Mainstays and Hometrends Air Mattress Review

Airbeds can be a quick and easy solution when you don't have a mattress but air beds don't always last as long. I decided to purchase an air mattress due to my budget from Wal*Mart. Wal*Mart offers different types of air beds. Some require manual air pumping while others have a pump built right in. Or you may decide to purchase a separate electric pump to use for the bed and other items such as bicycle tires. There are two sections where you can find airbeds: camping and in the home bedding area. Most of the beds in the home area by Mainstays are elevated air beds while in the camping area aren't.

I bought two airbeds over the course of 5 months. The first one was Hometrends 64 in W *48 in L and 20 IN H with a capacity of 600 lbs. The second one I bought was Mainstays 60 in W * 80 in L * 15 in. H and also has the capacity of 600 lbs. Both air beds have velor top and sides and a built in electric pump. They also provide a plastic duffel style storage bag. Both beds take about 3 minutes to inflate and you can adjust on the pump how firm you want the bed to be by releasing air out with the turning knob.

The bed includes a small air patch kit. The kit consist of a small tube of sealant and a small patch. I'm a bit baffled at the fact the kit does not include hardly enough patches just in case more than one occurs. Both beds were comfortable and for about 2 months didn't have any problems. The beds were used daily in replace of a regular mattress and can only withstand so much. For example you may not realize putting your knee or elbow down into the mattress until you start to hear a small whistling sound. Or you may start to feel air coming out at you. There was a big surprise when I went to sit down and a huge hole burst out of no where causing a horrendous sound.

The hole was patched up with the patching kit provided but was never the same after that. While bed had the big hole, the other bed had small patched up holes. The Mainstays with the small holes doesn't go down very much during use but does need to have the pump on from time to time. The other bed ended up becoming so bad no matter how many patches were put on that, the bed needed air every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Waking up to the hard floor and having to get up to put air in the bed caused some hard 10 hour days at work. Due to this problem we had to buy the other bed.

After purchasing Mainstays bed in hopes it wouldn't have a big hole like the Hometrends, we realized both beds are marketed by Wal*Mart. Not to mention they have all the same features. Oddly enough the Mainstays bed is still holding up okay after 3 months granted you need a hole patched here and there and is used occasionally. I wouldn't suggest this bed as a long term solution but rather a quick and easy one until a more permanent solution is available. Both beds at the time costs around $60.00 in Wal*Mart. Be careful if you do decide to purchase an airbed as some require batteries instead of electricity to work. Currently they do not provide batteries if the air bed is run on batteries. To check out the selection of airbeds available for ordering online, log onto: http://www.walmart.com