Different kinds of springs and other info
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattress From the page above: "Spring mattress core The core of the mattress supports the sleeper’s body. Modern spring mattress cores, often called "innersprings," are made up of steel coil springs, or "coils." The gauge of the coils is another factor which determines firmness and support. Coils are measured in quarter increments. The lower the number, the thicker the spring. In general, higher-quality mattress coils have a 14-gauge (1.63 mm) diameter. Coils of 14 to 15.5-gauge (1.63 to 1.37 mm) give more easily under pressure, while a 12.5-gauge (1.94 mm) coil, the thickest typically available, feels quite firm. Connections between the coils help the mattress retain its shape. Most coils are connected by interconnecting wires; encased coils are not connected, but the fabric encasement helps preserve the mattress shape. Here are five types of mattress coils:
Bonell springs are hour-glass shaped, which means their resistance increases with load. They are therefore best suited for firm mattresses. [my emphasis] Pocket springs provide support along the entire length of the body. This design works to maintain natural spinal alignment throughout the night. |
Re: Different kinds of springs and other info
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this is just the case, typically speaking as you increase coil count you decrease the thickness of the wire used.......in terms of conformity this makes sense, a finer steel will move more freely with your body's shape. Look at the high end european brands with many thousands of independent springs and the gauge of wire is typically 16 or even higher. When it comes to interactive coils (bonnell, offset, or continuous) the weakest links in the spring system are actually the lacing wires that hold the unit together. If you have a really low coil count and large gaps in contact with the lacing wires then the lacing wires are actually more susceptible to being bent out of shape regardless of how thick the wire of the coil itself is. The gaps between contact in a higher coil count unit will be smaller, so even though the coils themselves are technically weaker the lacing wires are better supported and less likely to have issues. Oh man....my brain is going to explode. No wonder I hate talking about coil mattresses with people lol. |
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Budgy, what do think of the edge support they put on the upper end Sealy's? Looks like it is just 2-3" of firm foam. Another cost saver for them? I don't think they put in their lower priced ones. I also think that would reduce the breathability out of the side of the mattress (if that matters). |
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there might be some differences in Posturepedics in the US than what I have available to me, there definitely is some differences in Stearns and Foster. But they have been using this polyethylene type of foam on the edges for a few years now, I think its at least stronger than the polyurethane edges most companies use, and it also fits into the spring system which is a plus. But IMO foam encasement of any kind is highly overrated by manufacturers. I just love it how every time a company has a new edge system they want to show me like they are gonna flip the mattress world upside down lol. |
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Thanks Jim, Wikipedia still gets you headed in the right direction for those of us who have no idea on coils. Budgy you think your head is going to explode, think how consumers feel when they go shopping for a bed and you have no idea what is even inside the bed. When we bought our Spring Air in a small store, there were no pictures or samples of what was inside the thing. Still I tried looking online and the companies do not tell you much about the mattresses at all. What does my old Spring Air have??? Since I feel it doesn't give me comfort, and I see no signs of wear, I have to think they were strong springs, LOL. It was one of those summer/winter flippable mattresses that had silk on one side and wool on the other, that is all I know about it. I imagine the mattresses made now use the cheapest materials possible, they were too cheap to make them flippable anymore, which I think is a crime in itself. Then adding foam edging/encasement, what a joke......how long will that foam last when you sit on the eges, LOL. shocked me, Spring Air is rated worse than Serta??? Serta has made cheap beds forever, Spring Air used to be the best. What? Did things change since I bought the Spring Air? Then the rating for sleeping hot is fair for Tempurpedic???? What? I don't believe this chart. This message was modified Mar 5, 2010 by a moderator
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Re: Different kinds of springs and other info
| I think Spring Air was rated last by consumer reports as well. I would avoid that brand and probably Serta as well. The other S brands might be marginally better. |
Re: Different kinds of springs and other info
| keyword being marginal lol. |
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That really sickens me how good companies sold out to make garbage now. You can't go by past history of companies that use to make good products anymore. New management, mergers, and new idiot management gets on board and save money make garbage. Now we see why Flobeds and latex beds sell good these days. Also why people take 15 year old mattresses and put new toppers over them, or tear them apart like Jim did. But I wonder if the springs are still good anymore. I went to Spring Air websites to see Four Seasons mattresses and boy are they garbage now. The springs are totally different, they call them zoning softer at the top, you can see they won't last. The foam is garbage, memory foam too, they put foam around the edges now. YUCK. My old mattress is not like this at all!!!! This message was modified Jan 30, 2010 by Leo3
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Re: Different kinds of springs and other info
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Ha! I am glad I have fellow members here who think the S companies are "criminals"! It certainly is a crime how they sell such junk and get away with it because they ALL somehow agreed to do change their business model to one of selling junk... But I do have to hand it to them for figuring out a way to make their product last less time so they can sell more, make it from cheaper materials so they make each one cheaper, and so now they sell more and make more profit! Maybe we should buy stock in S companies... ?  But that would be wrong...  Budgy, can you comment on how and when this happened? I mean, do the S companies have big Summit Meetings and sit and talk about how they're going to move their business in a certain direction to screw the customers more? ... Or did one company just lead the way and the others follow, or ? Who started the "no flip" thing? Who first decided to make mattresses cheaper and crappier so they'd wear out quicker and people would have to buy a bed every few years instead of every 20 years? I do find it rather fascinating how this industry has changed over the past 20 years. What I keep wondering is this: Let's say one S Co. decided to make a mattress with no flip and lots of cheap pu foam on top. Surely they knew that foam was going to break down and people would hate the bed, no? So weren't they afraid of getting a bad reputation and driving people to their competition? Unless they knew the other co's were going to do the same thing, wouldn't they have been afraid to start making crappier mattresses? I mean, they don't really believe their mattresses are any good, do they? I have many such questions!!!  LOL |
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Did some searching on the net and was shocked that there are really no sites other than wikipedia that go into the differences in inner spring types. L&P's own site now just highlights their newest springs, it doesn't even talk about Bonnell, offset, etc. any more... I think they USED to have a good page on the most common types of springs... Anyway, this is the ONLY other one I could find that talks about various innersprings: http://www.consumersearch.com/mattress-reviews/innerspring-mattresses I haven't even read it yet, I just glanced at it and put it here so I can look at it later. |
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"Budgy, can you comment on how and when this happened?" In my opinion the major companies are actually in a heap of trouble and I think it is primarily because this has happened. Industry content warning, rest of this post will be more about business. The value of the major S brand companies is in a major downward spiral recently. This is partially due to the recession. But in reality this is a cop out, Simmons was the first company to go to non-flip mattresses...initially it was done only on their 'high end' mattresses. Of course in reality this was marketed as a new special technology and was done to reduce motion transfer and magically you never had to flip your mattress anymore, although if it really cost any more money to build a mattress this way why on Earth would it eventually trickle down to even the most basic mattresses they made? Pretty obvious really. Of course other major companies quickly followed suit because this feature was being sold against their products and didn't want to lose sales to this. We in the industry were also told that the 'stress tests' that they ran on the product actually showed the newer non-flip mattresses stood up better. We know now after a few years of selling this stuff that this is obviously not the case. This is one of many things that has been done over the last 30 years to keep the prices in check. Believe me when I say that quality cutting actually started longer ago than you may think. I want to give you some unique perspective. I personally think from my end that todays average consumer may not actually think a good mattress is truly worth what they cost today. I am gonna use Simmons as another example. Back in the 70's they were still using cotton shells for the pocket coils, the mattress came on a proper coil 'boxspring' instead of a coil base, they were upholstered mostly with cotton and wool batting, had good quality cotton damask covers, they were fully reversible and they all last 15 years on average. Heres the thing....back THEN a good quality beautyrest like this actually cost somewhere around $1000.00. A 'good' Beautyrest today still only cost $1000.00 (give or take a couple hundred) after 30+ years of inflation. Spending $1000 on a mattress back then is like spending $3000~$4000 on a high end sleep set today. These companies have gotten so large that in order to keep the factories running full tilt they need to churn out a lot of mattresses. So in reality they have all been racing to the bottom (of price) for decades. And in the process they have set up a completely unrealistic expectation for customers to think they can get a top of the line queen bed for a thousand bucks. Problem is a top of the line bed from the same manufacturers today @ $1000.00 is just not made even remotely the same way. Now that these companies have already completely devalued their own product it is actually way too late for them to go back to the way they used to build them and charge what they use to charge. Don't expect it to change for the better, expect it to stay the same until these companies run themselves into the ground. We have been told that mattresses being replaced quicker and quicker is great for us in the sales aspect, we started our company based on the philosophy that in reality if someone buys a $1000 bed from me and it lasts 5 years they will never buy from me again, I really don't care if its good for the industry, I care what is good for myself and good for my customers. I want them to spend the same basic money lets say instead of buying a $1000 bed and it last 5 years, its my goal for them to spend 2~5 thousand on a queen, have it last 15~25 years, have the best sleep of their lives and recommend all their friends to come see me as well. To me this is a win-win, and the manufacturers don't really seem to understand this basic concept anymore. Or they have a delusional view of how good their product is if they honestly think these people will buy from me again. |