mattress help

[=112=]

hi, i'm looking into buying a new mattress. i've tried searching google for some mattress buying tips but most articles i've read seem to be of little or no help. i've had a firm bed all my life cuz its supposedly better for your back. is this true? what other factors do i need to think about when purchasing a mattress? i know the obvious like ones that keep ur spine straight, obviously the price factor, but what do you guys/girls look for in a mattress? its hard for me to choose a mattress without actually sleeping in it over nite. another recommendations on places to buy mattresses also? i live in the la area. thanks in advance.

[avlena]

hi, i'm looking into buying a new mattress. i've tried searching google for some mattress buying tips but most articles i've read seem to be of little or no help. i've had a firm bed all my life cuz its supposedly better for your back. is this true? what other factors do i need to think about when purchasing a mattress? i know the obvious like ones that keep ur spine straight, obviously the price factor, but what do you guys/girls look for in a mattress? its hard for me to choose a mattress without actually sleeping in it over nite. another recommendations on places to buy mattresses also? i live in the la area. thanks in advance.

their commercials are annoying, but i always liked sit & sleep. make sure they'll deliver, and see if they'll take away your previous mattress. when we went shopping, we just laid on the mattress, and i would bounce on it a bit. if you have a spouse, make sure they try it, cuz people feel different, depending on weight/height/etc. for example, graf's mattress feels "fluffy" to me, and hard to him, because i'm too light to go past the initial topper.

[Kevster]

Of all the things I learned about mattress stores and manufacturers, the biggest is that you cannot do an apple-to-apple price comparison between any two given stores. Each store has their own 'model' from the manufacturer. Mrs. Kevster and I found this out shopping for a new bed after we got married. We were looking for a coil-sprung type of mattress with individual coil 'cells' instead of an open-coil 'platform' type mattress. We started figuring out that each store had their own beds with their own different coil counts and material. Then you have to decide if you want a pillow-top on the mattress as well. Open-coil mattresses are generally cheaper, but they aren't great if you have more than one person in the bed since if one moves around the other is disturbed. If you're shopping for two, a coil-sprung mattress is a better albeit more expensive route. Remember you are spending 8 hours a night on this, so you should make it someplace comfortable or else you'll suffer the other 16 waking hours.

For us, a pillowtop/coil sprung mattress combination gave us the right amount of firmness and support that makes us dissappointed everytime we have to sleep anywhere else (like in hotels when we travel). We ended up looking at the coil count of the mattress and if it had a pillow-top or not and what was the material. That is where you will find that a place like $hit and Sleep is actually more expensive (at least we found it to be). If you are in the Los Angeles area, there is a great mattress store called Mattress Warehouse on Rosecrans Ave, just east of the 405. They were consistently lower than everyone else and we went there first (I had already done the research) and then Mrs. Kevster had to go to EVERY OTHER STORE in the area just to find out that for the same quality mattress, the first place I took her to was the best (by about 15-20% difference).

I'll verify the address tonight when I get home and hopefully I'll have the number as well.

EDIT: Got it here:

Mattress Warehouse
(310) 675-5400
4825 W Rosecrans Ave
Hawthorne, CA 90250

They are smaller than other mattress stores, but they consistently have lower prices than anyone else I have ever gone to (KCOP 13 did a piece on them in one of their 'money-saving' news stories).

[Markel]

I realize that you can't take everything Consumer Reports says as an absolute, but a recent issue had a section on matresses. If you can find it, it might give you some ideas on what to look for.

[CynJon]

We recently bought a SelectComfort Sleep number bed and we LOVE it. My wife likes a much softer bed, which would give me back trouble. We checked out the different models at the store, and then ended up getting a deal on a demo that was used for a 3-day home show...25% off made the price pretty comparable to a quality conventional mattress. If there's a store in your area, I highly recommend checking them out--maybe you'll be able to swing a good deal, as well!

[MikeD]

hi, i'm looking into buying a new mattress. i've tried searching google for some mattress buying tips but most articles i've read seem to be of little or no help. i've had a firm bed all my life cuz its supposedly better for your back. is this true? what other factors do i need to think about when purchasing a mattress? i know the obvious like ones that keep ur spine straight, obviously the price factor, but what do you guys/girls look for in a mattress? its hard for me to choose a mattress without actually sleeping in it over nite. another recommendations on places to buy mattresses also? i live in the la area. thanks in advance.

If you buy a regular mattress and boxspring, head over to the Overstock forum and get the Memory Foam mattress topper. Those things are worth their weight in gold. We got the 3" thick variety and both the wife and I absolutely love it. They've got a 4" variety now... (http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?siteID=9eASk0x48lo-u_jKR8zq43eNI0axJNz7HQ&cid=71153#)

[CrystalDuck]

Actually, Consumer Reports just says that you should try any mattress for 15 minutes in the store. They don't recommend any brands because, like Kevster said, you can't compare apples to apples. They also say the cheap ones aren't likely to hold up and since sales are so frequent, you shouldn't pay list price. Mattress Warehouse sounds good to me though. Also, "There have been no well-controlled studies to indicate the best firmness overall." Coil counts above 390 for a queen are plenty. For more info, the article is in June '05, or a lot of it can be found at http://www.consumerreports.org

[mcs328]

What size are you looking for? Let me tell you, my mom convinced me to buy a queen size mattress after I graduated and moved out after sleeping on a twin all my life. Boy what a biatch to move that mattress and the boxspring. I only used a 1/3 of the mattress. It's handy now since I'm hitched and all but it takes up so much space if you have a small bedroom.

[Kevster]

We looked at every mattress store and comparing coil counts, fabric types, pillow-top types, etc. because each store has similiar mattresses but with different names. At any store you go to be sure to try and have the store give you the mattress specifics to compare because many stores won't have them on display. They just send out their weasly salepeople to throw a bunch of useless 'facts' and 'opinions' at you to try and get you to buy their mattress. 'Coil count? Uhhh... it's got plenty!' 'Pillowtop mattresses aren't 2-sided! They're ripping you off like that!' (meaning his crappy box-spring mattress is 2 sided and will make your back hurt like a sonofabitch unless you get an after-market memoryfoam mattress topper - which is what a pillowtop serves)

We refer to the mattress we got as 'comfybed' because once you start laying on it, it's so comfortable that you can't help but fall asleep. I believe ours is a Beautyrest

[Jane83]

simmons back care extra firm for me

[ufcrusher]

I am the Mattress Guru.......ok, maybe not...but I have had to buy 5 mattresses in the past 6 years. Here is what I can tell you.

1. Mattress sales people are worse than cars salesmen. Trust me, its true. Dont listen to a word they say as they lie like dogs with fleas at any chance they get.

2. As has already been said, the only way to compare mattresses is by coil type, coil count, and other amenties such as pillowtop. For example, we have bought 3 of our last mattresses from Banner Mattress but we did go visit a bunch of other stores, I would find the same model with different names in each store. I was looking in the Simmons lines which made the comparison easier.

3. I hate to say it but my family has now had 2 Simmons mattresses go bad and be replaced by the manufacturer. One was their top of the line pillow top King size mattress, which started listing on one side as the coils seperated. The second one was a queen model, top of the line standard version. On this one, the difference between the two sides of the bed was night and day, in less than 2 years one side was poking out on a 45 degree angle and basically a hole as a result. The replacements have been fine. Unfortunately, we bought a second king (Lorena Heights Eurotop) which we are now seeing the beginning of a differentiation between the sides.

Thus, I would have to say that the quality is really hit and miss. They stand behind their product but its quite annoying to have a several thousand dollar mattress take a powder. One of the stores that I was looking at showed us the internal problems that these pocketed coils develop prior to our purchase. Basically since they are individual they arent linked in the manner that traditional mattresses are held in place by. Instead, they are in the indiviudal pockets and then "roped" into place and sandwiched together. Unfortunately when you start placing different movements on them, they start pulling away from each other.

4. Figure out a way to get into a more intimate position if possible. While laying on a mattress tells you how well it will theoretically sleep, it may not be as comfortable for all your bedroom activities. I.e. - as avelena mentioned, she doesnt get through the pillowtop to the firmness below when sleeping. This problem happens a lot more frequently then you would think.

Now imagine that you are getting a "massage" where the person who is sitting on top weighs less. The larger individual pushes through the soft padding, but the other parties knees may not get down as far thus interfering with your partners comfort.

5. Finally make sure you know exactly what you need and the size. This seems self evident, but lets say that you have a platform bed, the prices listed often include box springs, which you dont need with a platform. Figure its about 1/3rd the price listed for the boxspring. Does it include rails? If you dont need them, see how much they are going to knock off of it.

Do your sheets only fit a standard depth mattress? Most new beds are considered deep and standard sheets can be a problem.

What were the dimensions on your old mattress? With our latest mattress, which is a standard King, it seems to be much smaller than our previous standard king. As a result we have a few inches of dead space between the mattress and the frame. It was so different that I had to have the manufacturer look into it and was told that a few inch difference in the size of the beds is normal.

Plus, dont forget the differences between all the versions:
Twin
Super Twin
Full
Olympic Full
Queen
Olympic Queen
Standard/Eastern King
California King
Olympic King

Super Twin- most people discover these in college dorms, they are much longer than the a plain twin.
The olympic versions are longer AND wider than the standard versions.
Cal king vs. Eastern King - Cal is not as wide and longer than eastern.

Hope that helps.

[gear02]

I am the Mattress Guru.......

Does it sometimes scare you when you think about in what subjects you've become an expert?

:D

[MikeD]

3. I hate to say it but my family has now had 2 Simmons mattresses go bad and be replaced by the manufacturer. One was their top of the line pillow top King size mattress, which started listing on one side as the coils seperated. The second one was a queen model, top of the line standard version. On this one, the difference between the two sides of the bed was night and day, in less than 2 years one side was poking out on a 45 degree angle and basically a hole as a result. The replacements have been fine. Unfortunately, we bought a second king (Lorena Heights Eurotop) which we are now seeing the beginning of a differentiation between the sides.

Thus, I would have to say that the quality is really hit and miss. They stand behind their product but its quite annoying to have a several thousand dollar mattress take a powder. One of the stores that I was looking at showed us the internal problems that these pocketed coils develop prior to our purchase. Basically since they are individual they arent linked in the manner that traditional mattresses are held in place by. Instead, they are in the indiviudal pockets and then "roped" into place and sandwiched together. Unfortunately when you start placing different movements on them, they start pulling away from each other.

I second the issues with the Simmons product. We bought a king mattress two years ago from Simmons, and it went bad within the first 9 months. We weren't super top of the line, but I think we paid around $1600 for it.

Lots of folks like the Simmons stuff, but I won't buy one again. Who knows, maybe I just got a lemon. :shrug:

[sdpsdca]

I paid $800 for a mattress and I hate it, I guess money has nothing to do with quality......

[Jane83]

hmmm ive had my simmons for over a year now, now coming to almost 2, but no problems...
nothing but good happens with my mattress

[cruelpupet]

Tempur-Pedic

thats all i have to say

[Kevster]

I just verified that our bed is a Simmons Beautyrest with the Felicity pillowtop. We've had it for 4 years and it's still fantastic to sleep on. :)

Sorry to hear about other people's problems with Simmons, but we haven't had any problems with ours.

[blueindian]

Tempur-Pedic

thats all i have to say

:stupid:

i'll never purchase another brand.