It's okay to admit it, your done. You are tired of getting up off the ground in the morning when camping and it takes a cocktail of three Vitamin I's, two cups of coffee and a hot shower to make you feel human again by noon. You are finished with the tin man persona and being called "grumpy" "old" and friends continuing to ask "are you okay" as you grunt towards your second cup of coffee. Let me introduce you to the Sound Asleep Dream Series Air Mattress. Now, I know what you are thinking, "Scott, really? An air mattress!" You might be saying "Heck I will end up on the ground anyway!" I know, I know...but this is not the air mattress of old. This is the air mattress of now that is comfortable, durable and will keep you almost 20 inches off the cold and hard ground ALL night. Hiking Forward was asked to review this model a few months ago from the good people at www.3beds.com. 3Beds.com sole mission is “Protecting Good People from Bad Air Mattresses.” and we here at Hiking Forward are happy to be helping them fulfill their very noble mission (because we have all woken up on the ground after falling a sleep on a bad air mattress. We began at home testing the product to ensure proper usage, fit and pack-ability while at home prior to our family summer trip to southeastern Missouri. The first thing we noted was that the product inflated quickly for as large of a mattress that it is. The unit comes installed with an electric pump with a storage area for the cord. This may sound like a small feature, but I found it to be quite smart, given the potential for the plug to potential puncture the mattress. Oh by the way... AN ELECTRIC PUMP! No more hand pumps, foot pumps now or 4 D battery pumps that NEVER come close to inflating the normal camping air mattress to a comfortable level. Plug the unit in, turn the knob to inflate and stand back and watch at your new comfortable bed comes to life. Once inflated the bed is very comfortable and spacious for two people. On our trip, we kept it simple and used sleeping bags instead of creating a full proper bed. When the mattress fully inflates it creates a nice outer ridge to keep you on the bed. This is helpful when laying in the bed as well as creates a significant air ridge for sitting on the edge when needing to get dressed or put on your shoes in the morning. In addition both me and my wife testing out this air mattress we did a side by side comparison. As we used the Dream Series our girls slept on a other camping style air mattress in the tent near us. We had the same environmental conditions and both were inflated with their separate on-board inflating motors. While our mattress was 19 inches theirs was approximately only 8 inches tall. After a night of sleep each we woke up comfortable, rested and still with easily 90% of the air and firmness left in the air mattress. Our girls weren't so lucky! Visible air voids were noticeable in their air mattress as they moved about in the morning. They would struggle to get off the mattress due to the loss of air. Their mattress looked more like a waterbed then an air mattress. Both girls asked up to put their air mattress out of its and their misery and get them one like ours. Pros:
Cons:
Overall the mattress gets high marks from Hiking Forward for comfort, being durable and being a great value. Think about all the old camping style air mattresses you have bought over the years from your local department stores. This mattress is probably a fraction of what you have spent on all those that left you on the cold ground every morning. Keep Hiking Forward! Scott
1 Comment
This is really helpful...Thank you for the tips! If you want to go light backpacking,you can cut down on weight with your sleeping bag requirements. You need to lower your sleeping bag requirements by looking for other alternatives, Just check the link to know the list https://outdoorislife.com/5-sleeping-bag-alternatives-ultra-light-backpacking/ . Thank you
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