REASONS TO BUY
Two person
Affordable
Small packed size
Easy to use
TPU construction
REASONS TO AVOID
Sleeps cold
Not very supportive
Not easy to make super firm
Lightspeed 2 Person Review
Affordable and comfortable, with its own unique perks and detractions
Credit: Lightspeed
RELATED: Best Camping Mattress of 2024
Our Verdict
The Lightspeed 2-person is an inflatable air bed designed for two-person sleeping comfort and affordability. As an air bed, it consists of a simple TPU plastic chamber that is inflated to roughly six inches thick. We liked that it was made out of TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), a much more environmentally friendly type of plastic that also doesn't pose nearly the potential health risks to humans as PVC. It has the advantage of packing down small and being easy to inflate and deflate using the battery-powered pump included with purchase. Its disadvantages are that it is not as supportive or comfortable as the many foam-cushioned self-inflating mattresses in our review, and it does not have any insulating properties to help protect against cold ground or air.
Our Analysis and Test Results
Of the three air beds that we tested for this review, the Lightspeed 2-person is one of the best. In general, however, we found all of the air beds to be inferior to the rest of the competition in our review, mostly because they were less comfortable and significantly colder and without insulating properties. The advantages of these air beds are their affordability, the fact that they sleep two people, pack to a relatively small size, and are fairly easy to use.
The Lightspeed 2-person is easy to blow up with its battery-powered pump. That said, it is not easy to get it full to the point of being super firm, which in our opinion, is necessary for an airbed to reach its full comfort potential.
Performance Comparison
The Lightspeed 2-person perfectly fit in the back of our minivan, where we typically sleep while out camping. These inflatable beds are good options in the house, but we found them to be a bit cold for outside sleeping.
Credit: Andy Wellman
Comfort
Air beds are less comfortable than foam-filled mattresses because they rely only on air. With two people on the bed, the air inside the mattress displaced by one person's body tends to buoy and rock the other person. For that reason, we find these mattresses to be more comfortable if slept on with only one person (despite being sized for two), or if they are filled very full to the point of being firm. The Lightspeed battery-powered pump is not super effective at filling the mattress to the point of firmness, and so, in general, we found our sleeping experience on this softer, less full bed to be slightly less comfortable. Its face fabric is also made of slippery polyester, which we liked less than the velvety plush on other mattresses.
The feeling of this air bed changes as you move around on it. With one pressure point, like shown here, it can taco and bounce a lot. Laying flat on the bed the feeling is firmer under your body. We found that with two people on these mattresses, the other person certainly gets jostled or bounced when one person moves.
Credit: Elizabeth Riley
Ease of Use
The Lightspeed 2-person is among the easiest car camping mattress to use, although it still takes a bit of work to set up. Just don't forget to buy four size D batteries for the pump before you end up in the middle of nowhere at your campsite!
Inserting the battery powered pump into the inflate part of the valve with the appropriate nozzle chosen for the size.
Credit: Elizabeth Riley
To inflate, all that is needed is to roll the bed out, insert the nozzle of the pump while in the “inflate position” into the smaller of the two valve openings, and turn the pump on. Wait about 4:00 to 4:30 minutes, and the bed will be as firm as you can get it. Quickly screw the valve closed, so air doesn't leak out.
The single valve on this mattress has two screw-off openings. In this photo the larger, wide valve is open, allowing for quick deflation. The smaller black valve on the lid has a rubber flap in it that keeps air from escaping with inflating the mattress.
Credit: Elizabeth Riley
For deflation and stowing, the battery pump also has a deflate option that will suck the air out of the bed. We found it quicker and easier to simply open the big deflate valve and quickly squeeze all the air out. The bed can be folded and rolled up with the deflate valve open, which is a breeze.
While using the pump to suck air out of the bed is one way to deflate it, it was much faster to simply open the large valve and quickly squeeze all the air out before folding it up. This also saved the life of the batteries for another adventure.
Credit: Elizabeth Riley
Warmth
With no foam or insulating materials of any sort inside this mattress, it has an R-value of 1.0. According to Wikipedia, an R-value of 1.0 is similar to that of wood chips or snow. While this bed is clearly not as cold as snow, it does about the same job of resisting heat transfer, i.e., not much. We found that we were pretty cold on this bed out in the mountains, even on a summer night, and indeed, if you will be sleeping in temperatures anywhere below about 60 degrees, we would highly recommend that you select a mattress with better insulating properties.
Versatility
While this bed does pack down pretty small, it is heavy. Our biggest complaint, however, was that it sleeps so cold. We would only recommend it for outside camping, or even in the back of a vehicle if the nighttime temperatures are going to stay quite warm, which is not the case very much of the year in the mountains where we live. Though it will serve well as an emergency bed for guests, there are not many places or situations we would want to use this mattress, making it not very versatile.
Credit: Brandon Lampley
Packed Size
The 2-person packs down into the smallest package of any mattress we tested for the camping mattress review. It is still gigantic and heavy compared to a backpacking sleeping pad, however.
Value
This price for this air bed retails for about the same as others with similar qualities. Because it has very limited insulating properties and marginal comfort, we do not find it to be a great value.
Conclusion
Air beds are an affordable two-person sleeping solution as a spare bed or for summertime camping. However, if you truly want a comfortable and warm car-camping mattress, we would recommend shelling out a few more dollars and buying one of the foam camping mattresses in our review.
The REI Relax Airbed on the left compared to the Lightspeed 2-person on the right. If you are wondering what the difference between these two are, that is a very good question. They are essentially the exact same! The one on the left has a slightly softer face fabric. The one on the right comes with a battery pump, whereas the other comes with a manual pump. Besides that, the only difference is the one on the left is $10 cheaper.
Credit: Elizabeth Riley
—
Laurel Hunter & Andy Wellman
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