Stiffening rib
The type of stiffeners provided in the design of the bed (this item is relevant for this type of inflatable furniture).
Stiffeners externally look like a special set of protrusions and depressions on the surface of the product, however, the matter may not be limited to external details (see below). Anyway, such structural elements increase the resistance of the surface to bending and, accordingly, increase strength and reliability. In modern inflatable furniture, you can find the following types of similar parts:
— Longitudinal. Stiffening elements in the form of a set of protrusions and grooves directed along the product; the ridges and grooves can be zigzagged for transverse efficiency, but even such elements resist mainly lateral deformation. Anyway, this is the simplest and most inexpensive form of stiffeners. As for practical properties, such a design works well at small and medium loads, but at high loads it is inferior to the transverse one (see below) both in terms of efficiency and durability. In addition, for some users, the longitudinal elements are inconvenient purely for subjective feelings.
— Transverse. Stiffeners of this type may look different. The most obvious, traditional option is a set of protrusions and grooves directed across the recumbent place; in other words, it is an analogue of the longitudinal ribs described above, differing only in direction. This provides, above all, resistance to transverse deformations, whic...h is especially useful for double products used by people who differ significantly in weight. Another, more advanced type of transverse ribs is a set of special recesses located in the correct order on the surface of the product. Under these recesses, partitions are hidden that connect the upper and lower sides of the inflatable shell. Such a design is quite expensive, but it has a number of advantages: in particular, it works effectively not only in the transverse, but also in the longitudinal direction, and also optimally distributes the load on the body of a lying person, providing maximum comfort.
Pump
The type of pump that the product is equipped with.
Nowadays,
built-in electric units are the most popular. Furniture supplied with separately manufactured pumps, both
electric and
mechanical, is much less common. In addition, many products
are not equipped with pumps at all; this configuration also has its advantages. Here is a more detailed description of each of these options:
— Electric built-in. A pump in the form of a module built directly into the product shell (usually into one of the ends). The popularity of such equipment is due to a number of practical advantages. Firstly, such a pump is always at hand - you can only lose it together with the furniture itself. Secondly, it takes up almost no extra space. Thirdly, the pumping procedure is extremely simple and convenient - you do not need to fiddle with the connection and waste energy on pumping air, just plug the device into the socket and start the process. Fourthly, the built-in pump in many models is capable of working not only for pumping, but also for releasing air, accelerating the folding of the shell; this is especially convenient given that inflatable furniture usually has a significant volume, and releasing air in the usual way (without a pump) can take a lot of time. At the same time, even a breakdown of such a unit does not disable the product - f
...or this case, as a rule, the design provides a spare valve for an external pump.
The main disadvantage of the built-in module is its relatively high cost, but in most cases it is more than offset by the advantages described. In addition, any electric pump requires power (usually from a power outlet), but this point is not critical in this case - after all, inflatable furniture is most often used in everyday settings where there are no problems with the availability of power outlets. In extreme cases, the shell can be inflated in another way, through the aforementioned spare valve.
— Electric. An electric pump in the form of a separate device supplied with the furniture. This option is somewhat cheaper than the built-in unit described above; at the same time, pumping, again, does not require any physical effort. On the other hand, a separate pump is less convenient than a built-in one in a number of respects — in particular, it takes up additional space during storage and can get lost. So this type of equipment is not popular in inflatable furniture.
— Mechanical. A separate mechanical pump supplied with the product. Such a pump works due to the customer's muscular strength; it can be hand or foot driven, but in either case, considerable effort is required to pump it. The advantages of such devices include, first of all, low cost and independence from sockets. At the same time, the price of a pump (both mechanical and even more expensive electric) usually makes up only a small part of the price of the entire product; and "away from civilization" inflatable furniture is used extremely rarely, and the ability to pump without sockets is not particularly relevant for such products. For these reasons, mechanical pumps have not become noticeably widespread - they are even less common than separate electric ones.
— Without a pump. The absence of a pump in the design or delivery set of the product. In most cases, the point of such a set is to allow the customer to choose a pump at their own discretion, without relying on the manufacturer's choice; it will also be useful in cases where there is already a suitable pumping unit on the farm. However, there is also a more specific option — products that do not require a pump at all to fill with air; this is, first of all, the majority of so-called bivans (see "Type").Size (unfolded)
The overall dimensions of the product in the working position — fully inflated, and for folding models (see "Type") — also unfolded.
In general, this is a fairly obvious parameter; we only note that the size of the space available for sitting or lying down may be somewhat less than the overall length or width of the product — due to the presence of a backrest and/or armrests. These elements usually account for about 20 – 25 cm of space.
Weight
The total weight of the product.
The ease of transportation depends primarily on the weight. However in the case of inflatable furniture, this point is not critical: most of these products are still designed for constant use in one place. However, sometimes a piece of furniture is also bought with the expectation of being able to quickly move from place to place — for example, from home to the country house and back. In such cases, it is worth considering that light weight makes it easier to carry, but for the same performance, lighter products usually have either less reliability (due to the thin shell) or more cost than heavier ones.
