Air Mattress ?

[JRJR]

Anyone use an air mattress in their camper? I am looking at trying one. The OEM one in our AF camper is flat as a pancake I cant believe that they would put such a piece of junk in their campers. Should I get an air mattress or would it be another waste of money?
John

[billyray50]

happycamper1942 wrote:
I tried an air mattress a few years ago in my camper and gave it up as in the cooler weather it would never warm up, we had to put lots of layers between us and it to stay warm.

X2

[tplife]

Ranger Tim wrote:
Any air cells with greater than 1/4 inch will convect heat away from the body. Keep an insulation layer between you and the mattress and you are good to go.

That insulating layer between you and the mattress will barely slow the heat transfer as it is flattened under you. You need a slow-conducting solid under your pad to slow heat transfer the greatest: liquid the fastest, gas the slower, solid the slowest. That's why ice melts slower if you remove the melted water in the cooler, same laws of thermodynamic transfer.

[Ranger_Tim]

Any air cells with greater than 1/4 inch will convect heat away from the body. Keep an insulation layer between you and the mattress and you are good to go.

[My_Blue_Heaven]

"This is due to the heat-sink effect of thermo-negative hollow air mattresses. They are only for use in heated enclosures, because they exchange heat to be the same temp as outside air, so if you're sleeping on them, they're working 24/7 to suck the warmth out of you. A cellular foam mattress would need to be 5.0 R-value or better to overcome this, while a hollow air mattress (or cot) is measured at a negative 0.75."

One of the coldest nights I ever spent was sleeping on an air mattress on concrete in an overcrowded youth hostel garage floor in Paris in May of 1973. (And I was in a military down mummy bag!)

[tplife]

Thorin wrote:

tplife wrote:
This is due to the heat-sink effect of thermo-negative hollow air mattresses. They are only for use in heated enclosures, because they exchange heat to be the same temp as outside air, so if you're sleeping on them, they're working 24/7 to suck the warmth out of you. A cellular foam mattress would need to be 5.0 R-value or better to overcome this, while a hollow air mattress (or cot) is measured at a negative 0.75.

But that doesn't mean there is no way no counter that. As long as there is no heat exchange between you body and the mattress you should be alright. Any memory foam topper would do the trick. ***Link Removed*** about how memory foam reflects your body heat back to you. Even though he's talking about back pain, it's still about keeping warm too.

The only way to counter the effect is to heat the air around the mattress. Foil under and pads over still allow heat transfer. The memory foam will transfer heat down to the air mattress at a faster rate than it retains heat up. The reason is that the pad/sleeper/mattress are reaching temperature equilibration. They will stop when all are the same temp. This is why air mattresses are only intended for use inside a heated enclosure, and why they don't mention the negative 0.75 R-value at time of sale. A trip to the local UFO or commercial foam outlet will show just how many varieties of this "rises like bread" product is available in for firmness levels and covering options.

[Thorin]

tplife wrote:
This is due to the heat-sink effect of thermo-negative hollow air mattresses. They are only for use in heated enclosures, because they exchange heat to be the same temp as outside air, so if you're sleeping on them, they're working 24/7 to suck the warmth out of you. A cellular foam mattress would need to be 5.0 R-value or better to overcome this, while a hollow air mattress (or cot) is measured at a negative 0.75.

But that doesn't mean there is no way no counter that. As long as there is no heat exchange between you body and the mattress you should be alright. Any memory foam topper would do the trick. ***Link Removed*** about how memory foam reflects your body heat back to you. Even though he's talking about back pain, it's still about keeping warm too.

[travelnutz]

getpower1,

We noticed adding a memory foam topper on the OEM mattress in our TC's would also interfere with the wardrobe door being able to be opened. Too high or thick! Just another reason not to have the OEM mattress and having to add a foam topper so it's more comfortable and gives more R-value. Knowing this as we'd checked the dimemsional clearance be for buying our first air mattress, we bwent with an 8" thick one and it doesn't even need a foam topper because it's button push inflation infinitely adjustable inflation. Mattress thickness is usually not an issue with a TT, MH, or 5th wheel but sure is on most TC's cabover beds.

Also learned that any added insulation under a TC bed should be under the mattress as you want to prevent any thermal difference sweating before it can get the mattress wet as mold will grow under it. We use Astro-Foil and some have used closed cell foam board but thickness needed for R-value can still be a problem. Never had any sweating using the Astro-Foil since 1988 and many nights sleeping in -10 F or lower outside the TC temps. Always 70-72 F inside our TC or RV 24/7. Neither of us like to sleep in cold air and especially not when having a bunch of heavy or thick blankets on top. Just a thin blanket or a top sheet. We don't and won't sleep in a cold torture chamber in an RV or at home.

[tplife]

happycamper1942 wrote:
I tried an air mattress a few years ago in my camper and gave it up as in the cooler weather it would never warm up, we had to put lots of layers between us and it to stay warm.

This is due to the heat-sink effect of thermo-negative hollow air mattresses. They are only for use in heated enclosures, because they exchange heat to be the same temp as outside air, so if you're sleeping on them, they're working 24/7 to suck the warmth out of you. A cellular foam mattress would need to be 5.0 R-value or better to overcome this, while a hollow air mattress (or cot) is measured at a negative 0.75.

[getpower1]

The mattresses that came in my 94 Fleetwood are pretty terrible. Yes, there are two twin mattresses instead of one huge queen mattress. They are just stuck together and one big sheet put over the top of them makes the bed into a queen.

They would've been like sleeping on stiff cardboard boxes.

Before we even used the camper the first time, my girlfriend went out and bought a queen size mattress topper. It zipped over both mattresses making it into one big real queen bed. I sleep like a baby on it. I can sleep about anywhere, but she's comfortable and that's important.

One thing I want to mention though. There are a couple of wardrobe cabinets that opened fine with the original height of the mattresses. Now you have to squish the mattress topper down to open either of them. I didn't even realize it would be an issue. For me, not much of a pain, but I wanted to mention it in case you hadn't thought of it and may realize like we did once the topper was bought and put on.

[Reddog1]

travelnutz wrote:
Added:

In winter in the TC, we lay a heated mattress pad between the comforter and the fitted sheet and it's feels so good and draws so little amps from the inverter when not on shore power that it's no big deal. Heat rises and guess who's above the mattress pad? Can sleep in true comfort with only a top sheet covering you and easily adjust the heat level and the mattress firmness without even sitting up! What more could you want? An ice cold beer?

I'll take the beer.

Wayne

[travelnutz]

Added:

In winter in the TC, we lay a heated mattress pad between the comforter and the fitted sheet and it's feels so good and draws so little amps from the inverter when not on shore power that it's no big deal. Heat rises and guess who's above the mattress pad? Can sleep in true comfort with only a top sheet covering you and easily adjust the heat level and the mattress firmness without even sitting up! What more could you want? An ice cold beer?

[travelnutz]

We have been using a queen size air mattress with builtin pumps in all 5 of our last 5 RV's. 2 Lance TC's, 2 Carriage 5th wheels, and our Sunline Solaris TT. All have been extremely comfortable and infinitely adjustable for in flation anytime. We have inverters to run the pump for altering the air pressure when we are not on shore power. 4 of them have dual chamber controls so we can each have the firmness pressure we desire with just a touch of our chamber button.

So much warmer in winter in the TC as there's no metal springs or thick cold foam or fabric/stuffing that gets bone chilling cold and then chill the heck out of you. The air mattress doesn't at all as it's easily warmed to body temp very quickly. To add to the cold blocking status, I layed down a full 60" wide layer of Astro-Foil under the air mattress. Been doing this air mattress replacement since 1988 and will never go back to a heavy very uncomfortable fixed firmness mattress.

NONE of our 5 have ever leaked at all and one is over 20 year old and used a lot. Plus we have and had always had a Siberian Husky Dog while using the air mattresses and yes, all have jumped up on the cabover bed when we are down below. Remeber, even with a large dog up on it, no leaking air mattresses ever in our RV's. Simply lay a comforter over the air mattress and a fitted sheet over that and even the dog's nails never puncture it.

Besides, they are so much lighter in weight and also much cheaper to buy than a normal mattress. So replacement costs if ever punctured is real cheap anyway. For years, we carried an extra new air mattress with us but never had to use it so we use it to replace the OEM Beauty Rest mattress in one of the RV's. Also of note is that even if you need a replacemt, they are sold all over the USA in Walmarts, Targets, Meijer, Bed Bath and Beyond, and dozens of more stores and is why we don't carry an extra anymore.

My wife is disabled and never found any mattress that she is comfortable on other than the adjustable air mattress. Something to remember about Memory Foam Toppers is that when they get cold they get very hard and they hold the cold a very long tiime and why we don't use them in the TC. We do have a 2' memory foam topper in the Carriage Carrilite 5th wheel on top of the air mattress as it gets heated under the bed because there's a 4" X 12" vent on each side of the bed riser and also, the air mattress is so much lighter to lift the bed to get at stuff stored under it.

Simply put, the air mattresses are fabulous and a win win win and have never had a single complaint about them.

BTW, we had a Sleep Number bed at home and replaced it with a duap control air mattress also and it's much better than the outragously expensive overpriced and very heavy Sleep Number Bed for both of us.

The OP must decide for himself!

[STBRetired]

Keep a couple in the closet for "emergencies" when we need to sleep more than 4. Not very comfortable, would not recommend using one full time.

[happycamper1942]

I tried an air mattress a few years ago in my camper and gave it up as in the cooler weather it would never warm up, we had to put lots of layers between us and it to stay warm.