or are/were they a fad
Work how? Had waterbeds for the last 30 years, absolutely loved them, wonderfully comfortable. Unfortunately they are not really conducive to being moved, so had to give mine up for a regular mattress. Really miss the old waterbed.
Given that “work” is undefined, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Do they work?
My answer is “yes” three times.
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There is a small learning curve, but once you catch the groove(waves) you will never want to have sex anywhere else.
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Great on my bad back, well not bad back, just overweight and outa shape.
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I hate it when I sweat at night…A/C takes care of the top half, turning down the bed heater takes care of the bottom half. No sweaty sheets.
Work? Yeah, they worked in that you could sleep/copulate on them. You can do the same on a bed of nails if so inclined.
They were a fad in the 70’s but there are still some people buying them.
I absolutely hated ours. Was never the right temp for me (too hot or too cold) and I didn’t like the sensation of sleeping on a giant water balloon. Suit yourself but I prefer a regular king size spring mattress.
“Work”? In the sense that you can do most things on them that you can do with any other sort of bed, yes. But if anything were to go wrong the results could be messier.
For the benefit of those who may not know - that clip is from the most popular British soap which went out at 7:30 every evening.
Work? Yes, they are indisputably superior at developing small holes that leaves you and your bedroom floor soaked in the middle of the night. I hope that you have a whore around that can suck a golf ball through a garden hose when that happens because you are going to need one to siphon the water out so that you can repair the leak and then fill the mattress back up again but you aren’t going back to sleep that night because that takes a really long time.
The temperature thing is iffy too as noted. There is nothing colder than sleeping on a waterbed that hasn’t come up to temperature yet and that can take days because the only thing keeping them warm is a small heater underneath them.
That said, waterbeds that don’t have leaks and are at the right temperature are pretty comfortable. I had more than one over time for a reason. The earlier/cheap models often didn’t have internal baffles so it was quite possible to get seasick in your own bed but they found a way to dampen that effect. I would sleep great in one tonight for nostalgia sake if someone else took responsibility if I popped it.
Nobody has yet mentioned the weight issue. Take the dimensions of the bed and multiply them by the density of water. You usually end up with a significant fraction of a ton (or a tonne or a metric ton or…). The weight of a small car, basically. Make sure the floor can handle that weight continuously for a long time. Get permission from your landlord if applicable.
And nothing hotter than one that is too warm. In either case, you have to insulate yourself from the bed itself. Wonderful heat sinks they are.
Anyway, I love them. When the temp is right, best sleep ever. Never had a leak.
But, I have not had one for 20 years. My Wife hates them. I think mostly because the temp is never quite right from one night to the next, she needs to be able to just throw off the blanket to cool down for instance. Doesn’t really work in a water bed. A difference of 2 degrees in water temp can be perfect for one person while the other is either too hot, or too cold. And as said, it will take a good day to change the temp.
It does of course take a bit of planning to move one.
My back problems ceased when I went back to a regular mattress.
I had one for a couple of years in high school, I thought it was really cool at first. But it caused me a lot of back pain and discomfort after a while, as soon as I got rid of the bed it went away. It was hell on Earth trying to drain all the water out to get rid of it.
We used one for decades. It’s still set up in another room.
Tube style, soft sided. Occasional leaks that needed patching.
No problem at all regarding hot/cold. Good padding fixes that. Reasonable support and comfort for a while.
The main problem is the soft sides. They splay out over time and this prevents adequate support as the tubes spread out. Got an extra tube on Amazon eventually to help with that.
We also have a lava lamp.
Pardon me, I’m going to tie-dye some shirts while listening to Cheech and Chong.
After two years on an Asian “health mattress” (which was all that was available), our backs were in bad shape. We found a leaving-island sale at which a teacher was selling her waterbed. We bought it and our back pain went away. It was wonderful for the tropical island climate: no heat most of the year to keep the bedroom cool, and turned up a little when it got cooler (it was never cold there).
The only leak we had happened when we moved it on a flatbed truck, and it was an easy fix. We loved the sensation of being on the water.
I found out on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001 that you cannot quickly scramble out of such a bed.
Other posters are correct about the weight. If you rent, you will likely be told you may not have one. If I had any way to own one now, I would in a heartbeat.
Many apartment buildings won’t allow waterbeds above the first floor.
Get your cat declawed.nnnoooooo, ain’t worth it!!
Although it took most of a day to fill, and most of a day to empty, it could be transported in a small car. Sex was good. Kept me cheaply warm in an otherwise unheated house. Apart from that, just a bed.
Yep!
Our cat was declawed in the front but not the rear paws. Put multiple little holes in the water balloon.
What freaking mess. Instead of repairing/replacing it we gave up on having a waterbed and got a regular spring mattress.
I am forever grateful to that old pussy! Gawd rest his soul. 
My elderly mother wanted (and got) one because of her back pain but it was too hard for her to get in and out of. Either that or she just bitched about it like she bitched about everything else.
I too am curious what “Work” means?
They work good for all bed things except jumping.
Try jumping on it and if you dont break it, it may break you.
I liked the baffleless ones, the fact it moved all night was great with me.
Comfortable.
The heaters were a pain, never get the temp right, i found it easier to just heavily pad the top with several layers of old blankets (which also gave a place to store said blankets)
And the heaters die easy and they are under 2 tons of water
Never had terrible problems with leaks.
Think i had one leak, it was not a flood, just felt the bedding damp.
Bed had a liner so it would not go on floor anyways.
stripped bed, removed cap and blew air into it after marking the leak.
moved air bubble to the leak, cleaned the area and applied patch and let it dry.
Did not lose enough water to bother adding, burped out the air bubble and went to bed.
Getting out is easy once you learn to not fight the bed.
Just roll to the edge.
Now keeping the bedding in place is another story.
It NEVER stays.