Ask Aunty Dee: How does a vac bed work?

Posted on | January 27, 2012 | 4 Comments | Previous Post Next Post

The luscious BadBexie wanted to see me in a Vacuum Bed, and I was happy to oblige. I like it in there!  But a quite a few people wanted to know more about how they worked, so it seemed like a good idea to get some photographs and explain it all.

In order to get to ‘wow you can totally see my hair!’, there’s a whole bunch of steps that need to be taken first. For starters, you have to assemble the Vac Bed – and that’s a bit of a challenge itself!

The Vac Bed is a latex envelope, a bit like a sleeping bag. Hylas’ one has a zip running up one side, and that’s the side the person going into it has to wriggle into (more recent versions allow you to get in at the top). The downside of one with a zip is that it’s not quite air-tight.  You can see the open side, with the zip, to the right in the image below.

In addition to the latex envelope, there’s also a plastic frame, made up of tubes. Those tubes have holes along one side of them (you can see them if you look closely), and, once you attach a vacuum cleaner  to the nozzle at the end there, they’re what pull the air out of the envelope and create the vacuum.

The frame has to be assembled in the right order and the right way around (holes facing inward helps), and the nozzle that the vacuum cleaner needs to plug into needs to be in the right place too. Once the frame’s assembled the envelope is stretched around it.

These are the holes that will take all the air away. And make funky noises if skin accidentally presses up against them.

Eventually it’s all assembled. And there’s just one bit of frame poking out. Hard to put the vacuum cleaner in the wrong place, when there’s only one spot left!

Next, it’s time to prepare the person going in.  Making sure they’re not horribly claustrophobic is important – although if they are, they probably aren’t interested in going in anyhow!

Next is making sure they’re not wearing make-up, copper, jewellery, or anything sharp. The first two can degrade the latex. The last two can damage it. Thoroughly washing skin that’s been in contact with copper ( including coins) prolongs the life of the latex.

Handily, you can wear stuff in the vac bed. So if you want to stay in your undies, you can. If you want to make pretty patterns by keeping your fishnets on, sweet! Ailuros has been in wearing a fursuit (and looked awesome). And, if you’re a gusher … putting a towel down will stop juices being sucked up those holes and into the vacuum cleaner!

Being able to breathe when you’re in the vac bed is one of the essential bits. You can get ones now where the head is exposed (I want me one of them) with a seal at the neck – but this version, with a breathing tube, works pretty well too. The latex moulding around your face can be one of the most intense parts of the experience.  The tube is, as you can see, strapped around your head, and the end of the tube is held between your teeth, in your mouth. The rest of it is very long, so you’re able to pull it through the hole in the latex envelope, and breathe.

Hylas and I have indulged in light breath play using the breathing tube – it’s easy to block the end of it, and to limit breathing. But we are very careful with it, and are well aware of the risks of doing so.

Getting into – and out of – the vac bed is one of the most challenging parts. Especially if you’re not small! You need to lie down, slide yourself sideways up and over the plastic tubes and between the latex layers, turning your head sideways so the breathing tube isn’t caught. Then shuffle yourself along and into the envelope, straightening your head, and lifting the sheet above you enough to thread the breathing tube through hole.  Having an assistant for this part definitely helps.

Then comes the scary, fun, scary, intense, wow, stuff. Zipping the bag closed. Turning the vacuum cleaner on.

Hylas, for new players, always follows this routine – and communicates it all the way through, telling the person in the vac bed what he’s doing to do, and checking in after each time:

• He turns on the vacuum cleaner and lets it run for about twenty seconds. This pulls some air out of the vac bed, enough for the latex to start to mould down around the body, but not completely. Then he turns it off and lets it unseal.
• If the person indicates they are okay with it, he runs it the vacuum for about a minute, letting it pull more air out of the vac bed and mould more completely to the persons body. This also lets it mould to the face. He then turns it off and lets it unseal.
• If the person indicates that they were okay with that (and some are not, at this point, and ask to be let out), he then lets it run for about five minutes. After that time he turns it off, and asks if they want more, or if they have had enough.
• If they want more, he turns it back on. And then it’s time for some sensation play!

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