How to Find a Leak in An Air Mattress? Within 3 Steps

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How to find a leak in an air mattress is very frequently asked questions by people who use air mattress.

An air mattress is great for usability and portability, but anyone who sleeps on an air mattress knows that all air mattresses leak.

And finding a hole in an air mattress is a very challenging and hard task to do.

That’s why you are searching for how to find a leak in an air mattress.

Some of the holes may be big and easy to spot but if your air mattress is leaking but you don’t see any hole then it’s possible to air mattresses have small tiny holes and that don’t see by our naked eyes.

Other problems of air mattresses can be forgivable like sagging but this is the serious problem that you are noticing air loss while you sleep and you are doing more re-inflating rather than sleep then I have a solution for your problem.

how to find a leak in an air mattress

I can give you some tips & tricks to find a leak in an air mattress and this will stop your detective work and easy for you to find a leak in an air mattress.

Here is more effective way to find a leak in an air mattress.

Step 1 : Find the Place for inspecting mattress

how to find a leak in an air mattress

Before finding a hole in an air mattress you need to get free space and light for inspecting on the mattress, and if you are camping then the best place to do this is inside the tent away from the noise and wind.

After when you find a good spot for inspecting the mattress then just inflate the mattress again so you can find the hole in the mattress easily.

Step 2: Use your all Senses to find a leak in air mattress

how to find a hole in an air mattress

A small leak is hard to find if your mattress is leaking slowly and small leaks can’t be seen by our naked eyes and the leak can be hidden but obviously the first task is to see from your eyes if you can find the leak from your eyes then it’s good.

But small leaks can not be found by our eyes, finding a leak by listening is way easier to find rather than seeing from eyes.

So after inflating fully without risk of bursting the mattress and listen you need to check first these areas before you search the whole mattress and waste your time.

The first check on its surface( bottom of the air mattress), listen carefully if you hear any sound like whistling or sound of air moving then after the most important place to check in the mattress for its leak is its a valve.

It is a very smart choice to look for its valve before searching the rest of the area and wasting your time because most of the air mattresses have leaks common in its valve. 

And how to check valve efficiently then just check its valve plug is completely inserted into the valve stem, even if you can’t find the hole or leak in valve then let’s move to other areas to check a leak in the air mattress.

If listening is not helping ( listening is way better than looking) then you need to check leak by other senses.

Just put your open hand near to the mattress and slowly move around your hand over the mattress and check if you can feel any airflow or passing air feeling.

how to find a leak in an air mattress

And another thing but some time-consuming put tissues around the mattress to see if any tissue can move.

If you do these of the methods to find a leak in an air mattress then chances are higher you will find the hole in an air mattress, but you want to learn more easy and simple ways to find a leak in the air mattress then read the next session.

Step 3: Use other methods for finding leaks in an air mattress

1. Soapy water bottle method: 

Soapy water bottle method: 

Instead of hearing and looking you can do a more simple and easy way to find out a hole in the air mattress,

if you can find a small spray bottle, soap and water then you can do this method so much easier and you can find out quickly hole in the air mattress.

First upon you need to fill the bottle with water and dish soap or any other brands of soaps.

Spray this formula all over the mattress and watch slowly look around the mattress if there is any bubble of soapy water if you see any bubbles then there is a leak of air passing.

If you find any leak then mark the leak with a permanent marker then it is easier for you also to find leaks in the future. When you want to repair the leak in an air mattress.

After finding all leakage you need to wet down a towel for washing the air mattress, and leave the air mattress outside for a few hours until it gets dry.

If you do not do this then you can get problems like molding in your mattress.

Garden hose method : 

Similar to like soapy water method, you can find a leak in an air mattress by sing garden hose to sprinkle water all over around the mattress first starting with its surface.

If water hits the hole then it causes bubbles but you need to make sure the flow of the water must be slow.

And in this method, lots of people get confused in bubbles while flowing of water they don’t understand which bubbles are coming from air mattress and which are coming from water flow if you are using this method for finding out the leak then,

You can substitute garden hose to the water bucket, bucket, or spoon of water whatever you use just make sure you need to see the bubbles.

How to repair a leak in an air mattress

how to find hole in an air mattress

Now what you find the leak from one of the above methods of how to find a leak in an air mattress, 

Now once you found the leak you need to mark that leak with a permanent marker or a tape already said before but don’t puncture the air mattress again with that end of the marker just you need to mark lightly so that can be visible.

Then leave the mattress outside for a few hours until it becomes fully dry then once the air mattress dried up then deflates the mattress completely.

The final step is to patch the hole in the mattress.

If you find a tiny small leak or hole in an air mattress then you can use some liquid PVC repair glue to the damaged area in the mattress for repair a leak in an air mattress. 

For larger holes, you can find mattress repair kits in any outdoor or hardware shops.

Lots of people even use a bicycle tire patch-up kit but you must need to know every air mattress is different before patching you need to read manufactures instructions on how to patch the air mattress.

Before patching makes sure the area around the hole is dry and clean.

After repairing a leak in an air mattress fill up air and see once again if the mattress has any other leaks or not and you can also check if you did properly repair the leak or not.

Shree Jadhav
About the author

Shree Jadhav

Shree Jadhav is a freelance writer, with his critical & analytical thinking, he researches & tests all mattresses, to help people to choose the best mattress and give all guides & Information for every mattress on the market.

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