Archive for March, 2010

Why did my waterbed mattress leak?

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Waterbed mattresses are made from PVC which is supplied to waterbed manufacturers in a choice of qualities mainly based on price. However, to say you get what you pay for is not always the case but a good indication of quality.

High PriceThere are many European waterbed manufacturers that have tried to reinvent the waterbed, give it all the bells and whistles and triple the price. The problem is that a waterbed works in such a natural way that over complicating it actually detracts from its benefits and life expectancy. This was proven over the last ten years with disastrous consequences of the companies that could not cope with the number of warranty returns.  

Low PriceThe internet has definitely driven down prices. Good for the consumer, or is it? When customers search on line for a lower priced waterbed mattress the cheapest retailer will get the order. How does a retailer manage to sell waterbed mattresses cheaply? Simply sell a quality that is not going to last. Give it a long warranty that you know it will never fulfill in the knowledge that you would have taken the money and run. Simply read the stories of complaints about any product sold on line. The problem is if someone has no intention of parting with your money you wont get it back.

Who do you trust?A waterbed retailer with a retail outlet as opposed to his front room. A Waterbed retailer that has been in busines longer than the warranty period offered on his waterbed mattresses. High & Dry Waterbeds, trading twenty one years. Offering a Genuine five year warranty and a mattress expected to easily outlast that. Not the cheapest, but the best waterbed mattresses available.

How to repair a leak in a waterbed mattress

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Reparability all comes down to the location of the leak and the condition of the waterbed mattress.

First, switch off the waterbed heater.

second, put a towel in each of the four corners to soak up the water. Depending on the severity of the leak, you may have to repeat this.
Third, ensure the safety liner is up over either the frame or side foams to prevent water from coming out of the waterbed frame.

Locating the leak.

Whilst drying in the corners of the waterbed frame try to see any water coming from the edges of the corner seams. These are the most vulnerable points of the mattress. Often the leak is very small and is like a tear drop of water that only leaks when pressure is applied. If you have no luck finding the leak widen your search.

Note. To dry the water you may pull the corner of the mattress back to reveal a layer of water. It is extremely unlikely that the waterbed mattress is leaking from underneath. This water is from around the sides, running to the lowest point. If you still have no luck locating the leak. Take a cardboard box and cut it into strips. Pull the waterbed mattress corner away from the frame and place the cardboard strips in between the mattress and the safety liner. Do this in all four corners then leave it whilst drinking coffee and looking for your waterbed repair kit. Upon your return, inspect the cardboard in the four corners. One will show an obvious wet spot. This will narrow your search. If the leak is on the seam around the neck of the filler valve, unfortunately this will not repair successfully due to being two different types of plastic.

Repairing the leak It is not normally necessary to empty the waterbed mattress, although a leak on the side is easier to repair if about one quarter of the waterbed mattress is emptied by simple siphoning. (See draining your waterbed) A waterbed vinyl repair kit is essential. Having found the leak. Pull the effected area back from the waterbed frame. Wedge something down between the waterbed mattress and the waterbed frame, to hold the leak area above the water line. Remove the waterbed mattress cap and plug. Lift the valve up allowing air to be drawn into the waterbed mattress. Replace the cap and plug, work the pocket of air towards the leak area, this will mean the leak is not in contact with the water. Take a hair dryer and gently warm the local area of the leak. This will soften the vinyl and dry any moisture. Assuming the leak is a small split of 3mm or 1/8th inch, smear glue from the waterbed repair kit generously on the mattress only in a circle of approximately 2.5cm or 1 inch. This will begin to dry quickly being warm from the hairdryer. Cut a small circular patch from the waterbed repair kit, approximately 1.5cm or 5/8ths inch diameter. Obviously bigger than the leak and smaller than the glue area. Place the patch over the leak and with your thumb nail squeeze out any air trapped under the patch. This is easy to see because the patch is generally clear. If the patch is textured place the textured side down. Once the glue is dry, smear some more glue around the edge of the patch to seal it down. Allow at least an hour for this to dry, try not to disturb the area whilst it is drying. Once dry, remove all towels, objects and cardboard from the safety liner. Spend time to pull back the mattress and dry as far underneath as you can reach in all four corners and around the sides. See (Identify the cause of a leak)

What happened to the British Waterbed Association

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

I joined the British Waterbed Association over 21 years ago. The members were waterbed retailers and suppliers of associated waterbed products such as waterbed heaters, waterbeds fitted sheets, waterbed mattresses, waterbed safety liners and waterbed frames. Many were European waterbed companies. All members personally cared passionately about waterbeds because most members had got into the waterbed industry after having bought a waterbed, subsequently realising that every person would sleep much better if they had a waterbed but at that time there were very few waterbed retailers (Myself included, but that is another blog to come!) Waterbed manufacturers like High & Dry Waterbeds and others would exhibit every year or every two years generating revenue for the British Waterbed Association. Revenue was also generated through a waterbed heater levy. £2 was donated for every waterbed sold. This was a great idea because a waterbed heater will last several years and is a fairly good indication of how many waterbeds have been sold. The contributions were made anonymously through an independent accountant. The funds were used by the British Waterbed Association to promote waterbed benefits through a public relations company, adverts and features about waterbeds in health magazines and producing fact sheets, questions and answers and waterbed brochures. So where did it all go wrong? (To follow)

The internet has changed advertising of waterbeds

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

How the internet has effected our advertising of waterbeds and adjustable beds. For years we would spend several thousand pounds a year on yellow pages advertising. Adjustable beds would be listed under beds and bedding. Waterbeds was also listed under beds and bedding but then on the advice of the British Waterbed Association yellow pages introduced a Water Bed heading. This meant increasing the yearly budget. the problem was that the heading Water bed as two separate words as opposed to Waterbed on word, appeared after water treatment etc. So someone looking for waterbeds would give up after not finding it alphabetically. We complained but got no where. We were just a little waterbed business and they were all powerful Yellow Pages. At the time Yellow Pages were the equivalent of Google. With the increase of public access to the internet we have shifted (Way too slowly) towards having a waterbed and adjustable bed web site. Originally the intention was for our Waterbed trade customers to be able to access and use our waterbed information for there own waterbed websites. We got seriously left behind by our own trade customers. The reason as that we started to focus on production of adjustable beds and as this side of the business grew and began to make increasing profit we took our eye off the ball as far as the value of internet advertising of waterbeds. When you are making healthy profit from waterbed sales, it is easy to become complacent and assume nothing needs to change. The internet has revolutionised the waterbed industry, partly for good but in my opinion mainly for the bad, and I will explain in a later blog. So now we have reduced our Yellow Pages exposure and put that money to a web design company www.tidydesign.com that were highly recommended and did our www.bulgaripropertyagent.com. So how to show our waterbeds on our website? as we had previously had such success with our adjustable bed website mainly the build an adjustable bed feature. So lets have a go at making a build a waterbed online. It will have to show a choice of two softsided waterbeds, different sized waterbeds that we offer, choice of waterbed mattresses, waterbed headboards, and waterbed accessories. So lets see how it goes

Waterbeds

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Starting work to improve the waterbed website.

Adjustable bed sizes

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

At back care beds we manufacture adjustable beds in Imperial sizes (English) Low cost adjustable bed mechanisms imported from Europe are metric equivilent sizes. For example a 3′ or 36″ width adjustable bed is made 90cm, so when it is placed inside an adjustable bed base, the width is 94cm which is 3’1″. Maybe that’s no big deal, but twin adjustable beds become 6’2″. If you order twin adjustable beds at 2’6″ and they need to fit into a fitted bedroom width of 5′ or 60″ Confirm that the adjustable beds will finish 60″ and not 62″. This may be a minor point, but be aware.

We also make adjustable bed length as standard 78″ (6’6″) but can make longer or shorter.

Customer

Friday, March 26th, 2010

I got my adjustable bed because i get acid reflux. It’s not a nice thing  to have but that electric adjustable bed has made all the difference. I don’t wake my wife up in the night. she decided not to get an adjustable bed because she’s too proud to admit she gets arthritis, but it would have only cost an extra £100 upgrade. She’s not having mine.