Selecting a Waterbed Mattress

It is important to select the right mattress. Many things go into this selection, price, firmness, and amount of support are the main considerations.

Firmness

When deciding how firm a mattress you want, consider what you are sleeping on now. This should give you an idea of where to start. We feel that firmer mattresses provide more isolation from other sleepers.

Children and teens seem to favor full motion mattresses, but we feel this is a mistake because full motion mattresses allow young people to sag down in the middle while sleeping promoting poor posture. It may be fun for them in that first five minutes, but they have to sleep on them for years.

Support

Support is important because the extra lumbar layers available in many of our mattresses support us in the middle where we are heavier. More layers provide more support. This effect is lessened in mattresses below 90% because the lumbar layers work with the full size fiber layers. If you don't like lumbar, the Memory's 95% is a great choice.

Cost

Cost is effected the most by number of fiber layers and vinyl thickness and type, then by brand. Firmer mattresses with more full size layers cost more because there is more fiber used in their construction. Vinyl varies typically from 18 to 25 mil. thickness for normal quality. Anything in this range is acceptable and last for years usually. Most vinyl's have additives to make them soft since vinyl (PVC or Poly Vinyl Chloride) is a hard plastic.

Some vinyl's are embossed, some are not. The idea behind embossing is this creates small air spaces under the sleeper. Embossed vinyl is a little harder to patch.