Comfort while camping (Bestway Inflatable Sofa Bed)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Bestway Inflatable Sofa Bed
Date:	03/07/09 (340 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable, quick to inflate, roomy

Disadvantages: A little awkward in practicality to change from bed to sofa position

Both of my daughters' have camper vans so we've decided to have a few weekends away over the summer exploring Wales, somewhere none of us have spent much time in the past. We've been twice already this year (well, I've been to Wales three times but only twice camping) and I volunteered to buy a double air bed for one of the vans as my days of camp beds are sadly over yet it hardly seemed fair to expect anyone else to have the expense when it was only my poor old bones complaining!

When I saw this product from Bestway I was immediately sold, it seemed such a very good idea to invent a double airbed that easily turns into a sofa and I'd never seen it anywhere before coming across it in my local camping shop. I happily paid the asking price of £35, which ended up being a bit of a bargain actually as the cheapest I can find the same product online is £43.99 at the time of writing.

The bed comes with an AC 240V air pump which inflates the bed to full capacity in around 2 minutes, the pump fits well into the valves in the bed with the on/off switch being smoothly operated and conveniently located on the top side of the pump.

Once fully inflated I found the bed to be extremely comfortable when both in the bed and sofa position. It's very simple to swap and change between the two as the bed is made up of two inflatable panels which are joined by a flexible strip of rubber, you only need to tuck the bottom inflated panel underneath and this will raise the bed into the sofa height. This isn't easy on your own though, that was the problem I found. You have to lift the whole thing practically off the floor each time you want to change the position, and when I said it was very simple earlier I meant it's simple in theory but it does take a little brawn and height (both of which I am unfortunately lacking) to flip the bed between it's positions.

The dimensions of the bed are 193cm x 152cm x 64cm, which I believe is slightly smaller than a standard double bed but I can tell you than I shared the bed with my ten year old granddaughter and there was plenty of room. My double quilt fitted the bed perfectly too with a little overhang on all sides, all the better for keeping the warmth in when you're sleeping outdoors though so I'm not complaining. My son in law had the good idea of deflating the sofa headrests a bit so that me and my granddaughter could squish them down to use as pillows, this turned out wonderfully and saved the need for using towels as a pillow as I can't sleep on a perfectly flat bed at all.

The bed is covered in a soft and velvety fabric which was comfortable to both sit and sleep on, despite the fact that the camper van got warm during the night the bed didn't make me sweat which can be an unfortunate problem when it comes to cheaper or generally not as well made air beds. It provides plenty of support when in the bed position, although it does slowly lose a little air during the time it's being used as a sofa so it's worth using the pump for a few seconds before setting it out for bed so that you get optimum support while you're asleep.

This is perfect for sitting outside the van when it's folded into the sofa position, my mobility problems mean I can't sit on the floor and have problems when it comes to sitting in traditional camping chairs as there is just not enough support. The sofa bed is durable enough to be placed on grass so me and my daughter had a comfy seat while the men got the BBQ going, it was just the right height for us actually being not far off the height of a household settee which was perfect for my poor old joints and just as perfect for my daughter to get the baby to sleep in her arms before depositing her in her brand new (and wholly disliked) In The Night Garden Ready Bed.

I'm very happy with this sofa bed and honestly believe it will make camping all the more bearable, I do enjoy camping and always have but now I'm getting older I certainly appreciate the luxuries!

Summary: An excellent buy for my family's planned camping trips.