Do-it-yourself repair of an intex inflatable bed with a built-in pump

In detail: do-it-yourself repair of an intex inflatable bed with a built-in pump from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Image - DIY repair of an intex inflatable bed with a built-in pump

You also have problems with inflatable bed Intex? Or with an inflatable mattress? I think yes. You have opened this page for a reason. At first I was also glad that such a successful contraption appeared in the house. But then she also began to let air through. Slowly at first. Then in the middle of the night I had to get up and pump up. Then during the night I had to do this twice already, otherwise you would wake up lying on the hard floor in the arms of a lowered inflatable bed. It all ended very badly: the bed was finally “blown away” and removed until better times. When the summer season began and repair kits for gluing Intex inflatable products appeared on sale, there was a real chance to repair our leaky bed. I bought a repair kit and.

The first place where I saw it on sale was the Sportmaster store. For only 199 rubles you can buy a repair kit consisting of a tube and a transparent patch. It's good that I never bought it. Indeed, in the Auchan store, the exact same set costs only 54 rubles:

No matter how much I tried to discern the differences in these products, I could not find it. The kits are identical. Probably, Sportmaster buys kits in Auchan and sells them at four roads.

Returning home, I pulled out the long-suffering inflatable bed from the mezzanine, laid it out on the floor and decided to immediately start repairing. First tore off all the previous patches. It's embarrassing to even admit, but earlier, trying to solve the problem with holes, I sealed them with tape. You understand that there was not much sense from this. Moreover, from the scotch tape on the surface of the bed, a sticky viscous glue remained, which was very difficult to remove.

Video (click to play).

But what was to be done? It was winter outside, repair kits are not for sale in winter. This is a seasonal item. Therefore, if you become the proud owner of an inflatable bed or mattress Intex, buy one or two at once repair kit... Who knows when your product will leak, in a year or tomorrow.

Finding old holes in old parts of the bed, I lightly cleaned them with alcohol. If there is no alcohol, vodka will do.

After unpacking the repair kit and reading the instructions, I thought about it. At some point, there was even a desire to abandon this whole venture, since it was fraught with the most “rosy” consequences if something went wrong. Here's what it says about the glue:

Can you imagine? Accidentally inhale a couple of glue and that's it! Fatal outcome. Maybe, well, her, this bed. Then I'll try with regular rubber glue?

However, curiosity and a desire to solve the problem right now took over. As they say, fly so fly!

To begin with, let's give "praise" to the manufacturer for the fact that he so tightly wound the patch material into the tube.

No matter how long I tried to straighten the material, each time it regularly rolled into the same compact roll. Here, you bastards! Just bastards! No, to put two or three bookmarks in an unfolded state. After all, the size of the package allows you to do this. In a word, I got angry with the manufacturer and the second time I wanted to abandon my plan.

Then, when the surging rage subsided somewhat, I nevertheless cut out a patch of the required size and prepared for the most terrible thing: it's time to open the tube of killer glue.

Didn't even doubt it! The glue in the tube was naturally under pressure. As soon as the protective membrane was pierced, a part of the “magic liquid” immediately ended up partially on the fingers and partially on the floor.But, as the old joke says, “Chukchi are not a fool”! His hands were prudently wearing rubber gloves, and the floor was covered with old newspaper. If it weren't for the gloves, it remains to be seen what might have happened. Perhaps you would not read this article now and would not have been warned about the insidiousness of vinyl glue 🙂

Then the fun began. It was necessary to somehow manage to smear the patch with dangerous glue, which was striving to curl up into a roll. I tried on for a long time, but each time I realized that now it, already smeared, would again curl up into a tube and immediately stick together. This will end the game. And no pleasure other than breathing in the vapors of the vinyl glue! How not to be angry with the manufacturer!

Then a saving thought came. What if glue is not on the patch, but on the surface of the inflatable bed itself? Let's try it, anyway it won't work out otherwise:

Is it clear now. There was no explosion or other chain reactions. Now quickly apply a patch on top!

Aha! Somewhere already "grabbed"! Briskly grease the rest of the area with glue and press:

Then the incomprehensible began. The corners of the patch suddenly began to curl in the opposite direction - from the surface of the bed. I had to take action - grease the edges and press them into place.

More than once or twice during this time, I again wanted to drop everything and return to the good old rubber glue. The patch turned out to be terribly ugly. I didn't like it. Moreover, I somehow could not believe that it would hold on and not fall off the first time the bed was inflated.

In a similar way, I glued a couple more patches on the holes I knew in the inflatable bed. Then, according to the instructions, it was necessary to leave the product for 12 hours for complete setting.

The sight of the glued patches was disheartening. They looked too primitive. Most likely, all this is an empty idea. But when I tried to pick out the edge of one of them, it turned out to be stuck tightly.

Having inflated the inflatable bed, I first left it alone and did other things. Imagine my surprise when, after about a couple of hours, I came to the room where the experiment was being carried out and found that the Intex product did not even think to “let it go”. It looked exactly the same as right after pumping.

Deciding to conduct a more daring experiment (it was just about time for an afternoon rest), I lay down on the bed. When I woke up about an hour later, I noticed that the bed had lost some of its elasticity.

One of two things - either some patch is “gone” or there are one or two more “unaccounted for” holes.

This is the longest part of the job, but at the same time the most creative. Find a hole the size of a sewing needle in a huge double inflatable bed Is a whole ritual. I'm not afraid to say that this is an exciting quest for true adventurers!

First, it is worthwhile to pump up the product tightly enough and listen to if a suspicious hiss is heard from any part of it. Before that, you need to close all windows, doors, turn off all sounding household appliances and remove the headphones from the player from your ears.

Try to listen to the mattress alone. Otherwise, your focused look, which is an example of embodied attention, will certainly cause an unhealthy reaction in those present. With their laughter and barbs, they can threaten the failure of your mission.

Sometimes a simple listening is enough to find a puncture. However, very small holes cannot be found this way.

Alternatively, move your wet hand slowly over the surface of the inflatable product, hoping to catch the faint flow of air going out through the opening. Here you definitely need to be alone in the room. Indeed, from the outside it may seem that you are trying to heal the mattress with your suddenly awakened psychic abilities. Here you can not avoid jokes.Especially if you inadvertently tell someone that you are trying to repair a mattress or bed this way.

Alas, sometimes neither hearing, nor magical passes with hands over the surface of the product help to identify the problem area. Then you have to move on to plan "B."

Perhaps you recall looking for a puncture in a swimming ring or bicycle tube as a child? Right. They were simply lowered under the water and watched where the bulbs would come from. But try putting even the simplest single air mattress into the water, not to mention a huge bed.

Soap solution helps. Armed with a brush, first of all, it is worth "walking" with the solution in all corners, edges and seams. Look carefully for bubbles starting to inflate in the place where you just daubed. In this case, try to do without witnesses, because in your work you will resemble an outstanding artist working with concentration on the next greatest canvas of our time.

If you went through all the problem areas, and did not see bubbles, we begin a total check of the entire surface. You will need a wider brush. For example, painting. This work is quite painstaking and wet, but it is guaranteed to lead to results. The main thing is not to rush.

There is also the potential for air to pass through the pump valve. There is nothing you can do about it. As you know, you can't get far from fate.

There is another "ambush" that can lie in wait for the owner of an inflatable bed. This is a burst internal partition.

One night in the middle of the night I suddenly woke up from some strange and rather loud sound. First thought: the cat is pulling an inflatable bed with its claws. Very similar. However, turning on the light, I realized that the beast had nothing to do with it. It's just that the innermost partition burst near the bed.

As a result, there is a slight elevation on one side. It did not cause much inconvenience. Rather, on the contrary - now there was no fear of falling out of bed during sleep.

About a month later, another burst - the next one from the same edge. The inflatable bed has been transformed from a double bed into some kind of fancy single sofa:

What to do in such cases? I'm afraid to upset you, but the answer is the decadent word "nothing." Of course, you can do as befits real optimists: carefully cut the outer shell, five-neatly glue the inner bulkhead, and then just as neatly close up the outer cut. But at home, only a very decisive person can venture on such experiments.

Therefore, it remains only to watch with sadness how the partitions fail one after another. When the last of them orders to live long, the inflatable bed will stop into some strange object, resembling a huge hamburger in shape. I think I have all the prerequisites to follow this process to the end and show you all the stages.

Now I know I can find a small hole in the outer shell and glue the inflatable bed or Intex mattress quite possible at homewithout resorting to the services of specialists. I used a proprietary repair kit for this. Perhaps the same effect can be achieved with ordinary rubber glue and simple patches. Almost three weeks have passed since then and the bed is doing well. Of course, every two or three days it has to be pumped up using the built-in pump, but this is quite normal.

So, if your inflatable bed needs to be pumped up more often than once a day, you can try looking for a hole and glue it over instead of getting upset over trifles. We all know that nerve cells do not regenerate.

As for the destruction of internal partitions. hopefully you are more fortunate than me. After all, it will be either impossible or very expensive to fix such a defect.

An inflatable mattress is a rather durable thing, and by itself it is unlikely to start letting in air. The most common reason a product fails is the sharp claws of a cat.But is it worth it to say goodbye to your beloved cat because of this? Moreover, a damaged item can be easily repaired if you know how and how to glue the air mattress.

Can you glue the inflatable mattress yourself? Undoubtedly.

pump;
marker;
container with water (for the first method);
a sponge and any foaming agent (for the second);
flour or starch (for the third method);
matches or a lighter (for the fourth).

Puncture on the inflatable mattress

A surefire way to find the damaged area before you glue your air mattress at home is to submerge it in water. If the mattress is very small, a bowl of 10 - 20 liters will be enough, the larger item will have to be put into the bath, but the "adult" full-fledged mattress will fit only in a summer pool or a small pond.

The product, in which you need to find a hole, is pumped up with a pump and placed in a container of water. Then they carefully observe: air bubbles will be visible at the puncture site.

To detect a defect, it makes no sense to throw a thing into a river or another body of water with a constant current, because small air bubbles in such water can hardly be seen.

Having found a hole, it is immediately marked with a felt-tip pen. But do not rush and immediately remove the product from the water. Perhaps there is more than one puncture and there are tiny holes nearby, because of which a mattress, repaired in the most careful way, will still poison the air.

If the product is large, and there is no pond or pool nearby, you can find a puncture, due to which the air mattress is deflated, using foam.

To do this, take any detergent or laundry detergent and whip it into lather. Apply the resulting foam to the entire surface with a foam sponge and fix where air bubbles appear. They will be easy to spot on thick foam.

And if there are no bubbles? Then the puncture is on the other side, and you will have to repeat the soaping procedure from the beginning.

Inflatable models are extremely popular with consumers. And there is nothing to be surprised at: this versatile product is very convenient and practical, therefore it is widely used both for outdoor entertainment and for relaxation, or sleeping in the house.