Bounce House Blower, 1 HP, 1.5 HP and 2 HP

The blower is the part of your inventory that decides whether a unit stands up. This one comes in three sizes, 1 HP, 1.5 HP and 2 HP, moving 1200 to 1450 CFM on standard 115V household power, with a 25 ft cord and a 5.7 x 5 in outlet.

Free shipping on all three. Ships from our warehouse in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

What size blower do I need?

What we actually ship on our own units

This is not advice, it is what goes in the box when you buy an inflatable from us. It is the most honest answer we can give you.

• 1 HP ships with water slides 13 ft and under, the Sports Combo, and every 13x13 bounce house.
• 1.5 HP ships with water slides 14 ft and taller, the Block Party Combo and the Tropical Combo.
• Bundles ship one blower per inflatable unit, so a two unit bundle ships two blowers.
• Chairs, the electric dolly and the tent do not ship with a blower.

If your unit is not on that list, or it came from another brand, send us the make and the size and we will tell you which one we would put on it. Always use the blower size specified by the manufacturer of your inflatable.

Why an older unit needs more air than a new one

An inflatable is an open system. The blower never switches off, because air is leaving continuously and by design, through the mesh, through thousands of needle holes along every seam, through the entrance and the slide opening, and on a wet unit through the water outlet. The blower is not filling a balloon. It is replacing what leaks.

Two things follow. A loaded unit leaks faster than an empty one, because riders landing push air out through the openings, which is why a unit that looked firm at 9am can go soft with eight kids on it. And a unit that has been out for several seasons leaks more than its brand new twin, because needle holes elongate and thread abrades. That is the real reason operators step up a size, and it has nothing to do with the label on the box.

Signs your blower is undersized

• Walls that flex when someone leans on them.
• A roof or an arch that sags instead of holding shape.
• A slide face that goes concave rather than staying convex.
• The unit visibly dropping when several riders get on, and recovering when they get off.
• On a wet slide, the pool end and the slide lane softening first, because water adds weight the blower has to hold up.

If a unit softens with riders on it, get everyone off and check the blower and the seams before anyone gets back on.

Can a blower be too big?

On a standard bounce house or slide, no. The extra air escapes through the mesh and the openings, so a larger blower costs you amps, weight and money rather than doing damage. Undersizing is the real problem, because the unit never reaches full shape and your customer notices.

Specifications

Airflow is the manufacturer's rated figure, measured at the blower rather than inside a pressurised inflatable. Use it to compare one blower against another, not to predict exactly what reaches your unit. Note also that both the 1.5 HP and the 2 HP are rated for large units, so the step between them is a step in airflow and current, not into a different size class.

On the size of the housing, because somebody always asks

These are compact. 18.1 x 13.8 x 15.8 inches, and 21 to 26 lbs depending on the model. If you have been in this business twenty years you are used to a bigger box, and a small housing can read as a small blower.

Here is the honest answer. The number that inflates your unit is CFM, and these move 1200 to 1450 of it. Compare that figure against whatever you are running now, because that is the comparison that means something. Housing volume is not a performance spec.

What the smaller housing actually buys you is on the other side of the job. Your crew lifts these in and out of a van several times a day, and 21 lbs versus 30 lbs is felt by the end of a Saturday. Van space is finite, and a smaller footprint means more units per trip. Storage racks hold more.

What we will not tell you is that compact is free. A smaller housing gives less room for sound insulation, so do not expect a quiet blower, and no blower in this class is quiet. If silence matters more than airflow and weight for your work, this is not the right unit and we will say so.

Power draw, and the mistake that trips a breaker mid party

This is the part nobody puts on a product page and every operator eventually learns the hard way.

At 115V these draw 9.5 amps for the 1 HP, 11 amps for the 1.5 HP and 12.5 amps for the 2 HP at maximum. A standard household circuit is 15 or 20 amps, and continuous loads should not exceed about 80 percent of that, which is 12 amps on a 15 amp circuit and 16 amps on a 20 amp circuit.

Run one blower per circuit. Two 1 HP blowers together draw 19 amps, which is over the limit on a 15 amp circuit and over the continuous limit on a 20 amp circuit. That is the classic Saturday afternoon failure: two units plugged into the same side of a garage, everything fine for twenty minutes, then the breaker goes and both units are on the ground.

And the trap underneath it: separate outlets are often the same circuit. Several outlets in a garage, or a garage and the patio, frequently share one breaker. Before you set two units near each other, ask where the panel is, or run a cord from a different part of the house.

What is in the box and what usually goes wrong

The blower with a 25 ft cord attached. The outlet measures 5.7 x 5 in and fits standard inflatable inlet sleeves.

Blowers fail for boring reasons, and most of them are preventable. Water is the main one, so keep it out of standing puddles and off wet grass where you can, and never store it damp. Debris is the second, so keep the intake clear of grass clippings and sand, which choke airflow and make the motor work harder for less. Both are worth a thirty second check before you load out.

One more, specific to a lighter blower: on concrete or asphalt, stake it or set a sandbag on it. A light unit can walk under its own vibration, and a blower that has crept sideways puts a strain on the inlet sleeve.

We keep spares in stock, because an operator with a dead blower on a Saturday morning does not have a week to wait.

Buying spares

Most operators running more than a few units keep at least one spare blower on the shelf. A blower is the cheapest item in your inventory and the one whose failure cancels a booking. If you run water slides, bounce houses or combos, the blower is the single component most worth having a backup of.

Not sure which size fits your unit, or want to price several at once, get in touch. We ship nationwide.