How To Find A Slow Leak In Your Air Mattress

If becoming lightheaded when filling an air mattress wasn’t bad enough, what do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night only to find that you are flat on the ground? The dreaded slow air leak is a tricky thing to find as normally you would expect to hear a hiss of air escaping from a tiny slit in your mattress.

The air valve is an obvious place to start. Hopefully it isn’t cross threaded, or starting to leak from the many nights of trying to retain the air while you have been sleeping on it. To find the leak, fill your air mattress as full as you can. Grab a tiny dish of water, mix in a few drops of dish soap (and swirl it around with your finger), then rub around the edge of your air mattress where the seam is. Now all you have to do is wait and watch.

The pressure of the air escaping will essentially blow tiny bubbles and the source of the leak will be very apparent. In my case, the patch I had applied a few years back just wasn’t holding firm. Thankfully nothing serious and can be easily remedied.

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