Coleman Quickbed Review: I Bought & Tested It

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The Coleman Quickbed Air Mattress is a pretty affordable camping air mattress, and it comes in many sizes – twin, full and queen. I bought the Full size for myself.

However, I found that it’s not quite so user-friendly, and the comfort levels weren’t up to my expectations either. Why? Read on to find out more!

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Check out the Coleman Quickbed:

Here’s what we’ll discuss here:

• Unboxing
• In the Box
• Specifications

Unboxing

I bought the Coleman Quickbed from Amazon, and here’s what the outer packaging looked like:

In the Box

After unboxing the Coleman Quickbed, and the photo below shows what it looks like, I got just the inflatable mattress with some instructions and warranty information.

Specifications

Here are my personal measurements and timings of the Coleman Quickbed (in a full size):

• Thickness: 8 inches
• Length: 73 inches
• Width: 53 inches
• Weight: 7.6 pounds
• Packed Size: 21 by 14 by 5 inches
• R-value: None
• Material: PVC
• Valve: Rubbery plastic, 2-way opening
• Storage Pouch: None
• Features: ComfortStrong (coil construction)
• Fastest Inflation: ~3 minutes
• Fastest Deflation: 2 minutes (but no storage pouch)

I put the Coleman Quickbed through these 5 tests:

1. Comfort
2. Ease of Use
3. Portability
4. Versatility + Sizing
5. Quality

Here’s how the Coleman Quickbed performed.

Comfort

The Coleman Quickbed gets me about 8 inches off the ground. When inflated fully, my body does not touch the ground whether I’m sleeping on my back, stomach, or side. Even when I was leaning on my elbow or sitting down, I could not feel the ground.

The Coleman Quickbed measures about 73 by 53 inches, which is slightly smaller than a Full size. For me, it’s okay for 2 people, but it’s not the most spacious for sure. If you need something bigger, this also comes in a larger so-called “Queen” size of 73 by 58 inches, which is smaller than a Queen.

The soft plush top that you sleep on is comfortable and helps to reduce noise from the air mattress when tossing and turning in bed.

What I did not really like about the Coleman Quickbed is that there’s quite a bit of bouncing during the night, especially with another person sharing the mattress. Definitely one of my bouncier 2-person mattresses.

The baffles are also thick and stick out quite a bit, so when inflated fully, it felt like the baffles were pressing onto some parts of my body, but not other parts, and it’s difficult to find a comfy position to sleep in.

Overall, not the most comfortable when super firm, but it’s not too bad when it’s slightly less firm.

Ease of Use

The Coleman Quickbed has a single valve along the side of the airbed, which is kind of flushed with the surface.

To inflate the Coleman Quickbed, pull open the cap, then pull on the valve to separate it from the inner yellow post, and insert the pump. I used a generic pump that came with a few of my other air mattresses, and took slightly less than 3 minutes for the full inflation.

When it’s fully inflated, press in the valve before turning off the pump, or air will leak out because this is a 2-way opening. This was a bit annoying, because sometimes air would leak out before I can seal the valve against the yellow post.

To deflate the Coleman Quickbed, just pull open the cap again, pull on the valve, and let the air out. I usually fold the Quickbed in thirds, use my body weight to push the air out, then fold it in thirds again to get most of the air out. This takes me about 1 and a half minutes. Then, I fold it in half and pack it away like this, which takes another half a minute, so altogether about 2 minutes.

I found it difficult to make micro adjustments to the firmness of the Coleman Quickbed by letting out just a bit of air. The 2-way opening lets out a lot of air at one time.

Portability

After deflating, the Coleman Full Quickbed has a packed size of about 21 x 14 x 5 inches. Here’s what it looks like in comparison to a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle.

The air mattress alone weighs 7.6 pounds, and doesn’t come with any pump or stuff sack.

Versatility + Sizing

Since the Coleman Quickbed is an air mattress, I don’t think it’s insulated, so it’s best to use this during the summer. It’s way too heavy for backpacking, so you’re limited to car camping.

Here’s what the Coleman Quickbed in a Full size looks like inside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent. There’s a tiny bit of space for gear at the sides, but not very much.

Livable space is decent, and there’s enough space for me to sit up and also to crouch.

It was a pain to inflate though, because I was squashed between the mattress and the tent when inflating, and after inflating, I had to squeeze out from the corner of the tent.

And here’s what the Coleman Quickbed looks inside a Coleman 4-Person Dome Tent when placed horizontally.

I don’t think there isn’t enough space to fit 2 of these mattresses, but having just 1 mattress gives me plenty of space for my camping gear. I also have lots of livable space.

Quality

I’m not a 100% sure what material this is, but it feels like PVC, and smells like PVC too. The top is velvety and soft, while the bottom feels plasticky. It also smells out of the box, but does fade after a few days of use.

The valve is made of some kind of rubbery plastic, and I’m not a big fan of the 2-way opening. There’s no 1-way valve on this mattress at all. So, when inflating, air can leak out when you remove the pump. When deflating, I sometimes find the valve closed against the yellow post when I’m trying to squeeze the air out. And I couldn’t make slight adjustments to the firmness or softness of the Coleman Quickbed.

Plus, I don’t like that I have to push and pull on the valve repeatedly, it seems like it’ll wear out the valve more quickly than a screw-on Boston valve.

Air retention is not the best. After I used the Coleman Quickbed for 1 night with another person (about 300+ pounds together), the airbed lost about 10-15% of air by the next morning. Subsequent nights were not so bad, losing only 5% more air each night or so.

This air loss is not due to stretching, because I used the Coleman Quickbed multiple times before conducting this test. It’s also not because of temperature differences, because I conducted this test indoors under regulated temperatures.

I recommend topping it off every night before sleeping, but I never had to worry about ending up on the ground the next morning.

For pros, the only thing I could think of is that it’s inexpensive.

As for cons, the Coleman Quickbed is not the most comfortable, because of the pronounced baffles when it’s firm, and there’s quite a bit of bouncing. There’s also no 1-way valve, so not the most user-friendly.

It’s made of PVC, which I don’t really like, because PVC is naturally heavy, doesn’t pack down small, and smells for quite a few days.

Air retention is also not the best compared to my other mattresses, but to be fair, I never had to worry about ending up on the ground.

Overall, the Coleman Quickbed isn’t a fantastic mattress, but it does work if you need a quick fix, one-off or once in a while kind of sleeping solution.

I would definitely not recommend this for long-term use, for frequent camping, for people who toss and turn in bed a lot, or for people who like firm air mattresses because of the baffles.

To find out how the Coleman Quickbed compares against the competition, here’s a blog post where I bought, tested and compared 10 of the best camping mattresses for couples.

Or, check out the Coleman Quickbed: