Filling a mattress is easy when you know how but if you haven’t filled one before it can be difficult to know where to start. Hardside, softside or waveless, the method for how to fill to the correct or optimium level is the same for all types of waterbed. What you have got to watch for is overfilling or underfilling the bladder.
Some people may be of the opinion that putting as much water in the mattress as possible is the best way forward as this will give your mattress a firmer ride. Unfortunately life isn’t so simple, water can’t be compressed so by overfilling your not going to get a firmer bed as you might if you overfilled an air mattress (air is a gas which can be compressed).
The side effects from overfilling you bed should be enough to put you off. An overfilled bladder will turn hemispherical or round as you try to add more water. The effects are that seams will be stressed and weaken, the vinyl components of the bladder may warp and become mishapen and creased over time and joints on the frame will be stressed and damaged . The addition of extra water will also put more stress on your heater. The heater will have to work harder to heat more water and as a result electrical consumption will rise. Lastly but not least it will become harder to change your sheets on the waterbed, you’ll have extra weight to lift when putting sheets on and the gap around the frame will get tighter. All in all an overfilled bed bladder isn’t recommended.
Underfilling you mattress isn’t nearly as damaging but you still have to be careful not to completely under fill. Underfilling will make the mattress uncomfortable as you will find when you lay or rest on the mattress the water parts ways and you are grounded on the underside of the bladder or on the top most framing. Other than not being comfortable this can be dangerous as your heater may overheat and become damaged or in overheating damage the vinyl bladder walls leading to a failure.
So clearly filling your bed to the correct level is important, so how do you do this? Well assuming you have a waterbed fill and drain kit with all the correct hoses and adaptors or have a hose to hand with a decent water supply you are ready to go. All you have to do to get the mattress to the correct fill level is take a normal common broom handle and lay it across a wide corner of the bed preferably at the mattresses lowest points. You can do this with any hardside, softside or waveless mattress. Then fill the mattress with water until the bladder is full enough to begin to lift the broom handle off the wood or foam suround frame. Adding water beyond this level will be overfilling and be of no benefit to you.
To complete the operation of filling the waterbed mattress use the broom handle to guide any excess air out of the mattress to the filling aperture. This burping technique needs to be done a few times till you’ve got all the air out of the mattress and will guarantee a noise less bed. The burping isn’t mandatory as the air won’t cause any problems other than make the mattress noisy.
