When filling your waterbed many people want to speed up the heating process by adding warm or hot water. Of course with your drain and fill kit, filling the waterbed from the bathroom or kitchen sink is possible. So to answer the question is it ok to fill the bed with straight hot water? The answer is no. Filling a water bed with straight hot water can damage the vinyl. It is also possible to damage the heater. There is an over limit switch much like a circuit breaker that can trip which cannot be reset.

Do not plug in your waterbed heater until the mattress is full.

It is best to fill with a mixture of cold and hot water. Carefully test the water with your hand, and then the back of your hand where you are more sensitive to temperature. Getting the best temperature on a waterbed to your is like getting the perfect temperature for a baby bottle. If it’s hot its hot, if it’s cold it’s cold, simply regulate the water and make your temp. adjustment. It is likely that your hot water heater will run out of hot water while filling the waterbed. If it does, turn off both the cold and hot water and wait approximately ½ hour for it to recover and then turn on the water again.

Once the waterbed bladder is at the correct fill level, shut off the water, add your waterbed conditioner, and the burp the waterbed. It can take a waterbed heater up to a week to heat a water bed when filling it with only cold water, so we highly recommend mixing the hot and cold water to speed up the warming process and to make the mattress more comfy for the first few nights.

Can I just siphon a waterbed mattress out a window, into a tub, or a basement floor drain? The answer is yes, however you must be extra careful if you have a baffled mattress. The reason is that the materials on the inside of the waterbed mattress may not drain completely or eveb worse if handled incorrectly could shift out of position ruining your mattress.
 
There are a couple methods to starting a gravity fed siphon for both the hardside or softside waterbed. First you will need one or all of the proper attachments to connect your garden hose to the waterbed mattress:

A drain and fill kit includes
1 Venturi pump
1 mattress adapter
1 faucet adapter
The kit will also include hose washers for all the female fittings.

All 3 methods require your to make sure that the waterbed heater has been unplugged and that the mattress has been burped and bled of any air bubbles before starting any draining process. 
 
Choose the Method below you would like to start the siphoning process with.
 
Method 1

Gravity siphon started with drain and fill kit.
Follow the drain and fill kit Instructions and turn the faucet all the way up. Let the water run until you hear a change in pitch of the exhausting water from the Venturi pump. While running disconnect the female end of the garden hose attachment from the side of the Venturi pump. Drop the hose to the ground immediately. If the end of the hose is lower than the bed the siphon will now start. You will obviously need to make sure that the draining water is going into a tub, basement floor drain, or out a window or you will have a mess on your hands.
 
 
Method 2

Gravity siphon started with only a mattress adapter.
Connect the female end of the garden hose to a faucet and the mattress attachment from the drain and fill kit to the male end of the hose. Over the sink carefully flush all air from the hose and then shut off the water. With a towel in hand, walk to the bed and connect the mattress adapter to the mattress then push valve in. Go turn on your water and count to 10. Then shut off the water disconnect and kink the hose. It is best to carefully drop the end of the hose out of a window. The lower the end of the hose the greater the tronger the siphon be due to gravity the drop.

 
Method 3

Gravity siphon started with an electric pump.
Follow Electric Waterbed Pump directions. Once the pump has been primed and water is flowing, shut off the pump and again carefully disconnect the garden hose and drop out of a window to a lower point than the waterbed. 

Many people choose the siphoning method to save on water consumption, electricity, or they just aren’t aware that there is better ways to drain a waterbed. If you have a wave control mattress, siphoning a waterbed mattress can be very tricky. In order to achieve the necessary vacuum required for moving a baffled mattress so you do not ruin It or Damage it by bunching or shifting the baffling system you must achieve a vacuum. You will need a very large drop around 8 to 10 feet or you will need to finish the vacuum process with a wet dry shop vac or Venturi pump and replace the cap and plug insert immediately to maintain the vacuum on the mattress. It should look like a package of beef jerky in the shrink wrap when finished.

Contact a waterbed store for more detailed information.

Looking for Water Beds In Jefferson City and Columbia Missouri Region? 

They are now here! Thanks to your emails and phone calls The Waterworks Sleep Center is now selling complete Softside Waterbeds and Hardside Waterbeds and all the necessary parts and accessories you need in for the Mid I-70 region.

We can quickly ship any in stock item right away to put you back to bed with comfort and quality waterbeds, waterbed parts and accessories .

Waterbed Sheets, Comforters, and Pads
Padded Rails
Waterbed Heater
Waterbed Conditioner
Safety Liner for Water Bed
Replacement Mattresses

Uncomfortable ordering online?

Please visit the waterbed veterans of 23-years at The Water Works Sleep Center. Our showroom is located just a short drive to St. Louis MO. There you can test rest any of our waterbeds and mattresses. When you find yours take it home with you or have it shipped to you directly.
 
What cities do we service?
If you are located in or near any of the following cities: Columbia, Jefferson City, Fulton, Boonville, Mexico, Moberly, Macon, Montgomery City, Knob Noster, Camdenton, Osage Beach, Lake of the Ozarks and other great regional cities.

Waterbed  Questions? Call us Toll Free at 1-888-793-8311 or Contact Us by email for a price quote on the waterbed of your dreams.

There are several things that you must know when you have a waterbed. The first, is make sure that you never jump around on the bed, and the second is to learn how to properly drain your waterbed using a waterbed drain and fill kit and following the instructions. Draining your waterbed isn’t very hard; however, you must ensure that you take special care while you are draining your bed or you can ruin the baffling system or end up with a mattress that is very heavy and not totally drained.

 
Make sure before draining your waterbed mattress that you unplug the heater while you are draining your waterbed. Actually, the only time that your waterbed heater should ever be turned on is when the bed is filled completely with water.

Drain and Fill Kit Instructions
You first need to remove the cap and plug in order to burp all air bubbles from the waterbed mattress. Then replace the insert plug. Using a drain and fill kit which is available at any local waterbed store, remove the faucet aerator, and attach the faucet adapter to a sink. Next attach the Venturi Pump to the faucet adapter. Turn the bell shaped bottom piece of the Venturi Pump to the marked drain position.  You will then connect the waterbed mattress adapter onto the male end of the garden hose. Remove the plug insert carefully and attach the mattress adapter making sure not to let any air reenter the mattress valve and that the fitting is tight and submerged into the water.

 
Before starting the draining process if you know you have a sluggish or slow drain, you could experience an overflow. If this is the case you may want to play it safe, and attach the Venturi Pump to an outside faucet letting the water drain outdoors. After you have all of your connections in place, turn on the water to full power. The pressure of the water being forced through the restrictive hole and out the bell housing shaped fitting creates suction. This suction is called the Venturi effect. The suction is not only important to get out all of the water but, if you have a baffled, fiber, or foam insert to reduce wave motion, it can keep you from ruining a mattress. Let the mattress drain until vacuumed down and completely flat, this will hold the wave control system stationary and in place.

 
HINTS:
Be sure to use a garden hose that measures 50 feet or less and also that the washers for garden/utility hose are placed in all of the female connections. (Pump, Garden Hose, and Mattress Adapter. The components included in a drain and fill kit (Venturi Pump, Mattress Adapter, Faucet Adapter, and Washers) Questions of problems contact a waterbed store.

Can I buy just the thermostat only for my waterbed heater? I am sure some nut job of a waterbed store would risk his or her business just to make an extra buck. However nut jobs like myself here at The Water Works Sleep Center are going to tell you the answer is No Way.

One of the first things the directions list in the “Do Not Do” part of the instructions of a new Waterbed Heater is to use the proper thermostat with the matching heater pad. This one seems real simple to me, electricity and water do not mix, so why take the risk with your life or one of your family members lives. A waterbed heater can be purchased new for a mere $70.00 to $80.00 and will last for about 8 years?

Reasons to use the correct waterbed thermostat with the correct waterbed-heating pad:

Risk of Fire
Risk of Electrical Shock
Death
The plug on the heater pad cord and the receptacle on thermostat usually are not the same
Waterbed heater pads have different wattage capacities 

Again this one seems like a no brainer to me, and I am not here to tell people what decision to make when solving waterbed heater issues. I hope the electricians out there will cut me some slack on this one and not call me out for trying to take your money. Howevery our concern is that the people reading this blog are consumers and sales people like myself, who have limited knowledge of electricity. We simply think that buying a new waterbed heater is the best, cheapest, and safest solution available to waterbed heater problems. So please be safe and purchase a complete waterbed heater, not just the waterbed heater or thermostat.