What Size Blower Do You Need for Your Bounce House?

What Size Blower is Ideal for Your Bounce House?

Figuring out what size bounce house blower you need for a bounce house is one of the most confusing aspects of shopping for inflatables. Internet searches turn up bupkis (well, apart from this fine article you’re reading now, of course). A lot of bounce house retailers will try to oversell you, so they’re not much help either. And with so many options for bounce house blowers on the market, it’s a challenge even figuring out where to start.

Pogo includes Zoom Blowers with all of our inflatables. But what happens if that blower eventually wears out and breaks down? Or what if you bought a bounce house from another retailer and it didn’t include a blower? How do you navigate the various ratings and statistics? At the end of the day, what size blower do you need for your bounce house?

Without inundating you with lots of technical jargon, we’re going to try and help you find the perfect bounce house blower to suit your needs, whether you have a vinyl crossover inflatable or a big commercial bounce house. So let’s dive in, shall we?

The Basics of Bounce House Blowers

A bounce house blower is basically a big fan that throws air into your bounce house to inflate it. You simply plug them into an outlet, attach the bouncer’s air tube to the blower, flip the blower on, and leave the blower running until the party is over and everyone is done bouncing.

Bounce house blowers have lots of specs. If you work in the realm of commercial party rentals, you’ll probably want to know what all of that means. But for consumers—and let’s be honest, for most rental operators, too—there are only two specs you really need to worry about. Horsepower, and cubic feet (of air) per minute.

Horsepower (HP) rates how much overall power the bounce house blower generates during operation. It’s pretty much just like the horsepower your car has, just less of it. A typical bounce house blower will have 1 to 3 horsepower. More horsepower means the blower’s fan has more rotational power, and that translates into more speed and more air output.

It may not seem like a lot, but 1 to 3 horsepower is more than enough for your bounce house. Even the biggest and craziest commercial bounce houses only need 2 or 3 horsepower overall. Usually a higher horsepower rating means the blower will be louder, too.

Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM) rates how much air the blower cranks out each minute. Each unit of CFM equates to 1 cubic foot of air blown out of the blower in one minute. The higher this number is, the faster your bounce house will inflate and the more firm it will be during use.

Can You ‘Over Inflate’ a Bounce House?

A lot of people think of a bounce house as a balloon of sorts, but that’s not accurate. A balloon contains its air and can only be filled so much before it bursts. But a bounce house allows air to escape and needs continuous airflow to stay inflated. If you turn off your blower, the bounce house will quickly deflate. You need to leave the blower running for as long as you want the bounce house to stay full.

Because air is able to escape your bounce house, you technically can’t go “too big” with a bounce house blower. You cannot over inflate a bounce house, and using a bigger blower isn’t going to hurt it.

A larger blower will inflate your bounce house more quickly, and will make it more firm during operation. But for most bounce houses, larger blowers are just plain wasteful. You’ll be gobbling up more electricity for no reason and creating lots of noise you wouldn’t need to listen to otherwise.

Every bounce house is different. An older bouncer might leak a little more air from its seams than a newer one (and that’s usually okay). Different manufacturers use different stitching methods. But a well built and maintained bounce house will leak some air consistently while still staying inflated, so don’t worry about overfilling it. 

So, What Size Blower Do You Need for Your Bounce House?

There aren’t any hard rules on what size blower you need to use. Generally speaking, you’ll want a higher CFM (and likely more horsepower, too) the larger the bounce house is.

A smaller 12’x12’ bounce house should work with a blower with 1 HP and 800 to 900 CFM. Meanwhile, a huge commercial bounce house like the 22’x22’ Big Bubba will need at least 2 horsepower and 1000 to 2000 CFM. Large commercial inflatable water slides and inflatable obstacle courses often use 1.5 HP to 2 HP blowers.

Remember, it’s always better to have more power than less. You can’t over inflate your bounce house, and as your bounce house gets older it’s going to need more air to inflate. And if you need any help finding the best blower for your bounce house, please don’t hesitate to give Pogo a call at 716-566-5806. We’ll be happy to help you find the right air mover for the job, without trying to sell you more than you need.

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