to upset you, but the decadent word "nothing" will be the answer. Of course, you can do what real optimists should do: carefully cut the outer shell, carefully glue the inner bulkhead, and then close up the outer cut just as carefully. But at home, only a very determined person can venture into such experiments.

Therefore, it remains only with sadness to observe how the partitions fail one after another. When the last of them orders to live long, inflatable bed will cease into some strange object resembling a huge hamburger in shape. I think I have all the prerequisites to follow this process to the end and show you all the stages.

Conclusion

Now I know what to find a small hole in the outer shell and glue an air bed or an Intex mattress quite possible at home without resorting to the services of specialists. I used a branded repair kit for this. Perhaps the same effect can be achieved with ordinary rubber glue and simple patches. It's been almost three weeks since then, and the bed feels good. Of course, once every two or three days it has to be pumped up using the built-in pump, but this is quite normal.

So, if your air bed needs to be pumped more than once a day, you can try to look for a hole and seal it up instead of getting upset over trifles. We all know that nerve cells do not regenerate.

As for the destruction of the internal partitions ... it remains to be hoped that you will have more luck than me. After all, fixing such a defect will be either impossible or very expensive.

Many will be interested to know how the Intex mattress is sealed at home in order to extend the service life.

After all, inflatable furniture is not only convenient for outdoor recreation, but also urgently needed when the house is suddenly filled with guests.

Most importantly, inflatable furniture is compact - if necessary, it can be easily folded and hidden in a closet.

But keep at low temperatures such a product is not recommended, since such an environment will adversely affect its surface shell.

How to detect punctures in inflatable furniture?

Before starting the repair of a damaged Intex air mattress, it is necessary to carefully examine it for the presence of punctures, the number of which can be identified after certain manipulations.

Since inflatable furniture (mattresses are no exception) most often breaks at the butt seams, it is worth looking for damage, starting with their inspection.

Typically, such mattresses lose their tightness due to strong inflation, which is prohibited by the instructions.

In this case, the gap most often occurs between the horizontal plane of the web and the inner rib.

Other causes of damage to the Intex product may be cuts or punctures, which are caused by animals that like to chew something or sharpen their claws.

If it was not possible to identify damage on your own at home, you will have to seek help from the master.

The most difficult parts of an air mattress that need to be repaired are considered to be a seam divergence and a break in the inner rib - it is unlikely that anyone will cope with such a problem at home, so the best way out is to give the mattress for repair to a workshop.

By the way, to seal the Intex air mattress, you need to contact service center the company from which the product was purchased.

If the company is solid, then it goes towards its customers, that is, it can repair the product at home, which is most often suitable for the owners. If the puncture is small, then you can seal the Intex air mattress yourself at home.

To detect punctures in the canvas of an air mattress, different methods are used.

If the product had small size, then it could be inflated and lowered into a bathtub filled with water, which would allow you to see how air escapes from the punctures.

But since such a product is large, and there is no point in lowering it into water in parts, it is better to use another, no less effective method puncture detection:

we take any detergent, but it should be well whipped into foam;
we apply the foam to the areas of the mattress web where damage is suspected;
we examine the treated canvas for the presence of bubbles, which will indicate that air is escaping from the mattress in this place.

If the specified method did not bring results, then you can apply another method for detecting punctures, but it is more troublesome.

In a mattress completely freed from air, you need to pour soapy water - five liters will be enough. Then the product must be re-inflated with air.

When the air mattress is turned over, water will be sprayed out of the punctures with air. It remains to circle such places with a marker, free the mattress from water, and dry thoroughly before gluing.

How to repair an air mattress yourself?

After the punctures in the inflatable product were found, they must be sealed by applying a patch to the damaged area.

But if the seam on the product turned out to be damaged, then only professionals with special equipment can fully repair it.

You can try to repair the butt seam of an air mattress at home.

The divergence of the seam is carefully treated with alcohol, which will help not only clean, but also degrease the fleecy layer of the fabric, then, following the instructions, it remains to apply a patch and seal the damaged area.

In this case, there is no guarantee that such a repair will allow long time operate the product.

The fact is that the seams of the mattress will interfere when glued, as a result of which the patch cannot be firmly pressed to their surface.

Considering this factor and the fact that the patch will spoil the attractiveness of Intex inflatable furniture, it is better to try to repair the damaged seam from the inside:

the damaged area of \u200b\u200bthe mattress must be turned out through the valve hole, which can be done using a regular ruler and hands;
The surface to be repaired must be dry and clean. For the purpose of degreasing, it is wiped with alcohol;
using a patch of a suitable size, you need to lubricate it inside glue, while there should not be a lot of adhesive, as this will reduce the quality of work;
the patch treated with glue is pressed tightly against the damaged area of \u200b\u200bthe web;
after 12 hours, the repaired product is turned out, and after the valve is installed in place, it is inflated.

In order to improve the quality of the work done, it is recommended to place the glued area of the mattress under the press.

Since gluing is carried out using a substance containing hazardous components (methyl, acetone, polyurethane rubber), it is impossible to repair the product in the living room. After using the glue, be sure to wash your hands.

It happens that all the punctures are sealed, and the mattress does not hold air. In this case, it is recommended to pay attention to the tightness of the valve of the product, which is the weak point of all types of inflatable furniture.

For the purpose of repair, the valve is removed, the place of its junction with the canvas is polished with fine sandpaper, then processed silicone grease and then return the valve to its place.

How to store and use the inflatable product?

The rules for storing inflatable furniture say that it is better to save the mattress deflated. The product must be dry and clean.

Therefore, if it was used for outdoor recreation, then it must be thoroughly washed and dried. It is recommended to use a mild soap solution for washing the fabric.

Not allowed to use detergents containing in its composition abrasive inclusions or chemically active components.

With their help, you can quickly clean the mattress, but they will significantly reduce the duration of its operation, negatively affecting the strength of the canvas.

Air mattresses are made for for various purposes, they have different quality, which accordingly affects the cost.

Some people, wanting to save money, purchase cheap products in order to use them for other purposes.

For example, they take a swimming mattress with them to sleep on it. As a result, the goal does not justify the money spent, since the mattress quickly deteriorates during operation.

If the mattress began to gradually release air and there is no certainty that it can be repaired at home so that the product does not lose its former appearance, then it is better to take it to a repair shop.

The master, knowing his business and having the right equipment at hand, will be able to solve the problem in a short time.

With new technologies, all existing punctures and weak seams of an air mattress will be detected and repaired without losing the aesthetic appearance.

Not worth doing self-repair mattress if its damage exceeds 5 mm or there is a problem with the internal partitions.

It is almost impossible to fix such damage at home, while in the workshop a specialist will be able to assess the existing damage and, if necessary, restore the product by replacing sections of the old canvas with a new one.

Do not think that the workshop does not undertake to repair mattresses with large gaps in seams or surfaces.