If you thought it was a pain to inflate a bunch of pool toys and loungers, wait until you have to deflate all of them. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as taking the cap off the air valve. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have found this article, and I wouldn’t need to write it. But alas, here we are.
Deflating all the pool floaties can turn an otherwise enjoyable summer day into the biggest drag. Thankfully, just like how there are many ways to quickly inflate your pool, the power of human ingenuity (or laziness) saves the day yet again, and we’ve figured out how to quickly deflate pool floats. But before we get to that, you need to understand a bit of pool float anatomy.
Understanding Pool Float Anatomy
Essentially, the air inlet valve in your inflatables has a flap inside called the safety valve that normally shuts tightly to keep air from leaking out. The purpose of this flap is to retain air in the inflatable as you’re inflating it by mouth.
It’s a remnant from an archaic time when people still used their mouths to inflate the pool (actually maybe people still do that, but I haven’t in years). Nowadays, we just use an air pump, air compressor, or other methods to get it done in literal seconds with 90% less effort. But I digress.
So this safety valve is the reason why you normally have to pinch the air inlet for air to come out. If you’re deflating a bunch of pool floats, manually holding the safety valve open for each one will take forever and it’s pretty tiring to keep your fingers pinched. With the problem identified, here’s the solution.
How to Deflate Pool Floaties Quickly
Literally just stick a steel straw, Q-tip, tiny piece of wood like a match, or any other solid object into the air inlet and push the safety valve open.
Then you just leave your chosen object in there holding the safety valve open, and eventually all the air will empty out after a few minutes.
The benefit of leaving an object in the safety valve is that you don’t have to personally hold it open anymore. In fact, you can deflate all of your pool floaties at the same time, drastically saving the time and effort needed.
If you want to speed up the process, place some weights on the inflatable to squeeze out the air even faster, or start rolling it up from the other end. This can be particularly helpful when deflating a large inflatable pool or a large inflatable toy.
Not a fan of sticking a piece of wood in your inflatables? Well, you can use a binder clip to clamp that safety valve open and keep it that way until all the air escapes.
Also, if you used an electric air pump to inflate your pool floaties, you can also use it to deflate them as well by reversing the flow.
What to Be Wary Of
There are a few things you need to be aware of when applying this solution.
First, be careful not to accidentally puncture the inflatable with your chosen item.
Second, be careful not to push the object all the way in, otherwise it’d get stuck. Good luck getting it back out when that happens. You’re also likely to puncture your inflatable if you jam it in too far.
One last concern is making sure the object doesn’t immediately shoot out like a projectile the second you start pushing out air.
So that’s it. Pretty simple solutions to an annoying problem. Try it out next time and be amazed at how much time and effort you saved deflating your pool floaties. Your summers will get a lot more fun once you learn these nifty life hacks.
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