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If you were around in the ’80s, chances are you’ve actually experienced a waterbed and you surely remember the craze at its peak. If you were around in the ’90s or later, you’ve probably seen dozens of movies and cartoons featuring a waterbed mattress and you understand that there was a period when it was a big deal.
Anyone who’s ever heard about waterbeds wanted to at least try it out – but where are they now? What happened to waterbeds? Do people still buy waterbeds? Read on to learn how they started, why they failed, and where you can find one today.
History of Waterbeds: What Happened to Them?
While the hippie wave of the sixties was spilling into every area of human life, a student called Charles Hall from San Francisco State University was working on his Master’s thesis. Whether he was aware of it at the time or not, his work was a highlight for at least a decade of life for millions of people. He was testing out his options for soft furniture and first wanted to make a chair filled with cornstarch gel. After some failed experiments, he focused on beds, and finally, filling up a vinyl mattress with plain water marked the invention of a waterbed. The first waterbed mattress sold in the stores was named “The Pleasure Pit” by him.
An old form of the waterbed was actually created more than a century earlier when a Scottish physician Neil Arnott wanted to alleviate bedsores in hospital patients. However, he never patented his rubber waterbed and this type of waterbed mattress never got far from what it was originally designed to do. And the actual oldest waterbed mattress was the water-filled goat skin bed which the ancient Persians, Greeks, and Romans slept on.
Back to Charles Hall. He designed the mattress in the late sixties and patented it in 1971. Back then, regular mattresses were innerspring mattresses, but not the thickly-padded mattresses that we have today. Those were very firm mattresses made of a sturdy coil spring system and thin compressed fiber padding. Firm mattresses were pretty much the only option because doctors would recommend sleeping on as firm a surface as possible for good posture and support (many still do!).
Waterbeds were popular from the mid-’70s to the late ’80s, peaking in the late ’80s. They made a bit over 20% of all bed sales in the US and it is estimated that somewhere between 15-20% of all American households had a waterbed.
Their sales tapered in the ’90s, and the popularity never came back. More and more waterbed customers were slowly starting their own families, so they didn’t want to buy a waterbed again. If anything, they wanted to get rid of the old one. This is far from being the only reason why waterbeds fell out of popularity.
Waterbeds:
- were high-maintenance,
- difficult to move,
- difficult to fill up with water,
- were a nuisance to drain,
- gained some level of notoriety for excessive wobbliness,
- could damage the floors with their excessive weight or in case of large leaks, and
- were not the only soft bed out there after memory foam became the new big deal.
You have to take care of a waterbed, but conditioning the water isn’t the hardest thing. If you want to rearrange the furniture or move house, you’re in for a lot of work. More work than moving an adjustable bed frame! You cannot move a waterbed filled with water. Also, a Twin-sized waterbed mattress weighs about 1,600 pounds. A King size bed would be more than double that! So, you needed to drain all those gallons out, wait for a long time, and then pack the mattress. Once you moved the frame and the mattress, you need to get it filled with water again.
Waterbeds still exist today, though. You can find waterbed mattresses similar to those sold fifty years ago, but the modern versions usually include a more supportive structure with a carefully designed system of running water than can warm you up or cool you down. Some waterbeds are hybrids, where you can fill the support layer with water, but there’s still a thick foam layer on top. Finally, there are also water pads, such as the Chilipad from Chilisleep.
Waterbeds were a stark contrast to old spring beds, which was one of the things that made them popular. They were a fun soft bed. However, traditional companies were working on their own novelties. Now they knew people wanted soft beds and they were testing various materials. Tempur Pedic was the first to introduce memory foam in the mattress industry in 1991, and it was a huge success. At the same time, waterbed sales were dropping more than ever. Americans found a way to enjoy comfort, softness, and relief at pressure points without all the hassle of a waterbed.
Considering how beds changed from right before waterbeds to ’90s, we could say that waterbed mattresses, although a fad, have imprinted on the mattress industry and changed its course forever.
Why were waterbeds popular?
Waterbeds mirrored the rule-breaking revolutionary spirit of baby boomers. They were soft, comfortable, completely against what doctors recommended at that moment, and they were lots of fun. Some called traditional beds “dead beds” because of their “boring” lack of responsiveness and pressure relief.
Another important thing to notice is that at this time the whole sexual revolution had pretty much already happened – so, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of sexually “liberated”, relatively young people who wanted to exploit their new freedoms to the maximum, and who just got introduced to the waterbed.
So no wonder this insanely fast-growing fad caught everyone’s attention. And since it was easy to start a company back then, most waterbed manufacturers popped up seemingly overnight. With the market flooded and competition growing stronger, waterbed prices fell quickly. The simplest waterbed mattress was available for only $99.
Do Waterbeds Still Exist and Where Can You Get One?
Yes, they do. Just like in the ’70s or ’80s, you can get a hardside waterbed, which is practically a vinyl bag that needs a hard wooden frame to keep its shape. You can also get a softside waterbed, which has foam bolsters and a padded top – softside waterbeds look like a regular mattress and require less water than a hardside waterbed.
You can find waterbeds more easily than you’d think – in most major furniture stores, large chain department stores, but also in specialized waterbed stores and online on places like Amazon.
The price range for the cheapest ones is between $50 and $150. These are usually free flow waterbeds, which means that they are just a simple vinyl bag filled up with water, so they have a lot of water motion when you move. Mid-range waterbeds are from $150-$300, and high-end waterbeds are up to (or above) $2,000. Better ones come with a waterbed heater, waterbed conditioner, electric pump, and in semi-waveless and waveless waterbed baffles. These “baffles” are changes in design that ensure the water doesn’t move too much and sleeper can rest more peacefully.
Are Waterbeds Illegal?
Waterbeds are legal for the most part. In California, if the rental property is built before 1973, the landlord may legally refuse a tenant who has a waterbed mattress. However, some state or local laws forbid landlords from banning waterbeds in their buildings.
In any case, you should have a valid insurance policy or certificate of insurance of property damage. Check your local laws and your rental lease to see what it say about owning a water-filled mattress.
Downsides of Waterbeds
Although they still seem like a lot of fun, waterbed mattresses carry some drawbacks other than what I mentioned above when talking about why they fell out of popularity.
- Joint pain
- Smell
- Wear and tear
- Increased insurance premiums
- Expensive bedding
Joint pain
Waterbed mattresses can cause lower back pain or joint pain as a result of the body not being positioned properly. If you’re one of the people whose spine doesn’t get into neutral position while lying on a waterbed, you might feel discomfort and pain. Other types of mattresses are better at relieving joint pain.
Smell
A new waterbed mattress has a vinyl smell, but used ones may develop an unpleasant musty odor. This is due to bacteria that grows in the water. If you don’t add a conditioner once a year, bacteria will develop quite quickly. If you use a poorly formulated conditioner, the smell can still develop. It can be very bothersome and hard to get rid of. You’d need to flush out your waterbed mattress with stronger chemicals that could (hopefully!) help you get rid of the smell.
Wear and tear
First of all, waterbed mattresses do not handle storage well – they can easily get punctured and damaged. Second, you need to be extra careful when using your waterbed and avoid having sharp objects around it. Pets can also cause problems. All in all, we’re talking about huge amounts of water possibly getting out of your mattress after slight damage or after years of use with normal wear and tear. There are repair kits that you can use to fix the waterbed, but for some people, the risk of leaks is a dealbreaker.
Increased insurance premiums
When you get a weaterbed liability insurance, you’ve covered any damage to furniture and property that might get damaged by leaks. The amount of damage covered is usually about $300,000, and you’ll have to pay up to $100 per month for this.
Expensive bedding
Waterbeds always match the standard bed sizes and regular sheets are not likely to fit. The bedding for waterbeds is expensive and you can’t find it in just any store, so this is an extra expenditure to keep in mind.
FAQs
They might be – some people could find waterbeds actually causing them lower back pain, and others find that they relieve their pain. Doctors mainly agree that for the majority of sleepers a firmer bed is the way to go to relieve back pain, but they also acknowledge that different people could benefit from different sleep surfaces.
Likely not. The craze that hit the market back in the ’80s was popular for a while before being replaced with easier-to-maintain options. They might come back some time in the far future, if people grow tired of smart beds, fiberglass, and toxic chemicals in their beds.
Overall, they were, but compared to their popularity in the ’80s, not nearly as much. The demand was much smaller and kept dropping by the end of the ’90s.
You don’t need to change the water so long as you’re adding the conditioner once a year. However, you should check the manufacturer’s instructions for your particular mattress as they might have some special recommendations. Also, if you notice musty smell coming from the mattress, you should change water and add fresh, if not stronger, conditioner.
They are safe for adults, but not for babies and toddlers. As for your home, a bigger leak could damage your flooring, and the weight of the mattress with the frame could cause some structural damage if you’re on one of the upper floors and the building is really old. Also, many landlords forbid waterbeds and all water furniture due to above reasons and if you still get one despite it being prohibited, you could get yourself in trouble.
The cheapest mattresses were from $99 to about $500 (which comes up to $2,300 when adjusted for inflation). But a waterbed store salesman would almost never sell a mattress only. People would also get accompanying sheets, comforters, mattress pads, and frames. All accessories in, and the price would rise up to a several thousand dollars. In today’s dollars, we’d be talking about tens of thousands.
The waterbed reached its absolute peak in ’89, after which the demand was dropping.
Conclusion
Waterbed mattresses saw their heyday in the late ’80s, after which their popularity was steadily dropping. Although they went from one in five Americans owning one to being only a tiny fraction of mattresses sold today, waterbeds still managed to leave a mark – they opened the door to soft beds, which inspired memory foam mattresses and all other soft mattresses of today.
Old-style waterbeds haven’t disappeared. Hardside and softside waterbeds are still being sold, but they are far from being advertised anywhere or seen as desirable. Modern waterbeds may be hybrids or have a network of small water hoses that would primarily serve to heat up or cool down the mattress. They have their pros and cons, but are unlikely to regain their old popularity.
Next step: Read our guide to the most durable mattresses. The problem with waterbeds is that they’re hard to maintain. If you want something that will last much longer than a standard waterbed, all of the brands on this list are great options to choose from.
With over 5 years experience writing about sleep and mattresses, she's considered one of the go-to experts on the topic.
She likes cycling, nature, art, and languages. She pays special attention to providing you with accurate and useful information when it comes to your sleep quality.
After solving her personal sleep and tiredness problems, she is on to help others by sharing this invaluable information.
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