What ever happened to the waterbed?

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Published Date 7/31/2018

The waterbed. Some may not even remember it gracing bedrooms all over the country, but those who came into adulthood in the ‘70s sure do. The question is this: What happened to make waterbeds disappear and how did this craze seem to end so suddenly?

For those who have no memory of them, a waterbed was a huge rubber mattress-shaped bladder filled with water placed within a wood frame. Simply touching it literally made waves, and if women began dating someone who owned one, it often felt like a lair their date set up to ensnare them. People with bad backs claimed relief because of how waterbeds surrounded them, conforming to their bodies. Landlords were made to write clauses in rental contracts because of the damage a waterbed could cause if it leaked as well as the formidable weight all that water added to floor joists in upper floors of their buildings.

A Seattle-based mattress company (a representative named Nick) explored the subject on their blog, saying, “Waterbeds have died out as a major mattress category, so it would be easy to say that they failed. Or maybe they were just a fad." They go on to say the in the nearly 50 years that have transpired since then; they would argue this to be a fallacy, proposing that waterbeds were phenomenally successful. Unfortunately, they admit, however, the waterbed industry won the battle but ultimately lost the war.

Waterbed buyers had a choice of densities from sloshy to firm and everywhere in between, with a heavy duty coil spring system, minimal padding, and even a heater to envelop their tired limbs on a cold night. “Padding consisted of a compressed fiber pad, usually made of cotton (similar to a thick carpet pad), sheathed in a thin quilted cover. The whole mattress was 7 to 8? thick,” says Nick, who seems to nostalgically sigh as he writes, “Waterbeds broke all the rules. And people loved them.”

Waterbed store owners often belonged to a cult all their own, many of them hippies and non-business types — wherein may lie the catalyst of their demise. “The public bought in to the idea of ‘flotation sleep’ and often put up with inconvenience and sometimes poor quality, all to get that warm, wonderful sleep provided by natural water,” writes Nick. He goes on to say that throughout the 20 or so years waterbed were in their heyday, business owners with such little knowledge of sleep science thought the craze would last forever, despite the medical community recommending firm sleep surfaces for support. At the peak of waterbed mania, in the mid-1980s, 1 in 5 mattresses sold in this country were water-filled. By the time waterbeds dropped from favor, however, they were available just about everywhere for $99 for any sized bed.

By then the spring coil bed industry had begun introducing plush, conforming sleep surfaces over firmer foundations, fabricated plush, pillow-topped and Euro-top mattresses, and offered them to consumers for the unheard of prices of $1000 and more. The public sat up in bed and took notice that something better may be out there, but this new type of marketing made mattress-buying a serious investment. Waterbed owners began shedding themselves of their once-beloved sloshy sleep systems and waterbed establishments went the way of Blockbuster stores. It happens.

Waterbeds are not gone completely. Diehard owners still swear by them, parts are still available through some outlets, and product manufacturers have pretty much duplicated their appeal, all evidenced by the mattress choices you have today.

Source: Realtor.com, bedroomsandmore.com, TBWS

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