The last time I bought a mattress for myself was about 11 years ago. I bought a fairly new full-sized one off a coworker. Four moves and a decade later, we’ve decided it’s time to replace it with an adult (and sometimes an extra toddler)-sized bed. When we started looking, I was shocked at the prices. $3000 for a mattress? What the heck are these things made of? Knowing very little, we went shopping for a mattress and other things on a Saturday morning. The first place, we stopped, Sleepy’s, seemed nice enough. We laid on a few and honed in on the one that we both felt most comfortable in. Meanwhile, Audrey discovered the fun of letting herself fall backwards onto mattresses and did it all over the store. She was giggling and the whole store couldn’t help but look and smile at her. Unfortunately, we soon stopped smiling. When we found something we liked, the seemingly helpful salesman started to get more aggressive. He asked how much we were looking at paying and I made up a number on the spot, something way below the listed price on the bed.
The said he would “talk with his manager” and see if he could get us that price. Then he started asking us if we could commit and have it delivered tomorrow. Anne had walked outside to give Audrey a break by that point, so I said I had to go out and talk with her about it. We talked about it for a bit, then decided we didn’t like the high-pressure sales pitch, so we got ready to leave. I had the car started up when the salesman came out and approached the car window. He then said that he had “talked to his manager” and he could give us the price we wanted AND a free “platinum package”. I said we would talk about it and let him know. We again decided this was sketchy, but to make good on my promise, I went in and gave him my phone number and left. Later that day we went to Jordan’s Furniture, generally known to be a reputable place with reasonable places. The salespeople there were nice and NOT high-pressure. Prices were generally lower, but strangely, we couldn’t find the mattress we found at Sleepy’s.
They had Sertas, but not the one we liked. Being indecisive, we left with a couple new names of ones we liked. Later, we went to Mattress Discounters. The woman there was not pushy and told us about the BBB complaints that Sleepy’s (a 700-store chain) had gotten. We decided to think some more and head home. At home, I did some research online and I found something strange – I couldn’t find much of anything on the mattresses we saw that we liked. I found some mattresses, many of the same brand, but not the same models. I later came to find out that this was completely intentional. The mattress industry is one big scam. There is no way to make an objective decision on a mattress using actual facts. Here’s a few things that the mattress industry does to get you: 1. They mark up their prices 100% to 200%!! No wonder the first guy was able to get his “manager” to give me such a steep discount. They were probably still going to make hundreds of dollars of profits on it.
2. They give the same mattresses different names in different stores or they set up exclusivity agreements by mattress line in certain stores. This makes it impossible to comparison shop because… 3. They make it really had to get actual facts about the mattresses. Stuff like coil counts, materials, overall construction are shrouded in secrecy. But that doesn’t really matter because… 4. There’s no objective measure of mattress quality. Consumer Reports won’t rate them because they can’t get the data and there’s no testing that actually says higher coil counts are better or the number of wires in the coils makes a difference in any way. You’re left to deciding how much you believe the marketing. Is a pillow top made of alpaca hair any better than one made of cotton? Your guess is as good as mine. 5. There’s very little online reviews of mattresses, probably because the model names are so fractured. The ones I did find looked more like content-free sites designed to attract referral credits.
With some more research, I found out that it was somewhat possible to compare mattresses models from different places. It turns out that they really only make one hardness variation in each line. So you can assume that a Plush Firm mattress in the “Classic” line, is the same as another Plush Firm in the Classic line, even if they have different names. was very helpful in figuring this out. We were able to understand which mattresses we saw and how they related to each other. For example, the mattress we liked at Jordan’s was a product line better than the one we saw at Mattress Discounters, even though they came out to the same price! Clearly Jordan’s had the better deal, but US-Mattress had an even better deal. So I did something I never thought I could do, buy a mattress over the internet. I’m pretty sure it’s the same one we saw in the store and the free delivery and frame were a good deal. I’m sure that even if I’m getting it at half the price I saw it listed at elsewhere, they’re still making a decent profit on it.
Anne and I agree that buying a mattress is worse than buying a car. While both have sketchy salespeople, when you buy a car, you can compare them on MPG, size, features, etc. Multiple dealers have the same models so you can compare prices and make an informed decision based on their invoice prices. There’s none of that when buying a mattress. Our mattress should arrive in a few weeks. Hopefully we’ll just find it comfortable enough to have to avoid going through buying a mattress again for at least another 11 years. UPDATE: The mattress arrived quickly and in good condition. We’ve been sleeping on it for several nights and while it feels comfy, I’ve had some upper back soreness which seems to be related to the new mattress. Hopefully it will go away. Otherwise, we’ll have to find another one and do a $100 exchange I guess.Welcome to the March update of the guide on the best air mattress and their reviews. March finds us on a kind of a high, because we finally have a change in the 3 TOP-rated airbeds.
A new exciting (well, exciting for us) arrival to the market is now ranked 3rd behind the undisputed SoundAsleep. The Dream Series by SoundAsleep has been lounging comfortably at the top with a significant gap in ratings over the runner-up for more than a year now. You’ll understand the reasons of our (it might seem) frivolous excitement, as you scan and hopefully read the reviews of the air mattresses. Alas, we don’t see that happening anytime soon, at least not for the title of the best-air mattress and the # 1 spot where the SoundAsleep Dream Series has, as we said, dominating for almost 2 years now. However, after 6 months of calm seas, any change is good. See the rankings just below the introductory video ( which explains who I am and what we do at BestAirMattressGuide). Make sure you take a minute to watch the video demo below, it’s crucial for understanding the advantages of the currently top-rated airbed. It will also help you understand everything discussed in the reviews.
Let’s summarize and see the top choices side by side, along with their basic specs and overall ratings. Below, we’ll just go into some airbeds that were close but didn’t quite make it to the TOP 3 In other words, a few honorary mentions that we didn’t have the heart to leave out. The Serta Raised with the never flat pump is one of the air mattresses that never left the TOP 10. Literally never when it comes to our website – since we started it back in 2012 it was below the place #10. It’s low point was at the very beginning when it was dancing from place 7-10 for about a year. But, to be honest, back then we were still trying to tweak our testing and rating methods to truly reflect the quality of the air mattress. As things settled, this Serta quietly found its way into the TOP 5 and, then, the TOP 3 where it stayed for over 6 months. Up to this month’s update, that is. Version of the Serta Never Flat with a flocked top * and a TOP CHOICE among EZ airbeds with a frame
The Insta EZ is a high-end product with a price tag to match but if you want an airbed that will be the talk of the breakfast table What people who own it say: * and a top budget solution If you need an airbed that will be used often, this budget-friendly blow up bed might be the choice for you. Intex is one of the industry’s most established brands. However, airbeds for home use are not their primary field, it’s stuff like lilos, above-ground pools, inflatable sofa and lunges and inflatable chairs. Among their air mattresses, this one is by far the best choice. Opposed to their outdated models that might be cheap but rightfully so, the Comfort Plus is different. Primary because of the new Fiber-tech technology. It was always our mission to be as precise as possible and that led to diversification of our guides. I am a brand man and if that makes me shallow so be it, it’s the simple truth that some brands simply make the best air mattress.
I buy same brand jackets whole my life, same brand jeans, I simply like the “energy” surrounding certain brands. And I believe that I have now found my brand of air mattresses. I’ll tell you here and now, when it comes to inflatable beds, I like Aerobed. Nowadays, Most of the bigger brands like Intex, Coleman, Serta have similar models and it’s a rat race. And the rat race is good, it results in better products and more attention to what we, the customers, need. And lately, some newbies, like Sound Asleep with their Dream Series have been shaking and baking in the market. These are your top picks when it comes to air bed brands. In the comparison tables we look at some other options because you can never have too much information, but in my honest opinion these brands are top notch, tested over time and passing the tests with flying colors. each of these brands has some fluke models, but we won’t be talking about those here. We’re interested in the best products. Now we are coming to the “meat” of this page – the top 5 airbed reviews (in no particular order) .
Just five inflatable beds that I humbly concluded are the best all things considered. Please read it, I lost my eyesight in front of that screen to compile this info. Here, we wanted to mention the airbed that were at some point among the top 5 or 10 but have since seen a significant decline in ratings. We are trying to keep tabs on all the air mattresses we review here to better understand why quality declines happen so that we can better understand the industry trends and know what blow up beds need re-testing. We do update our guides every two months but we don’t test the beds every two months, the updates are a result of updated reviews from our featured testers. Only when we see a significant decline is when we re-test the airbeds from scratch. These three have seen such a decline at some point over the last two years but we still can’t out our finger on the reason. All the indicators with these beds (primarily leak development after 1, 3 and 6 months) have gone up, and not by little, hence the drop in ratings.
Ratings – 78 / 100 If you are here you are either looking for a guest bed for your house of camping gear like inflatable pads. If you are looking for the later, I’ve got you covered – here is my ultimate guide to sleeping pads. It’s where you’ll find comparison charts, recommended products and reviews of the best rated sleeping pads. But here, we’ll mostly deal with air mattresses, most of them to be used for around the house or for less extreme camping conditions. And it is a big decision, granted. Especially for those who have people over a lot. If you are not going to pamper yourself in these kind of things that determine the quality of your life, where else? I am a perfectionist and at times very indecisive. My most recent search started with me having the feeling that I’ll go over to Amazon and order an air bed within 10-15 minutes. But this seemingly simple decision turned into hours and days of research, especially when I saw all the options, new brands, types and pros and cons of each of them.
And let’s not forget here that I am an aged camper and I can safely brag that I do know a lot about air mattresses. Well, this is not gonna happen to you. Because you found this website. When things got complicated I started making notes and that turned into a notebook with tables and comparisons… OK, you must be thinking, “What a nut…” And you’re probably right. But be nice now, this nut is going to help you find the best air mattress for your money. So, long story short, grab a mug of coffee and dig into this website, it is a shortcut that will save you tons of time and frustration. I have gathered the best of the best in air mattresses here. And don’t worry if you are intrigued, I will tell you which one I got in the end. It’s a cliche but we cannot just tell you what to get. We don’t know your budget or your needs, but if you need our help just shoot me an email and I’ll respond within 24 hours. Yes, one last thing that you should think about and is a good idea -using a mattress cover or pad to make the air bed more comfortable and protect it from punctures.