Waterbed owners - do you still love it? update post 21

[mykidslovesdisney]

OP her. I took DH to the local store that carried the Eco Touch mattress by Gold Bond. He LOVED it. He even mentioned that he was thinking of getting rid of the bed!! We both tried a few other styles but the Eco Touch won us over. Now the place we went to was $500 more than the orginal store I found it at. After talking with the sales person they matched the other store and threw in a waterproof mattress pad and frame! We do have to pay $50 for delivery but it also means we don't have to travel almost an hr 1 way to pick up from the other store. Plus we won't have to do carry the mattress up the stairs either.

I am totally shocked that DH was soo willing to get rid of the waterbed. I am also excited that i get to shop for a new sheet set or two!

It should be here mid next week!

Thank you for all your input on your relationship with your waterbeds!

 

[bumbershoot]

For those of you who have switched away from a waterbed, did it help your back at all? I've been having increasing back pain in the mornings for the last year or so, and this thread has kind of opened the door to talking about getting a regular mattress instead. This morning was especially bad, and so we may go mattress shopping this weekend. I'd just like to be sure that a different mattress would help with my back.

FWIW, my back was never better WITH a waterbed. The only reason I haven't gone back to it is the fact taht I don't know where to FIND a waterbed, and that my mom had told me that they didn't make the old fashioned sort of "bags of water" that I grew up with and loved so much.

Word to the wise. . . don't get one if you're planning to move. We had one until a move a few years ago. Unless you spring a leak they are IMPOSSIBLE to drain and move.

That's really interesting. My mom, brother, and I had waterbeds when my brother and I were growing up. We had a tiny little house, and to shake things up, we would move rooms every couple years. Which meant draining and moving the waterbeds (my brother and I had different colored frames). And then my mom moved cross country, then a few years later moved to another state...each time draining and moving the beds.

I know waterbeds have changed but why are you finding it so difficult to drain them? I remember it being pretty easy. The hard part was waiting for them to heat up after being filled again...

 

[Debbie-TN]

We had a waterbed for about 25 years. About 4 years ago it got to where I couldn't pull up the corners any more to change the sheets. This was the 2nd one we had and it was a mattress inside a zippered quilted covering. I thought about the sleep number beds and wondered if there was an air mattress that you could replace for the water mattress. I looked on ebay and sure enough they had one. It's thick like the water mattress and looks very similar to it. The air mattress goes inside the covering. We have to blow it up with a portable air pump. We love it and it's so easy to change the sheets. Sometimes it's a little hard to get out of because it's slightly below the rails. We put some of those foam boards,like you put up for insulation, under it and it helped some, but I would like to put something else under it to make it a little higher.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

We took the water bed apart today-- what a disaster!! The mattress wouldn't drain all the way.- Couldn't get it to drain more using the garden hose. DH had the idea to take one side of the frame off and cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the mattress and use buckets to empty it out. Sounded great. It worked for a while until he "thought" he could pull mattress off and drag it downstairs. I was leaning towards dropping it out the window but he didn't want it to damage the house.

In the process of dragging it off the platform- now the end of the frame has been removed. DH managed to put a new hole in the mattress by hitting it on the handle of the dresser. In the mean time I couldn't hold on to the hole in the side of the mattress I had! PLUS it still had a ton of water left it in!!!

Needless to say we had a very wet mess. Thank god DS11 was helping us. He managed to grab the subpump and I had a bucket under the hole. We had to subpump the remainder of the water out. We used every towel we had in the cabinet to contain the water.

We never had such a problem with draining a water bed mattress before!! Right now it is out on the front lawn being rained on. I think DH is going to cut it open then throw it in the dumpster.

It never crossed our minds that the mattress would tear while moving it. Thanking god that it didn't happen on the stairs or somewhere else in the house. I had to clean up 3 rooms plus the bathroom so the kids could move thru them. DH left for work as soon as the mattress was out the door. I am blowing up the air mattress to sleep on that tonight.

I think I am going to sleep soundly bc it was a very long tiring day. Good thing we didn't wait till the day the new mattress was coming.

 

[disney1990]

FWIW, my back was never better WITH a waterbed. The only reason I haven't gone back to it is the fact taht I don't know where to FIND a waterbed, and that my mom had told me that they didn't make the old fashioned sort of "bags of water" that I grew up with and loved so much.

Hum, you Mom must not want you to have one. I had no problem going on Google and finding an original waterbed. The kind we have always slept on and still do.

 

[Alexander]

Word to the wise. . . don't get one if you're planning to move. We had one until a move a few years ago. Unless you spring a leak they are IMPOSSIBLE to drain and move.

We're now looking into the latex foam mattresses.

And BTW, why are mattresses always on sale, but still cost more than a washer and dryer? Must be some mark-up!

DH and I moved one into our first apartment. It was so dang heavy and I couldn't stop laughing, which in turn means I was useless to carry anything! I can still see DH dragging the mattress across the yard into the building and down the stairs. He was so mad at me, but couldn't help laughing because I couldn't stop! We still 18 years later laugh thinking about this. Needless to say, when we bought our house, we left the waterbed behind!

 

[mickeyluvr004]

I agree i went on and found a decent store called the Bedbug store out of North Carolina and purchased a matteress/heater and a few other supplies. Not one problem received when stated.. We have the old waterbed but we are starting to think about getting a regular matteress when this one gives out..

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

I got my waterbed in 1977 when I was a teenager. I've replaced the mattress once in all those years. Both mattresses were full motion "whale belly" mattresses. This year I bought another full motion waterbed for our guest room. Our guests think it's a "blast from the past" and love sleeping on it. I can honestly say I will never give up my water bed. Thankfully I bought a beautiful bed when I got it and it still looks good today.