Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

(See the attached video to watch a time-lapse video of the mattress inflating and deflating) As you go through life, you have more and more of those times when the number of guests who want to stay at your house exceeds your number of beds. Sometimes, if they're kids, you can pull down a few sleeping bags and get away with that. But if they're full-grown adults, they're more than likely to groan at that solution. A better solution? It would seem to be an air mattress. You know: It fits in a small area in your basement/attic/whatever when not being used, but you can drag it out, inflate it, and voila! So I've had a bunch of air mattresses over the years. Some have been nothing but trouble and junk out of the box. The better ones have been OK out of the box, but never really great. And all of them have required a separate pump. You know the type: The bellows pump. You operate them with your foot. And to blow up an air mattress you're there for a LONGGGG time blowing it up. When you pull the air mattress out of storage at 1am, the last thing you want to do is deal with half an hour of inflation. OK, that's the background. The pump being reviewed here is different. It comes with a built in electric pump. Now, this isn't some amazing cutting-edge feature. Built in pumps have been available for years now. But I only had one other mattress that had one--and that mattress had a leak in it the first time I used it, so it never actually got used. To see the pump in action is a thing of beauty. In fact, so beautiful that I've shared it with you--via time-lapse video so you don't fall asleep yourself. See the attached video. It takes under 3 minutes to inflate the mattress. The pump can also be reversed, and it will deflate the mattress in about the same amount of time (again, see the video). Once inflated, this is a very nice mattress--far and away the best air mattress that I have personally ever owned or used. It feels solid all around. You know the way some air mattresses seem a bit like Jello--with a bit of wobble when you lie on them? You don't get that effect there. It's pretty much rock solid. It's also solid on the edges and just feels like a fully supportive platform. It's supposedly rated to 600lbs, which should be enough for any one person, or probably almost any pair of two people. (It's a queen, so it can accommodate two). I can't comment on the longevity of the mattress--I haven't had it long enough. My experience is that none of these air mattresses are forever, but the better ones will last a few years. That's what I'm hoping for here. As for deflating it and putting it back in the box? Forget it. But they do provide a cheap but useable bag to store it in (see photos). On the whole, I'm quite pleased with this air mattress and would highly recommend it if you're looking for one. It's certainly the best air mattress I've ever owned.