Every waterbed will have a safety liner.
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011Safety liners for waterbeds
As the name suggests, a PVC membrane between the waterbed mattress and the waterbed heater. On average the mattress contains almost half a metric tonne of water. If as a result of age, a manufacturing fault or accidental damage the mattress were to leak. Imagine the damage that amount of water would cause. That is the reason that regardless of which type of waterbed you have, it will always have a safety liner.
There are two basic types of waterbed. Hardside and softside . In the early days, every waterbed had a solid frame which contained the mattress. Showing my age now but I remember installing waterbeds in California in 1986 (Year of the Mexico world cup) and having to nail a plastic extrusion all around the top edge of the hardside frame. Then tuck the vinyl sheet safety liner into the flap in the extrusion. This was ingeniously named the ‘tuck-a-liner’. The disadvantage of this type of hardside safety liner was that it was very time consuming to install. Over a period of time the plastic extrusion would become brittle and crack, nails would work loose, this not ideal when in contact with a waterbed mattress. Since those carefree days of being a bum, I have grown up (a little) and safety liners have improved. The safety liner is welded to incorporate a stiff cardboard edge which stands vertically up to the height of the top of the waterbed mattress. Again ingeniously named the ‘Stand up safety liner’
As you can see from the picture,
the stand up safety liner is generously cut to ensure the welded corners fit snug in to the corners of the waterbed frame. (more…)