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I've recently figured out that my current mattress is the root of my morning back stiffness so it has to be replaced. IIRC, the mattress is an ultra-plush by United Sleep Products. After looking at mattresses this evening at a local store, I came home to examine my mattress and found that it's made mostly of foam with some springs in the center. I've decided that if I do buy another innerspring mattress it will have to be quite firm with minimal foam. But will the coils fatigue and cause the mattress to sag in a few years? So my first option is to buy a cheap, firm innerspring (Serta Premier Sleeper) from my local store and add a quality topper to adjust as necessary. Or, for about the same cost, should I just avoid the springs altogether and just go for a solid latex mattress and not have to worry about it sagging? I'd appreciate any opinions. |
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Since you've already taken your mattress apart and discovered how it's constructed you might consider replacing the foam, either with latex, HR foam or a combination. Cheap, soft PU foam is usually what fails long before the springs do. An all latex mattress will last 20 years or more, but the S-brand "latex" mattresses sold by most retailers often contain a top layer of PU that will soften and sag in a few years so you have to be careful when you shop. Latex mattress kits from SleepEZ and Flobeds are all latex but you don't have the option to try before you buy. Nothing lasts as long as latex or is as durable, but not everyone can sleep on it, or likes the bouncy, pushy character of the foam. If you fall into this catagory I'd recommend trying to find a firm flippable innerspring without any PU and add toppers to that. Otherwise, go with the latex. |
| So with the S-brand mattresses, is it typically the cheap foam that fails and causes the mattress to sag? Could I expect a lower end S-brand with a firm spring base and minimal padding to last a reasonable length of time? I'm just not sure I want to experiment with latex layers at this time. |
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phoenity wrote: So with the S-brand mattresses, is it typically the cheap foam that fails and causes the mattress to sag? Could I expect a lower end S-brand with a firm spring base and minimal padding to last a reasonable length of time? I'm just not sure I want to experiment with latex layers at this time. Based on my experience with a Spring Air "luxury firm" that started to get unsupportive after nine months, I'm not sure that any S-brand mattress, low end or high end, will last a "reasonable" length of time. They really don't build them the way they used to when you could count on a decent mattress to last at least 15 years or more. I pretty much took the mattress down to the springs and my feeling is that the spring unit in today's no-flip mattresses are made with much more give to them than the spring units that used to be mated to a true box spring and you could count on the mattress feeling the same way in six months as it did when it was delivered. It's pretty much a crap shoot when you buy a mattress today. Hate to discourage you, but that's just the way it is.
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I appreciate the information, Cloud9. Since I have no idea whether I would even be able to sleep on latex I decided to stick with a coil spring base. I purchased a Serta Premier Sleeper from the Mattress Warehouse down the street for $250. It's rated as firm and while my body didn't sink into it, it still felt quite supportive and comfortable. It feels like a quality set of spring coils with very minimal foam padding so I'm hoping to get some reasonable life out of this one. The salesman could tell that I had a very good understanding of mattress construction whereas I'm sure most people who come in have no clue what's underneath the top fabric. He understood my concerns about foam layers fatiguing and leaving body impressions and assured me that I would be happy with my decision. |
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Our research seemed to show that newer mattresses have springs of a much lower guage of wire than models from some years ago. The Kings we looked at by Serta were all around 13 to 14 guage wire whether they have 632 coils or 1,173 coils and the thinner the wire the sooner the pressure of weight will cause them to sag. Older mattresses - specially those with lower coil counts - would have like 9 guage wire springs that would not bend and so not sag nearly so easily (lower number means thicker wire). We found that sales weasels in stores tried to flatter us whether we acted like we knew about coil counts and wire guage and coil shapes and how many turns in a coil or if we acted dumb as rocks - that's why they are sales weasels and will tell you how nice it is to have a informed customer while they try to lead you to a purchase decision. We thought we might want to buy a conventional mattress and after months of research and looking we were happy to know that we already had the best of mattresses - a waterbed mattress. They don't sag ever and can be as firm or soft as you like with the simple addition of reduction of water volume. Today's waterbed mattresses are well engineered with internal components that can eliminate all wave motion and be as firm as you want with special extra support for specific areas like lumbar. A big plus is they are temperature controlled and can be as comfortably warm or cool as you desire. We've had just two waterbed mattresses in the last 22 years with total cash investment of just $550.00. Our current one is 8 years old and just like the day we bought it - we did decide to buy a new one - a dual sided model so my bride and I can each experiment with adjusting firmness and tempurature on our individual bed areas. It's worth the risk at a cost of between $300 and $400 bucks. If you haven't looked at a modern waterbed please give them a look - They are NOT the bouncey things we played around on back in the early 70s!! Best of Luck This message was modified Jan 19, 2009 by imjay
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