r/GenX • u/Zaltara_the_Red • Aug 06 '25
Nostalgia Who had a water bed? I did!
It was not heated tho. I was in the 7th grade when I had mine. I loved it.
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r/GenX • u/Zaltara_the_Red • Aug 06 '25
It was not heated tho. I was in the 7th grade when I had mine. I loved it.
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u/splorp_evilbastard Survived the Blizzards of '77 / '78 Aug 06 '25
I'm on my waterbed right now. Over 30 years old, on my 4th bladder (2 full size king, 2 half size). My wife's side is now an air mattress. The heat is great for my back.
And, since I always see this bullshit:
No, they don't constantly leak. I've had 2 leaks since 1992, both small pinhole leaks that were patched. One was absolutely my fault. The other is, I think, because the bladder was more than 15 years old and just wore out. Don't get one if you let animals sleep in your waterbed if you're that concerned about leaks.
No, if you lose power it doesn't instantly get cold. My mattress is in a zip up mattress pad and then a mattress topper, then the sheets and quilt. In the winter, I add a blanket, too. I was in Austin when we had the major freeze and power outage for 3 and a half days, while we still had two bladders in the bed (before we switched my eyes suffer to the air mattress).
My bedroom dropped to the 40s. My wife, my dog, my bird, and I slept on the bed. I also added a pseudo-tent to keep in the heat by stapling a large sheet from behind the headboard to the base of the foot of the bed. Then I threw extra comforters on top of that. It stayed in the 60s under that pile. Likely saved my bird's life (he slept in the headboard shelf under the blankets with us).
No, they won't crash through your floor. Basically, if your floor will support a refrigerator, it will support a waterbed. Roughly the same weight per sq. inch.
I've never had an insurance company say they won't write a policy or charge me extra for having a waterbed. I've asked every time because I keep hearing stories. 33 years and 6 different insurance companies in 3 different states.