The major part of the present work discusses the synthesis and the properties of a series of hydrogels obtained by free radical copolymerization of alpha,omega-methacryloyloxy poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) or poly(1,3-dioxolane) (PDXL) macromonomers. The influence of several parameters such as macromonomer molar mass, comonomer concentration, type of solvent, and crosslinking concentration on the weight degree of equilibrium swelling, the uniaxial compression modulus and the thermodynamic interaction parameter was investigated systematically. Hydrogels whose elastic chains are constituted of a short central PDXL block surrounded by two hydrophilic PEO blocks were prepared according to the same strategy. PDXL is known to be sensitive to acidic degradation due to the presence of acetal groups. Therefore, once placed in acidic media (in water or in an organic solvent) network degradation occurred. The solid-state properties of the different PEO or PDXL co-networks were examined by DSC, and compared to those of linear PEO or PDXL chains and to those of homopolymeric PEO or PDXL networks.