Air mattress pumps: electric, rechargeable, battery and manual

Buy a pump that fits your bed’s valve and your power source. A 120V electric pump suits home use, a rechargeable or battery pump suits camping, and a hand or foot pump works anywhere. Check the valve type first: Intex alone uses four, and its FAQ warns that another brand’s pump can reduce performance or damage the bed.

Know your valve first

The valve decides which nozzle fits. Intex lists four valve types across its airbeds:

• Built-in pump. The pump is mounted inside the bed with its control panel showing.
• 3-in-1 valve (part 10650). Two clips on either side of the cap let you remove it.
• 2-in-1 valve (part 10651). No clips: a screw-on cap with a plug in the center. Intex’s standard beds describe this as an extra-wide opening.
• Double valve. A vinyl valve stem attached to the bed, like a beach ball valve.

Older Intex beds also used an exhaust valve cap with a rubber stopper plug. Other makers use their own valves, and pumps ship with adaptors to match: Coleman lists a Double Lock/Boston valve adaptor with its QuickPump 4D.

Types of air mattress pump

Intex says all its Double Quick hand pumps, Bellows foot pumps and Quick-Fill electric pumps work on all Intex products. That is the simplest route if your bed is an Intex.

Electric, rechargeable and battery air pumps

Shop the range

Browse current air mattress pumps on eBay, new condition only.

Shop air mattress pumps→

Opens eBay in a new tab. Check condition, seller feedback and returns on the listing.

• Rechargeable air pumpsShop on eBay →
• Battery air pumpsShop on eBay →
• 120V electric pumpsShop on eBay →
• Foot and hand pumpsShop on eBay →

Using another brand’s pump

Intex answers this directly: you can use another brand’s pump, but it recommends an Intex pump because they are designed for its airbeds, and other pumps may reduce performance or even damage the bed. The practical checks are a nozzle that seals in the valve without forcing it, and a pump you stop once the bed is firm rather than running it on.

A backup for built-in pump beds

A built-in pump saves carrying a separate one, until it stops working. Intex says that if the built-in pump’s panel fails, you can inflate and deflate the bed through its 2-in-1 valve with a separate manual or electric pump. A small external pump is a sensible backup for a guest bed. The built-in pump guide explains where that valve sits on different Intex pump models.

Pumps for camping and the car

Away from an outlet, you need battery power or muscle. SoundAsleep ships its Camping Series queen with a rechargeable external pump that both inflates and deflates it. Coleman’s QuickPump 4D runs on four D-cell batteries, sold separately, and both inflates and deflates; Coleman says it suits virtually any single-high airbed.

That single-high note is worth heeding before taking a tall home bed camping with a battery pump. The camping air mattress guide covers which bed type suits a tent or a car.

When the pump is not the problem

If a bed goes soft overnight after a full fill, look at the bed before the pump. Intex says new vinyl stretches during the first few uses, and its owner’s manual and Outwell’s both say air inside a bed contracts as it cools, which lowers the pressure. Before you replace anything, run the checks in how to find and fix an air mattress leak. For the full picture of beds, pumps and sizes, see the air mattress overview.