Can anyone recommend a good way to repair blow up air beds? They are the cheap sort from Halfords - we have found them very comfy for about 6 years, but have just got back from a trip where three of them developed punctures! I'm hoping that the seals all along haven't just had it with age.
In people's experience, it's it worth trying to mend them, and what are the chances of success? The exact process? I suppose it's immerse them bit by bit in the bath... Puncture repair tape? Has anyone done it successfully? (Or unsuccessfully?) I hate to throw them away.
Bicycle tyre repair kit is what I would suggest, however, the difficulty is trying to locate the leak unless one has a swimming pool that can be used to submerge a blown up bed to locate the leak.
A wet sponge approach would take forever IMHO!
I ditched my trusted double air bed when it developed a leak mid trip over Christmas in 2021, and switched to camp bed + SIM.
With camp bed + SIM, even if the SIM develops a leak, it can still be used on top of the camp bed and provide some insulation. This combination turned out to be far more comfortable too!
DK
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Success depends VERY much on where the leak is and the type of fault. Pin prick puncture holes can be successfully repaired with a dab of adhesive over the hole. Tears and splits usually require a patch to be stuck on, to both seal the leak and reinforce weakness.
Almost all current airbeds are PVC, that requires a solvent adhesive that will 'melt' into the parent material, something like Bostik All Purpose would do it, the patch if required needs to be a similar grade of PVC. Tyre puncture repair kits are the wrong kind of adhesive/patch, they are intended for Rubber, and the bond will not be especially good!
I've repaired a few airbeds and inflatable PVC items with varying degrees of success, but sometimes the leak is somewhere very awkward like a corner, and patching is near impossible, therefore repair likely to be tricky to impossible. But for the cost of a tube of glue, nothing to loose in trying.
DO let the adhesive set FULLY before inflating hard!
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Topic: How to repair air beds
via mobile 06/8/2022 at 8:51am
