Caring for a Water Bed Mattress

If you own a water bed mattress you are well acquainted with the sensation of slipping between the sheets of your bed and being lulled gently to sleep through the actions of the mattress. The warmth of the water within your water bed mattress, maintained by your automatic thermostat, provides a very comfortable sleeping environment.

A water bed mattress is not for everybody. However, those who sleep on a water bed stand by its sleeping comfort, durability, ease of use and the physical benefits derived by the body.

In caring for your water bed mattress there are a couple of critical measures that need to be followed in order to lengthen the life of your waterbed as well as providing the optimum sleeping comfort. Those two measures are the use of a waterbed conditioner and maintaining the proper level of water in the mattress.

Water Bed Conditioner

Although a water bed mattress is easy to setup and utilize, there is a specific maintenance procedure that should be performed periodically. That maintenance procedure is the addition of the waterbed conditioner.

By adding the waterbed conditioner the water that is used to fill the mattress will be kept free of stagnation. This stagnation will cause the water to turn brown and create an unpleasant odor that will be emitted from the mattress.

In addition, if the water is not treated routinely it will accelerate the deterioration of the water bed mattress. This deterioration will be caused by the growth of algae within the mattress. This growth, in turn, will eventually cause the water bed mattress, which is made of vinyl, to harden and crack.

The water conditioner selected to treat the water in a water bed mattress should be a multipurpose product. It is important that the product that you purchase is from a reputable water bed mattress dealership and is a quality product. It is recommended that eight ounces of this product is added to the mattress every 18 months.

Maintaining the Proper Level of Water

Another key factor in caring for your mattress is maintaining the proper level of water. It is important to know that a water bed mattress can be overfilled. The effect of overfilling will have the adverse effects of unduly stretching the mattress. This in turn will put excess pressure on the seams and therefore weaken the integrity of the mattress.

Also, excess water in the mattress will place undue stress upon the water bed frame. This stress may weaken the support of the mattress as well as damaging the hardware associated with keeping the frame together.

On the other hand, under filling the mattress can have adverse effects on the mattresses as well. The adverse affects of under filling the mattress can lead to added stress placed upon the heater which in turn will cause overheating. This overheating will damage the vinyl material that the mattress is made from.

A technique that is used to determine whether your waterbed mattress is filled properly is through the use of a broom handle. When filling up your water bed mattress, place the handle of a broomstick across one of the uppermost corners of the frame that holds your waterbed mattress. When the broomstick is lifted off of the wooden frame by the expanding waterbed mattress, your waterbed mattress has been filled to the proper level.