Pool Toys
About Lake, Pool & River Tubes, Floats, Lounges & Water Toys
Take Time to Relax on Your Floats & Tubes
Everybody needs time to relax and what better way to do so than with our pool lounge inflatables. With the creativity from brands like SportsStuff, Texas Recreation, and Kwik Tek, choose form traditional pool floats and chairs to inflatable lounges with shade and even floats to keep your beverage frosty. Make it an extra lazy day when you use one of our manual or automatic air pumps.
Lake, Pool & River Tubes, Floats, Lounges & Water Toys How-Tos
How to Properly Inflate Your Tube - By Airhead (Video)
A video presentation on how to properly inflate your air tube, presented by Airhead
Video Transcript
Congratulations you've purchased the best towable your money can buy, Airhead. We're now going to show you how to properly inflate your towable for maximum enjoyment. When tubes are under inflated they don't perform well on the water. They take on water between the bladder and the cover and they don't hold their shape so they are harder to tow. A properly inflated tube will glide across the water effortlessly and provide riders plenty of support. When tubes are overinflated, it is likely that the bladder will break.
Airhead offers several different types of air pumps. 12 volts pumps are very popular. You plug them into your boat, car or truck cigarette lighter or use alligator clips to connect them directly to the battery. Keep in mind when using the 12 Volt adapter you must supplement the inflation with a hand or foot pump to achieve proper pressure. 120 Volt pumps are pumps that plug into an outlet at home, on the dock or into the DC-AC converter. We recommend Airhead's high pressure 120 Volt pump to achieve proper pressure. Airhead also manufactures two types of manual pumps; a double action hand pump and a foot pump.
Now it's time to inflate your new towable. The most common valve used on Airhead tubes is a Boston valve. To inflate a Boston valve equipped tube first spread the tube out flat on the ground. Screw in the Boston valve, open the cap and you're ready to inflate. On our latest versions of our high-powered pumps we have installed a red pressure release valve that will only allow the tube to be filled to the proper pressure and then will allow the remaining air to escape, which prevents the tube from over inflating.
Once the tube is properly inflated, screw the cap back onto the Boston valve. Stem valves are used on seats, sponsons and other small air chambers. Sometimes especially when brand-new the flap inside the stem valve is sticky. Insert a blunt object into the valve to open the flap, then insert your pump to inflate, close the cap when you're finished. After inflating to check that your tube is properly inflated, stand up on it. Your feet should sink in only slightly. If your feet do not sink in it at all, it's over inflated, remove some air. If your feet sink in too much, add more air.
It's important that you monitor your towable for proper inflation as you use it. When your tube sits in the hot sun for a while, the air inside it expands. It can even expand to the point of breaking the bladder. Be sure to let some air out to compensate. If you are using it to in cold water, the air inside will tend to contract and the bladder will become wimp. It's also normal for the bladder to leak air slowly over time. Be sure to monitor the firmness of your tube often and be sure to top off wimp tubes. For this reason we recommend having a manual pump available when out tubing for the day.
When you're finished tubing if possible leave the air inside and allow the nylon cover to dry thoroughly, then deflate the bladder by removing the Boston valve or opening the stem valve. Roll up the tube towards the valve to get all the air out. Or for fast deflation use the deflate port on your air pump to deflate the bladder. Fold and neatly store in a dry area. Do not store in direct sunlight, do not store in temperatures below freezing. By following these instructions you should enjoy your Airhead towable for years to come.
