Use Dish Soap and / or Garden Hose to Find Leaks in the Air Mattress
After sleeping on a low-quality air mattress for years, you finally decide to get a good one. Maybe it even has special features like a built-in air pump or is thicker.
You are confident in your purchase until one morning, falling asleep on an inflatable mattress, you wake up in the middle of what looks like floating pool water that needs more air. Somehow the curse of the air mattress struck again.
Of course it could be a valve problem, but it could also be a hole. And while they are incredibly annoying, these holes are really hard to find. In an article for BobVila.com Tony Carrick divided the two methods for leak detection. Here’s what you need to know.
Check the valves of the air mattress first.
While your leak could be the result of a hole, there is also the possibility that the air valves are not properly secured (some have a double lock that requires you to push them in twice). “While you’re in the area, also check the material around the air valves for bursts and bursts,” Carrick explains . If everything is fine there, it’s time to find this hole.
Use dish soap to find holes in the air mattress
Add some dish soap to a spray bottle filled with water. “Dish soap makes the solution more viscous, allowing it to stick to the mattress surface long enough for you to find a leak,” Carrick writes .
Then spray the solution on different parts of the inflated mattress, starting from areas where the chance of leakage is higher, such as around the valve, and then on the seams. You will know when you hit the hole because the solution will start to bubble and / or you will be able to see where the air is coming out.
While you get this far, you can keep watering the mattress if there are multiple holes, and as a way to clean it all up. When you find a hole, mark it with a piece of duct tape or permanent marker so you know exactly where to patch it up.
Spray the inflatable mattress with a garden hose.
This method is very similar to the dishwashing detergent method, and in fact you can always start with dishwashing liquid and then spray the mattress with a garden hose – not only to rinse it out, but also to identify any holes. that you may have. missed.
Make sure the mattress is inflated as much as possible and is on a level surface such as a patio or driveway. Then start spraying the hose (using the spray nozzle or blocking part of the house opening with your thumb to create a fan of water, not just a stream) to different parts of the air mattress. Again, if you see bubbles forming in any particular area, do more research because there is a good chance that you have found a hole.