We took our Boy Scouts on a camping trip recently where the first night they camped in tents in a state park and the second night, we camped inside a cave (I only came for the second night). Knowing the ground would be rocky in the cave, we purchased five of these inflatable mats for our family.

The first night the boys borrowed a pump to inflate the mats and there were no complaints. Deflating them in the morning was a different matter. There's no quick deflate valve or anything so it's a royal pain to get all the air out. We found the easiest thing was to have one person hold the air valve open while another person started rolling from the bottom of the mat to squeeze all the air out.

The second night, the boys inflated their mattresses themselves and there was much whining and complaining. Personally, I didn't think it was all that bad. I huffed and puffed for about 5 minutes, then took a break, then another 5 minutes and it was done.

I inflated my mattress about an hour before bed. When I got ready to lay down, it was noticeably flatter! I blew it up some more to get to a firmness I was comfortable with, but by morning, it was flat again. None of the boys complained about their mattresses leaking so maybe it was just mine.

I'm a big girl and I toss and turn a lot in my sleep so the mattress is a little narrow for my taste. I rolled off of it a couple of times during the night. I also wound up rolling up my husband's jacket to use under my head as a pillow because the pillow on this mattress is the same height as the mattress.

After the campout, we asked the boys if they wanted to keep these mattresses with their camping stuff and they all said no, it's too much trouble to use most of the time. At about $7 each, we were all glad to have these mats for sleeping on the rocky floor in the cave but I don't think any of us will use them on a regular basis.
We took our Boy Scouts on a camping trip recently where the first night they camped in tents in a state park and the second night, we camped inside a cave (I only came for the second night). Knowing the ground would be rocky in the cave, we purchased five of these inflatable mats for our family. The first night the boys borrowed a pump to inflate the mats and there were no complaints. Deflating them in the morning was a different matter. There's no quick deflate valve or anything so it's a royal pain to get all the air out. We found the easiest thing was to have one person hold the air valve open while another person started rolling from the bottom of the mat to squeeze all the air out. The second night, the boys inflated their mattresses themselves and there was much whining and complaining. Personally, I didn't think it was all that bad. I huffed and puffed for about 5 minutes, then took a break, then another 5 minutes and it was done. I inflated my mattress about an hour before bed. When I got ready to lay down, it was noticeably flatter! I blew it up some more to get to a firmness I was comfortable with, but by morning, it was flat again. None of the boys complained about their mattresses leaking so maybe it was just mine. I'm a big girl and I toss and turn a lot in my sleep so the mattress is a little narrow for my taste. I rolled off of it a couple of times during the night. I also wound up rolling up my husband's jacket to use under my head as a pillow because the pillow on this mattress is the same height as the mattress. After the campout, we asked the boys if they wanted to keep these mattresses with their camping stuff and they all said no, it's too much trouble to use most of the time. At about $7 each, we were all glad to have these mats for sleeping on the rocky floor in the cave but I don't think any of us will use them on a regular basis.