An air mattress is a great way to provide extra sleeping accommodations, especially if you don't have a spare bedroom or plan to host several guests for a weekend. And don't worry if you're looking for something that won't leave your guests sore and tired the next day — at Good Housekeeping, our Textiles Lab tested several to find the best air mattresses available.
Intex, one of our favorite top-tested brands, offers air mattresses that come at affordable prices, a variety of heights and sizes and so many styles to choose from, so you can find the perfect air mattress for you from living room sleepovers to camping trips. Here, we'll focus on the Intex Comfort Plush Elevated Dura-Beam Air Mattress, which our experts rated as the best value pick out of all of the air mattresses we tested and vetted.
The experts at Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab have spent years researching and testing all types of mattresses, including air mattresses like the Intex. Our experts test air mattresses to assess inflation time, deflation time, ease of packing, tensile strength, bursting strength, comfort, puncture resistance and overnight leakage using industry standards for the best testing results. We tested the Intex Comfort Plush Elevated Dura-Beam Air Mattress in our Lab using standardized testing methods and also at home with consumers for more qualitative results on factors like clarity of instructions, ease of use and setup and inflation and deflation time.
Intex Dura-Beam Deluxe Air Mattress
Intex Dura-Beam Deluxe Air Mattress
Intex Air Mattress Style and Design
This particular model is part of Intex's Dura-Beam line which comes in a variety of heights and sizes to fit any home. In Lab, we tested the 22-inch queen-sized mattress with a built-in electric pump for automatic inflation. Many of the mattresses in this line come with a pump built in, which makes it easy to inflate and deflate the mattress as long as you're patient enough to wait a few minutes for it to get done. The Dura-Beam Deluxe line is available in 13-inch, 18-inch, 20-inch and 22-inch heights as well as Twin, Full and Queen sizes. You can even opt for one with a headboard if you're feeling fancy.
The 22-inch Queen airbed that we tested weighs about 19 pounds when inflated and folds down to a fraction of its size when deflated making it great for stashing in the closet. It's made of mostly PVC material. Velvety soft flocking covers the top of the PVC mattress to increase the comfort level, while the top and bottom edge support helps the bed maintain its shape. It features a 600-pound weight limit and uses fiber-tech construction (polyester strands that come together to create extra support on the ridges of the mattress) to help maintain its durability and keep it stable while in use.
What We Love About Intex Air Mattresses
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of an air mattress is its air retention, and while testing air mattresses, we found that the Intex barely lost any air overnight. To test this, we weighed the inflated mattress, left 170 pounds of weight on the mattress for 24 hours then weighed it again to determine how much air it lost. "We didn't have to worry about this mattress deflating overnight like we've experienced with other air mattresses," says Home and Apparel Reviews Analyst Amanda Constantine. "The surface feels flat and firm and helps to keep you from sinking throughout the night," she says.
The 600-pound weight limit allows for multiple sleepers at once without the danger of deflating or bursting. While using it in their own homes, our experts found that it stood up to multiple people jumping, moving and sitting on it all at the same time without losing air or having any other issues.
Another aspect our experts, analysts and consumer reviewers absolutely love is the height of this air mattress. "It really feels like having a true bed when it’s inflated," says Lexie Sachs, Executive Director of the Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab. She also noted that the tall height made it much easier to make the bed in comparison to some other more traditional air mattresses. We suggest using sheets designed for a mattress one size larger than the airbed (i.e., putting Queen-sized sheets on a Full-sized air mattress) due to the extra height. "Its height worked well for us and our guests," says Constantine. "It made getting in and out of bed easier for them."
What to Consider Before Purchasing
While the line of Intex Air Mattresses and the Comfort Plush Elevated Dura-Beam, specifically, can be great alternatives to having your guests sleep on the couch or floor, there are a few things to consider before you take it home with you.
While testing, our experts found that it takes more time to fully inflate than many of the other air mattresses we tested (4.5 minutes in our tests), likely because it's taller than many other air mattresses on the market. We also noticed that it took longer to deflate than some other air mattresses we've tried. This caused one of our consumer reviewers to damage the mattress by pulling the pump out early, causing leaks.
We also found the controls to be a little tricky. "You use two arrows on the knob as a guide to inflate and deflate," explains Constantine. One arrow points to a – sign for deflating while the other points to a + sign for inflating. Before you turn the knob to the correct side, you'll flip the on/off switch to start the process. "Guests (and myself) are always twisting the arrows and knob the wrong way or not pushing the on and off switch down before turning," she says. "When you turn the knob to the correct position to inflate the bed, the deflate arrow is actually lined up in the middle which causes some confusion." We recommend you read the instructions and keep them on hand for when you use the bed, especially if you only use it a few times a year and may forget what everything means between uses.
Remember: Air mattresses are the same size as a standard mattress when inflated, so if you don't have enough room for a Queen mattress, you won't have enough room for a Queen airbed. Make sure to measure your space before you buy, and especially before you blow up the mattress. When fully inflated, our testers noted it felt fairly firm, so if you prefer a softer, squishier mattress, you'll have to experiment with the amount of air you let in to adjust to your ideal firmness.
The Bottom Line: Is an Intex Air Mattress worth it?
Constantine said it well enough when their guests described the Intex as “the best air mattress they’ve ever slept on.” The budget-friendly price, wide variety of sizes and heights and exceptional air retention mean this might just be the last air mattress you buy for a long time. We found it to be a comfortable and supportive mattress that pops right out of the box, and even better, fits right back in for easy storage.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
For decades, the Good Housekeeping Institute has been providing expert reviews and advice on beds and bedding. Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Executive Director Lexie Sachs has a B.S. in fiber science from Cornell University and more than 15 years of experience in the textiles industry. She has extensive experience testing bedding and mattresses, including everything from comforters to pillows. She, alongside textiles reviews analyst Grace Wu and home and apparel reviews analyst Amanda Constantine, conducted in-Lab and at-home tests of the Intex air mattress.
To write this review, GH Institute analyst Jamie Spain worked with Sachs and the textiles team to conduct the research for this article. She also personally tried out the Dura-Beam Deluxe Comfort-Plush.
Jamie (she/her) is a parenting and pets reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she spends her time testing, researching and writing about pet and family products. Prior to starting at GH in 2021, she worked at BuzzFeed and People, covering a combination of product reviews and lifestyle content. She's a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and psychology and a master’s degree in journalism.
