Hi, my name is Bruce and I have worked in the mattress industry for 12 years now. Many years on the retail side of the bedding business taught be that a mattress can be the most difficult piece of furniture to pick out for your home. There are several major contributing factors to this:
Allow me elaborate as it is not my intention to put down the intention of this forum. I am very much in favor of the idea of customers connecting and sharing their experiences with particular beds. If a retailer is selling quality goods, they should have nothing to fear from people giving honest testimonials using their products. Reading reviews & buying a bed is a lot different than reading reviews & buying a tv (for example). A great quality set looks good not matter who is buying it...big or small, tall or short, average consumer or tech guru. That's NOT the case with a mattress. It's a touchy subject but BODY WEIGHT is one of the most important variables when buying a mattress....people come in all shapes & sizes. Many 'larger than average' folks have gotten burned in the past buying a bed built for the 'average person'. Slick salesmen in action. I think this is where LATEX seems to have established an almost cult-like following (especially in this forum). In general, latex foam beds have greater durability than the average bed....nothing magic about it. They also cost more than the average bed. They also tend to carry some of the best warranties. It's a simple matter of getting what you pay for. As for the great debates.... Natural vs Synthetic Talalay vs Dunlop 34 ILD vs 36 ILD etc etc etc If you find yourself LIVING on a forum such as this, you're probably over thinking it. I could show a customer hundreds of good quality beds on paper....but none of them would be a good value if they're not comfortable to the person who is going to be sleeping on it. If you're shopping for a latex foam mattress, have done some basic homework on price & quality, then shop your local stores. Find what you like (that you can physically try out) & what you don't....and then certainly see if you can find a better deal on that bed online or from a competitor. A word of caution though: If you find one that absolutely works for YOU, don't try skimp out buying a 'knock off' online just to save a couple bucks. If I gave 5 different bed companies the same 'recipe' for a bed, I am going to have 5 different feeling beds at the end of the day. You may be suprised when the UPS guy arrives with your bargain. I shake my head and grin reading about how folks seem to be trying to find the foam density that best defines them as a person. Use common sense, define your budget, and find the best quality mattress for the money you have to spend. The people who AGONIZE over the decision for months (sometimes literally years) are the ones who will never find the 'perfect bed'....but have an 'expert' opinion on everything. It's like having an tech guy who knows everything about the latest cutting edge technology......but he's still running the same Windows 98 machine he's had for over a decade. Most folks who will post to an internet forum like this (provided they're not reviewing a purchase they've made...which would actually be VERY HELPFUL to those seeking guidance) have never stepped foot into a bedding factory nor do they have any first hand experience with the raw materials. They're simply reiterating stats & figures they've read online from random web sites. The Costcos, Sam's Clubs, and Big Lots of the world are NOT sleep shops and often carry mid-range bedding offerings IMO.......don't get me wrong, you can find some very decent values there, but have realistic expectations. A gas station can sell you milk & bread, but you don't go there to do your weekly grocery shopping. Just sharing a grounded perspective of the situation....best of luck to all of you on your mattress searches. There ARE good beds out there that won't cripple your pocket book. Visiting a local retailer is a good place to start. If you buy from a retailer that treats you right, REVIEW their STORE online (via Google, Yahoo, etc etc); this will help other weed out the good stores from the places just out to make a buck. Bottom line: Shop around......find good quality....don't over pay. It's not rocket science; it's bed shopping :-) -B |
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Bed buying actually is very confusing But it is almost impossible to find retail stores that sell latex beds so all most about everyone has to go by are the forums and buying the latex beds online. There are reasons tempurpedics are most popular beds in America. One is they are available almost in every city and town in mattress stores. This message was modified Mar 20, 2011 by richardp
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I hate to say it, Bruce but you sound like a slick salesman from one of the national or regional chains that says that we have lots of great beds and you should buy from me because I'm a nice guy. Trust me, it's made of good stuff and it will last you 25 years. Most of the folks here have had that experience and haven't found that to be true so they are here for help. You are correct that it isn't rocket science but it's not as simple as many of the salesmen and women I've met in those stores. It's too bad there aren't a lot of good local retailers selling really good beds. Instead, there are a lot of chains and national mattress companies selling overpriced mattresses that hold up for about a year at best before they start breaking down and sagging causing back pain and poor sleep. In the long run, those mattresses suck millions of dollars from unsuspecting customers who end up having to buy another mattress or lose sleep trying to live with a bad mattress for years. I don't think people really want to buy a new mattress every year and if coming here and learning something about mattresses helps, I think they should spend as much time as necessary to educate themselves. Spending several days reading about what others experience here is probably a good investment. It doesn't take years to learn that. I'm not an "expert" but I've had many different mattresses in my life and I know what works for me and what hasn't. We've certainly had some very knowledgable folks visit this forum from time to time and you can usually tell when they are giving good advice or just trying to sell a position. This message was modified Mar 20, 2011 by Sall
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Haha...well, not my intent to sound like a "slick salesman"....hence I'm not trying plug any certain brand, style, or store. I absolutely advocate doing reasonable homework and not buying the first thing you see. I stumbled across this forum and my impression is that there are a lot of people 'over thinking it'. Each person should do as much or as little research as they need to for them to be comfortable purchasing a big ticket item like a bed.
I just found a high degree of irony in a site labled "what is the best mattress"....when in realitiy, there is no best mattress for everyone. Best is a completely relative term depending on an individuals needs. In my opinion the most helpful tools to a prospective bed buyer would be reviews of exact models & SKUs and/or reviews of peoples customer service experience with at Store X, Y, or Z. Getting into the cellular structure of each 1/2" of layer of foam seems like overkill (in my humble opinion) and I can see how it would muddy the waters rather than provide insight for even the most educated of consumer. Again, just my opinion having some experience in several different corners of the bedding industry. My best to you all. This message was modified Mar 20, 2011 by Bruce_G
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Bruce you are so right. I haven't been on this site in awhile and checked back. In my case I was searching for info for budget. If you start looking into all the details about every layer of your mattress, I believe you are killing yourself with information. I have found from reading these threads, their is no right mattress for everyone. I got extrememly lucky that the two products I purchased worked for me. I went to a retail location, found good product and gambled a bit on a topper online.
Look around and shop and find what works for you. This message was modified Mar 28, 2011 by a moderator
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laketrout wrote: Bruce you are so right. I haven't been on this site in awhile and checked back. In my case I was searching for info for budget. If you start looking into all the details about every layer of your mattress, I believe you are killing yourself with information. I have found from reading these threads, their is no right mattress for everyone. I got extrememly lucky that the two products I purchased worked for me. I went to a retail location, found good product and gambled a bit on a topper online.
Look around and shop and find what works for you. |
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laketrout wrote: Bruce you are so right. I haven't been on this site in awhile and checked back. In my case I was searching for info for budget. If you start looking into all the details about every layer of your mattress, I believe you are killing yourself with information. I have found from reading these threads, their is no right mattress for everyone. I got extrememly lucky that the two products I purchased worked for me. I went to a retail location, found good product and gambled a bit on a topper online.
Look around and shop and find what works for you. I am a believer they people and mattress construction varies too much to be able to form a matrix and come up with the magic formula for finding the perfect mattress for you. We're still happy with our purchase about 10 months ago and only used a modest amount of info I found on the net to find a mattress that seems to be working for us and we're not loosing sleep fretting over the construction and materials. More than one cause for lose of sleep. YMMV |
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Sall wrote:
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perchancetodream wrote:
Case in point: You want to know how HARD or resilient a specific innerspring is to try and determine how supportive it is. You might know the coil count and gauge of wire, you might even know the # of turns in each coil, the carbon content of the wire used, how its tempered, etc. What none of these individual #'s tell you is the actual strength of the wire....its a guessing game even with all the specs you can think of. If manufacturers wanted to make it easy they could just calculate the specific spring rate per square inch of the mattress, and how much the rate increases or decreases with compression to take into effect the progressive rate of the spring system, it would also give you an idea of how flexible the coil system is. Some technical data can quantify performance to a degree, most technical data on mattresses are simply parts of the formula that most people could simply not use to determine said performance. What I am trying to say is that even the hardest of specs do not describe to you how something will conform to your body shape. Sometimes just knowing the basics is enough. |
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budgy wrote:
Case in point: You want to know how HARD or resilient a specific innerspring is to try and determine how supportive it is. You might know the coil count and gauge of wire, you might even know the # of turns in each coil, the carbon content of the wire used, how its tempered, etc. What none of these individual #'s tell you is the actual strength of the wire....its a guessing game even with all the specs you can think of. If manufacturers wanted to make it easy they could just calculate the specific spring rate per square inch of the mattress, and how much the rate increases or decreases with compression to take into effect the progressive rate of the spring system, it would also give you an idea of how flexible the coil system is. Some technical data can quantify performance to a degree, most technical data on mattresses are simply parts of the formula that most people could simply not use to determine said performance. What I am trying to say is that even the hardest of specs do not describe to you how something will conform to your body shape. Sometimes just knowing the basics is enough. See we're talking the same language so to speak. A lot of times the so called "tech" info given doesn't help much. In the example you give much of the info is of no real use. What I'd want to know is spring rate (spring rate doesn't change with deflection unless we talking of varible pitch springs) and how high up on the stress strain curve you are with and inetnded load. Get too high up on the curve and springs could yield, sag, and or even break with use. Tis posible to design 2 spring with same spring rate that behave in totally different ways. So just knowing wire ga. # of turns, carbon content of the wire, etc. doesn't really tell you much but might be impressive to those that are not techically savy in this area.
Same can be said for foam. See the word "poly" used fairly often here but that doesn't mean much as defination of poly is many. Are we talking polyethylene, polycarbonate, polyurethane, etc. With plastics, polymers are a joining of many monomers. Doesn't really mean anything useful as far as mattress selection is concerned. IMO unless you bleed green, I'd not wory about natural Vs synthetic materials. Big thing now in the area of Polyurethane is soy based PU. While soy may be a natural material I wouldn't call the PU derived from soy exactly natural and to top it off, the soy component isn't very high. About the highted you see being promoted is 30% but as PU needs a catalast the real amount of soy derived PU is a lot closer to 15% max.
As I said before, there is more than one reason to loose sleep and info overload can be one, expecially if it contains information you fully don't understand. |
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You have of course given us a perfect example of redundant information, Bruce! But in my observation this isn't usually the sort of information that people in this forum are wanting to know. As for natural materials being no better than synthetic ones, it stands to reason that man-made fabrics are cheaper to manufacture, resulting in bigger profit margins for the mattress makers/sellers. As long as this cost-saving is genuinely passed on to the consumer, I am happy for people to be offered the choice. However, one would have to take into account other considerations, such as the environmental cost, health risks, etc. |