Which Waterbed Bladder
When it comes to choosing a waterbed bladder or mattress there are a number of options open to you. Are you looking for a hardside bed or a softside bed? Are you after a free flow or waveless bladder? Which bladder is the easiest to use and easiest to maintain? Inevitably all the various designs have inherent benefits and which suits your lifestyle and comfort requirements best will be an individual choice.
Hardside beds can have a single or dual bladder allowing for a mixed setting for comfort levels if your partner has different requirements to yourself. Hardside beds are those that have a heavy wooden surround to the bed that the liner, bladder and heater sit within for support and to maintain shape. These beds are heavy and one of the earliest designs of waterbed but have come along way from the original design. As well as seperate or dual waterbed mattresses you can now choose between free flow or full wave bladders and waveless bladders.
Free flow bladders are purely a large bag of water and consequently when you shift your weight on them you get a wave motion. Of course they do fully support your body and so convey good health and comfort benefits but if you are a light sleeper they may not be ideal for you if your partner is restless. Waveless bladders, on the other hand have all the comfort and support of the free flow bladder but have baffles and fiber inserts that calm and reduce water flow in the mattress getting rid of the waves when weight is shifted on the bladder. An issue of annoyance with hard side beds tends to be both how difficult they can be to move and how tiresome it can be to fit sheets and keep sheets on the bed. There are various sheet types specifically made for hardside waterbeds but non the less they can become annoying.
Softside bladders or softside waterbeds tend to look more like standard beds. They don’t come with a heavy wooden surround. Unlike hardside waterbeds the bladder is supported and its shape maintained by a foam/quilted surround that fully encloses the bladders and is usually accessed by a zip. Often softsided beds come with a choice of single bladder, dual bladders or individual tubes making up a set. As with hardside beds you can get a choice of freeflow or waveless designs depending on which you favor. The beauty of soft side beds is that sheets are fitted more easily and if your choose a bladder set up made of tubes the bed can be relatively easy to move around.
Whichever option you choose your bladder will always need to be maintained to prevent the water within going stagnant and becoming moldy as a result of waterborne bacteria. It is advisable to use a waterbed conditioner on your bladder six monthly to keep the bladder in good shape and to prolong its life as long as possible. As bladders are made from vinyl, keeping the bladder outer clean isn’t to hard, just the occassional wipe with warm soapy water should be enough to keep the mattress clean. Don’t avoid this step as human body oils can gradually attack and damage the vinyl. This is a minor point but for hardside bladders where you have trouble keeping sheets on the bed its a point worth bearing in mind.
As to the durability of your waterbed bladder most are pretty tough but if you do have problems with minor leaks they are straight forward to fix at minimum cost, it’s only when seams go that you’ve got trouble. A bladder comprising a series of tubes may be better if you are worried about this, as replacement waterbed tubes are easy to get on the internet and also reduce and risk of large leaks in extremely rare circumstances.