Technical Question

[Kepple]

Okay. I never though I was THAT technically challenged, but it IS the small stuff that trips me up. We are renting in Tamarind Grove for 2 months and our daughter and grandkids are due in tonight for a visit. Our house has two new air mattresses that have never been out of the box. Got them out this morning and plugged in the air pump, and nothing happened. I had to resort to reading the directions and it said the pump had to "charge" for 16 hours. Okay. I can understand the charging if I were using it without being plugged in, but why does it need to charge when it is plugged into the wall???? This just doesn't compute with me and now that it is "charging" the kids won't be able to use them until 4 AM???? Guess I should have gotten them out yesterday :( Any thoughts or help?? I know I'm missing something.

[raynitsche]

They must be for campers without electric. You should be able to inflate prior to the 16 hours. You could do as my wife and give our bedroom away and we sleep on the blow up.

[Gerald]

wait until it is time that they will be used. Unplug the charger and inflate. Then plug in the charger again to charge over night.

[philnpat]

They must be for campers without electric. You should be able to inflate prior to the 16 hours. You could do as my wife and give our bedroom away and we sleep on the blow up.

You're right...they are designed for use in places where there is no AC.
Most likely they'll be ready to go in less than 16 hrs...plug both of them in and give it a try sooner.

[jnieman]

If I remember right I think you can buy just the blower at Walmart in the camping dept.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

It could be that the pump runs off an internal battery that is brought up to charge by plugging it into your wall outlet. The battery would be powering the pump, not the fact that you've plugged it into 110v. The 110v would only be supplying a charge to the battery. Just a guess...... :D

Or maybe........is there an off-on switch somewhere on the pump? Again, just another guess.

Bill :)

[Kepple]

Thanks to all. Yes, it does have an on/off button:smiley: It is currently plugged in, so we'll see if it does anything around 9 PM. And yes, we DO give our bedroom away, and my husband doesn't like it either. We have another bed to sleep in though. The air mattresses are for the kids.

[scarecrow1]

You might want to use the shop vac in the blowing mode. Check an see if your blower is plugged into the socket that is controlled by the light switch:loco:

[mrfixit]

....try plugging it in an outlet that you know actually works.

............some "lower" wall "perimeter" outlets only work when the room switch is ON.

[Kepple]

Just to let you all know. . . . I tried the air pump a few minutes ago and it worked! Bill was right, it needed to be charged. It's amazing how well things work when you actually read directions and then follow them. Thanks to all for the quick responses though. I just love this site! - Kathy

[CaptJohn]

In that case, I agree with Bill! :laugh: