Look, I have no trouble moving heavy stuff, okay? But I can’t hoist a dresser straight off the ground and balance it on my fingertips while I also try to get it to sit level on my old crooked floors.
Shortly after I finished failing to align a pair of new IKEA Vihals dressers, the TikTok algorithm started taunting me with clips of people using a simple tool, which looked like a mini blood-pressure cuff, to effortlessly prop up furniture and appliances.
It was an air wedge, sometimes called an air shim. For less than $20, this tool gives anyone who can squeeze a soft rubber ball enough power to lift something that weighs hundreds of pounds and hold it in place for hours at a time, if needed.
It’s like an extra set of hands that can slide into the tiniest of gaps, yet it won’t feel any pain when it gets pinched, and it won’t ever tweak its back. And unlike using a pry bar, when you use an air wedge, it’s almost impossible to scratch or dent your stuff.
This air wedge eliminates the struggle involved in propping up furniture and appliances, so it’s much easier to level the legs or to slide a duster underneath. If your house has old, uneven floors, get one of these for your toolkit or kitchen drawer.
Just about all of the air wedges we’ve seen have great user ratings, including this kit. It comes with a few different sizes of air wedges, as well as two small pry bars, because why not?
All kinds of working professionals use air wedges. Appliance and furniture specialists use them to help level heavy items. For carpenters, they’re a handy tool for installing cabinets. Tow truck drivers can get into locked cars using an air wedge or two. If you watch shows like This Old House or Maine Cabin Masters closely enough, you’ll eventually see an air wedge doing something useful.
I’m not using my air wedge for any serious business, but after I tested it out on a handful of DIY projects and deep-cleaning jobs, it’s earned its keep in my house.
Over the past few months, I’ve used my air wedge for a few light construction projects, which included re-hanging a couple of doors and fastening a full sheet of plywood to a new shed. But it’s also come in handy for regular around-the-house maintenance jobs, like sliding a duster underneath my fridge and washing machine. And, yes, it helped me straighten out those IKEA dressers; the furniture seemed like it was floating in place while I slid shims underneath.
“I love those things,” said writer Doug Mahoney, Wirecutter’s real home-improvement expert. The floors in his 1700s-era house probably haven’t been level in centuries, and he uses air wedges to keep his appliances balanced. “Instead of sticking a crowbar under my fridge and damaging the finish or the floor, I just stick one of those under there, pump it up, and I can adjust the legs.”
It turned out to be just as easy to use as it looked on TikTok. The first time I tried an air wedge, I slid the deflated bag under one of the Vihals dressers and squeezed the bulb about a dozen times, without much effort. And the dresser was up off the ground in no time. The maximum lift was just a few inches, but that was more than enough space to slide in a shim. (Some air wedges do get bigger than others, and Doug told me he’s stacked multiples on top of each other to increase the height as needed.)
When I was done, I pressed the release valve near the bulb, and the bag deflated slowly enough that I was able to guide the dresser back to the floor without it slamming down.
For heavier items, like my fridge and washer, the last few bulb squeezes I needed to do to get them off the ground took a little more effort than bulb squeezes with the dresser. But doing this still didn’t require much strength.
Between projects, I stored the empty wedge in a kitchen drawer or tool bag. The flat body didn’t take up much space at all, and it certainly took up less space than a prybar, a precision jack, and even a pack of shims.
As you squeeze the bulb, the air wedge’s reinforced bladder inflates and lifts up to 300 pounds. Press the release button when you’re done, and the wedge will deflate. Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter
Most of the best-selling air wedges are rated to support 300 pounds, which is about the weight of an empty, standard-size French door fridge. That’s the kind of fridge I own, and my air wedge managed to hoist it up about an inch, even when it was loaded with food. Editor Daniela Gorny said that her husband, sculptor Duncan Niederlitz, has used air wedges to prop up a few 1,000-pound concrete casts with no issues.
I found at least a dozen different air wedges for sale in hardware stores and online, and they all seem to have favorable ratings.
I happened to buy the Calculated Industries AirShim because that’s what was on the shelf at the Home Depot near my house. But I couldn’t tell you whether it’s any better or worse than the Winbag (which claims to be the original air wedge) or any of the countless clones on Amazon (which often include multiple wedges in different sizes for less than the cost of one wedge at a hardware store).
You could also consider picking up something more like a lockout kit, which can help you break into your own car when you’ve locked your keys inside. The air wedges in these kits should work for any of the other typical jobs, and you also get a load of other tools that might come in handy.
According to forum posts and user reviews, some brands seem to use thicker material than others. I imagine that might have some effect on their ability to fold up or slide into especially tight gaps. It could also affect their longevity, but we don’t actually know that because we haven’t tested those particular air wedges.
The most common complaint that arises in user reviews is that, eventually, the air wedges start to leak. We don’t know exactly what causes this, but you’d have to imagine that more time under more pressure will wear out the material. On the other hand, maybe some people are just too rough with their air wedges, shoving them into drawers or tool bags with other pointy tools.
Most of my colleagues at Wirecutter had never heard of air wedges. I’ve never seen them included in lists of basic tools for the typical homeowner. That all seems like an oversight. If your house is new (or made of concrete), and everything is still flat, maybe you won’t need one. But if there’s any warping or wobbling, I’m sure an air wedge will come in handy at some point.
This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder.
