Cheap innerspring + topper? or should I just go with solid latex?
Dec 12, 2008 8:14 PM
Joined: Dec 12, 2008
Points: 3
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. 
Re: Cheap innerspring + topper? or should I just go with solid latex?
Reply #4 Dec 17, 2008 10:45 AM
Joined: Dec 12, 2008
Points: 3
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. 
Re: Cheap innerspring + topper? or should I just go with solid latex?
Reply #5 Jan 19, 2009 10:54 PM
Joined: Jan 19, 2009
Points: 64
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