Waterbed Myths Part 1

The waterbed industry has been plagued by the perpetuation of misinformation and myth since it's inception in the late sixties. Here we will debunk many of these fables, one by one;

Let's start with this old favorite; "Waterbeds can burst". While it is possible for a filled waterbed mattress to explode if it were to be dropped from a ten story tower, (think David Letterman), it is not at all likely to rupture under normal circumstances. You see, the water in a properly filled waterbed mattress is not under pressure. A deep fill type mattress has about eight inches of water depth inside. So the stress near the bottom is about the same as a filled glass of your favorite beverage in a container the same height.

That said, I can attest to witnessing some extreme abuses of waterbed mattresses under abnormal circumstances, and can report that they have NOT burst, ever. Check out this video from one of our competitors in California doing a publicity stunt: http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dmx1nbWjZ4oA .

While the video should speak for itself, I'll tell you about a few other bladder abuses that I have observed; I once filled a ten-plus year old, king sized full motion waterbed mattress on a beach at my vacation home for the kids to play on. Well, the kids loved it, and it not only was jumped on just about every day all summer, but a friend of mine actually backed her jeep over it (on purpose), and it never even sprung a pinhole. To this day, there is one in my back yard playground. As a salesman, I often jumped on the showroom models just about every day to demonstrate the strength of a waterbed, and I weigh over 250 lbs.

Back in the early eighties at a grand opening party for one of our retail showrooms, we had 14 adults piled onto a floor model for a photo op. I wish I could find that picture. That waterbed store has since moved to the internet.

As I said, the water is not under pressure. If you were to stab the surface of a properly filled waterbed, you would only see a few drops of water.

So, I think I have made my point. A correctly filled waterbed, whether it be a hardside, (wood frame waterbed) or softside, full motion or waveless water mattress, will not burst, even under extreme circumstances.

Now, on to the next myth.