If you love camping, you will really love this new air mattress

SoundAsleep mattress photoMy wife Linda and I stopped tenting years ago. We enjoy being pampered now, and our travel column gives us that opportunity from coastal inns to north woods sporting camps. But all of our children and grandchildren enjoy tenting and camping, so I arranged for son Josh to receive the SoundAsleep Camping Series air mattress, a low rise inflatable mattress.

And – as you will see in this report from Josh – he and his wife Kelly and 2-year-old daughter Ada loved it.

Josh’s Comments

Tenting out had become a distant memory for my growing family. With a two-year old and another child on the way, my wife and I hadn’t been camping since becoming parents. As an outdoor enthusiast, I always thought I would go camping with my children, as I had as a kid with my parents. Maybe if the whole prospect was just a little easier, I thought to myself.

Enter the SoundAsleep Camping Air Mattress.

My wife hadn’t done much tenting growing up so a night feeling every root and piece of gravel always took a little selling. Sure enough, she jumped at the idea of upgrading from our thin blow-up pads to a quality air mattress this summer.

We were immediately impressed how compact and well-packed the mattress was… not an insignificant factor now that our vehicles are always packed to the brim on even the shortest of trips. I was also relieved to see I would not lose the instructions: these easy to follow steps are printed right on the side of the bed.

The external electric pump appears to hold a charge well and does come with a car charger adapter. Anyways, the pump goes about the job in a hurry. Two minutes by my count (and even quicker when un-inflating).

The bed itself is very comfortable and will easily sleep our family of four. My daughter confirmed as much by quickly scrambling up to test it out with my wife and I.

The material has some elasticity to it, which obviously will help improve its durability during outdoor use. I also like the balance struck between comfort and size — air mattresses with super-sized height simply won’t fit in our compact family tent.

Then everything packed right back up into the carry bag the same way it came out. It isn’t heavy and in actuality will take up far less space than our old camping pads.

Now all that is left to do is plan this summer’s camping trip!

The Mattress

Our review of the Sound Asleep air mattress is produced in cooperation with 3 beds.com, a website that tests and rates airbeds and pads.

And here’s what SoundAsleep told us about the product:

Material Used – flocked blue top (the company claims the material to be puncture and water-resistant)

Coil Design – the company named the inner design I-Beam air coils and goes on to say it’s designed for better durability

Size – 78X60X9 inches

Pump – external battery operated, inflation/deflation in less than 3 minutes

1 year limited warranty

Color – blue top, beige sides

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.