How to seal an inflatable mattress: we repair it ourselves!

For each inflatable mattress there is its main cause of puncture. Beach mattresses suffer, mainly from the sharp edges of seashells, pebbles, twigs or glass fragments, but sleeping mattresses, that is inflatable beds, can become victims of pets who have decided to innocently thread the claws until the owner sees it. However, here it is a fact - the product is suddenly blown away, and you have to quickly find information about how to seal a mattress, and preferably more reliable.

The main problem with such troubles is finding a puncture site, and if everything is clear with the beach mattress (the river or the sea will become an auxiliary means of searching for the ill-fated hole), then what to do with the inflatable bed? Carry a thick double mattress to the river or to the shore of the ocean somehow not cost-effective, and in a standard bath the product even in half-sunken form does not always fit. To glue an inflatable mattress, you first need to find the place where the lacquer will soon appear. How to do it?

We are looking for a puncture by the method of soap bubbles! To do this, walk along the surface with a soapy sponge and press on the inflated mattress. If you know approximately the place of damage, the area of search is noticeably narrowed, yet a small edge of the mattress can be immersed in a bath of water. The detected puncture is better marked, use a marker, you can smear a bright nail polish, still this place will have to be wiped with acetone.

Before you figure out how to seal an air mattress, you need to find out which material is to be repaired. If there is a repair kit provided by some manufacturers, then the problem is solved, however, when buying independently, it is important to understand: not every glue comes to the material from which your mattress is made. There is a considerable difference in approach, how to seal an inflatable mattress made of rubber, rubberized fabric or from polyvinyl chloride with spraying. The patch for repair should be of the same material as your product, although there are exceptions. For example, a rubber patch on PVC falls not in the best way, but a leather patch can hold just fine.

So, a short algorithm "how to seal an inflatable mattress": look for a puncture site, mark it, degrease it, glue the patch and stand the day under the load. That's all, it would seem, wisdom.

The question arises: how and what to degrease the surface, and what to do with these PVC mattresses, which are covered with a special velvety coating? Usually the surface is degreased with solvents - acetone, white spirit. Spraying gently cleaned with a fine sandpaper - sandpaper. If the surface is slightly rough, then this is even good. Notice, you need to process both glued surfaces.

We carefully study the glue, read the instruction to it. Take into account, PVC-glue is quite toxic, it is better to work with gloves. However, the solvent, too, should not be touched with bare hands. According to the instructions, we paste a patch on the deflated mattress, closing the puncture, pressing it with a load. As a cargo, a book can be used, on which a weight or a bucket of water is installed.

Attention: how to seal an air mattress and do not glue it to the cargo? Put on a fresh patch an ordinary plastic bag, a randomly appearing drop of glue is now of no particular danger. Extremely rare, but still happens such an incident, as the gluing of the surfaces of the mattress from the inside. That is, the upper panel is glued to the bottom through a puncture or cut. To avoid this, you need to apply the following trick. Very lightly inflated mattress, pinpoint the appropriate glue on the puncture site, leave to dry. A frozen droplet of glue will create a barrier to fresh, when you impose a patch on all the rules. Correctly repaired mattress regularly serves for years!