A waterbed mattress pad or topper is a great way to improve the comfort of your waterbed. Using a padded waterbed topper will give you a softer feel to your waterbed as well as letting air circulate between yourself and the mattress ensuring a good nights sleep. Many suppliers offer hypo-allergenic waterbed mattress pads and covers ensuring the best quality sleep available.
Waterbed toppers aren’t solely for the occupants comfort though. These often overlooked accessories are vital in protecting and prolonging the life of your waterbed insert. Unfortunately the vinyl that waterbed bladders are made from has a tendency to degrade over a period of time and the body oil we all excrete, if it gets into contact with the vinyl bladder only speeds up the degradation of the vinyl. A waterbed matress protector is essential if you want to keep the mattress in good shape.
There is a good selection of waterbed mattress pads and toppers on the market ranging from cotton covers, more durable cotton/polyester protectors or even quilted thermal luxury waterbed pads. Depending on your local climate some of these padded mattress toppers can reduce or eliminate the need for a waterbed heater.
Most waterbed mattress pads are fairly easy to secure to your bed. Many bedding suppliers provide pads with elasticated skirts that slip easily around your waterbed bladder whether it is a softside or hardside bed. You can also easily find mattress covers that have elasticated corner straps or anchor bands for use on varying hardside beds dependant on the depth of the bladder on your bed.
Maintaining your mattress pad is straight forward, most protectors on the market are machine washable and good to go in a tumble dryer, fairly easy to remove and attach making it straightforward to keep clean.
Dependant on bed size, many basic waterbed mattress pads start at around $25. For this kind of money you’ll get a 100% polyester water bed mattress cover with a fluffy padded feel, probably hypo-allergenic, durable with anchor bands allowing for easy fittings on all sizes and types of waterbed.
Next up in price range tends to be the 100% quilted cotton with polyester fill mattress pads with additional protection to the mattress sides. Then at $75-150 your entering the world of heated waterbed mattress pads and toppers. These generally have all the similar characteristics of a cheaper topper, machine washable, hypo-allergenic etc but can be thermostatically controlled to heat your bed for more comfort. They often run on a DC current so are safe for use.
Then at the luxury end of the market your looking at luxury kingsize waterbed mattress pads with memory foam, and you can end up laying out $400-600 on these items. Of course there are all shades in between these general bands in the market..but you get the idea you can go on a budget or really splash out on your waterbed mattress pad or topper if you like.