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We spend hundreds of dollars for a wool mattress cover...and then cover it with a waterproof mattress protector. We spend hundreds of dollars for ultra lightweight German Batiste fabric on a down comforter...and then put it inside a duvet cover. Obviously there are trade-offs, but does this make any sense? It seems to me only two choices make sense - use "protection" but don't bother spending extra for the wool and exotic fabric because it's just a waste of money, or take our chances with stains and sleep next to that for which we paid a lot of money. The irony is, if we're just going to buy something cheap because we can't feel it anyway, why spend hundreds of dollars to protect it? The first duvet cover I bought cost almost as much as the down comforter...and was so heavy and thick that it made me hot and defeated one of the desirable qualities of the down comforter - its light weight. The mattress protector I bought is, I think, making me hot. How can it not? How can it distinguish between coffee and perspiration? I think I'm just going to take my chances with an unprotected mattress. The top is removable and can be washed, and practically speaking I have no warranty on anything anyway. For the comforter, when it gets a bit cooler I'm going to try a cover made of cotton sheeting and forgo the fancy cover, and perhaps even the top sheet. Why do I need two sheets between me and the down? For now it has no cover, but I have cats and I need something I can take off and throw in the washer and dry in a dryer. [Wish I had thought this far ahead before I "invested" in the fancy duvet cover.] I would like to hear others thoughts on this. Am I missing something? This message was modified Oct 18, 2007 by haysdb
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| No, I think you are right on. The mattress store talked us into buying the mattress protector when we got our mattress. Afterwards my boyfriend said "I think we just fell for the old undercoating scam". Anyway it (the mattress protector) has teflon in it, which I'm pretty sure is NOT breathable, and after several night of massively overheating in bed I took the damn thing off and went back to the cotton mattress cover. Ahhh...much better. Like you said, mattress warranties are completely and utterly worthless anyway, so it's better to have as natural a material as possible next to your skin and be comfortable. I guess that was $70.00 down the drain for us. Oh well, live and learn... I would though use a duvet cover, because you want to be washing that thing as little as possible. Just find (or make) the lightest cotton one that you can, if you don't want any more weight or warmth than you get from the (unadorned) duvet. |
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That's why I had a duvet cover made for me. Either it was get something that looked like a big boring pillowcase or something that looked nicer but was ridiculously overpriced. You can do a lot better in the home decor section at Joanne's. I got exactly what I wanted out of high quality cotton fabric for a lot less money. If you can sew it yourself even better. Yes, the down duvet is usually pretty as it is, but I cringe at the idea of lying all over something I can't launder frequently, and you really don't want to wash a down comforter all that often. Mattresses--I had to laugh when the salesman would tell me with a perfectly straight face that the upholstry contained things like cashmere or aloe vera. And no matter how nice it looked it was just a moot point since all of it was going to be covered by a mattress pad and sheets, never to be seen again. So yeah, why pay for it? Unless you like to eat and drink in bed and tend to be messy, or have certain other issues, is a waterproof mattress protector even necessary? I once slept on one in a friend's guest room--and she only had it on the mattress because one of her cats ruined the last mattress on that bed by, well... peeing on it, and she wasn't taking any chances with the new one. After the first night I had to take the awful thing off. Not only was it stiff and uncomfortable. I could hear it crinkling every time I moved. Kept me up all night. For most people a standard mattress pad, usually stuffed with a little dacron, is sufficient to protect the mattress from perspiration, etc, and can be easily washed. And if you really like to get close to your mattress, the stretchy terrycloth mattress covers similar to the Tempurpedic cover, give you more feedback. It may not be wool, but either one is much cooler... and quieter... than plastic. |
| As mattress protectors go, the Southern Textiles Platinum protector is nice. It's stretchy and doesn't crinkle. I took mine off last night and it didn't make as much difference as I had hoped. Oddly, even though it is a very stretchy material, the mattress felt softer without it. I'm thinking that's just my imagination, because I "expected" something to be different. |
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cloud9 wrote: That's why I had a duvet cover made for me. Either it was get something that looked like a big boring pillowcase or something that looked nicer but was ridiculously overpriced. My latest acquisition, a Hotel brand duvet cover from BB&B, really does look like a big pillowcase. But I actually kind of like the look, wrinkles and all, it's easy to wash (relatively speaking, because any oversize King duvet cover is HUGE), and I can sleep under that directly without another top sheet when temperatures are mild. I'm going to have to wash it fairly often anyway because my cats sleep on the bed. It cost $59 on clearance, so the price was right, especially considering it's a quality 600 TC cotton, so it should hold up well. This is one of those cases where guys differ from gals. Gals want duvet covers and ruffles and shams and curtains to all color coordinate and guys just want something that's a color they like, functions in the desired way, and is easy to take care of. :-) |
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haysdb wrote: As mattress protectors go, the Southern Textiles Platinum protector is nice. It's stretchy and doesn't crinkle. I took mine off last night and it didn't make as much difference as I had hoped. Oddly, even though it is a very stretchy material, the mattress felt softer without it. I'm thinking that's just my imagination, because I "expected" something to be different. I don't think it's your imagination. I returned two mattress pads that were uncomfortable. One was so stiff it actually made my butt numb when I was propped up on the bed reading. I couldn't understand why my old stretched out mattress pad was so much more comfortable--beyond the fact that it had been washed a million times. After a bit of investigation I came to the conclusion that there are a couple of factors involved. One is the quilting on the pad. The smaller and tighter it is the stiffer it will feel. My old mattress pad had very wide horizontal quilting, almost like stripes. Much softer over all. The other factor is how tightly the mattress protector is stretched across the mattress. Really snug and it will pull taut and stiff. I like a little give. I almost went with a stretchy terry protector that felt really nice and soft in the store but I wanted a little more padding between me and my memory foam to keep the bed cooler. Fortunately I found one exactly like my old pad with the horizontal quilting, and it worked out fine. And yeah, you're right. Girls like the pretty stuff. Guys just want the utility. But you know... You spend so much money on a big puffy luxurious down comforter. Sticking it in a big pillowcase just seems... anticlimactic... |
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You bring up a very good point about not covering your down duvet in a too-heavy duvet cover. The weightless feeling of a bare down comforter is wonderful, but can be completely ruined with the wrong cover. I made a glazed cotton chinz duvet cover for my first king sized down comforter and it weighed a ton. It looked beautiful; however, I would never do that again. My current cover is Ralph Lauren and much lighter weight, but next time I am going to go even lighter, with nothing heavier than a light cotton sheet weight. I will probably have to make my own again in order to get something which is not utterly plain. I think Shabby Chic (from the original Shabby Chic stores, not Target) makes wonderful light weight covers in cotton percale or linen, but unfortunately they do not make a true queen size, just a full/queen combination. If your duvet cover can hold up to frequent laundering, there is no real reason for a top sheet. In Germany we did not use top sheets with our comforters. |
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cloud9 wrote: You spend so much money on a big puffy luxurious down comforter. Sticking it in a big pillowcase just seems... anticlimactic... Different strokes for different folks. The Southern Textiles mattress protector is very thin and somewhat stretchy, but you may be onto something, that when it's stretched taut over the mattress, it may act a little like a drum head. But it's more stretchy than the fitted sheet, so it's still not adding up for me. I guess I need to put it back on again and try to forget that I did and see if I notice. This message was modified Oct 21, 2007 by haysdb
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haysdb wrote: Different strokes for different folks. The Southern Textiles mattress protector is very thin and somewhat stretchy, but you may be onto something, that when it's stretched taut over the mattress, it may act a little like a drum head. But it's more stretchy than the fitted sheet, so it's still not adding up for me. I guess I need to put it back on again and try to forget that I did and see if I notice. You would think that the thin stretchy mattress protectors would have enough give not to produce that drum head effect. This seems to happen mostly with the conventional style protectors that contain a layer of somewhat stiff fiberous material on the bottom. The tight quilting on the top seems to accentuate this. The protector I eventually settled on with the wide stripe quilting comes off as feeling quite soft even though it does fit the mattress rather snuggly. |
| You're right, it shouldn't. I think whatever I thought I felt when I took the mattress protector off is all in my head. The mattress is certainly sleeping no cooler since I took it off. I didn't put it back on last night, but I will tonight. |