My husband and I just bought a new mattress yesterday (will be delivered in a week, woohoo!) and we were complaining to the salesman about our old mattress.
Three and a half years ago, we bought a Temperpedic knockoff and not too long after getting it, it started getting body dents in it. That memory foam wouldn’t forget! The salesman told us that it was caused by body oils, sweat and skin getting into the foam and basically ruining it. Since our new mattress has a layer of memory foam, he said it’s important to always use a good mattress pad to keep this from happening to the new bed.
Now, I totally understand having an addition layer between the sheet and mattress that can be thrown into the washing machine. So will a mattress pad really do anything for the longevity of the mattress, other than keep it from getting stained? If so, is it better to get one of those vinyl-backed ones like I have for the baby’s crib, or is a regular quilted one good enough?
In my (not inconsiderable) experience, those vinyl mattress covers not only crackle noisily (she said crossly), but also outgas their plasticizers so fast that after a year, they get brittle and develop enormous splits, so much so that the cover itself will shift until it’s not even covering the mattress at all, being pulled around on the mattress by the weight of the heaviest sleeper, so you basically have these fragments of former vinyl sliding around under the bottom sheet.
Dunno how mattress pads do in terms of extending mattress life, but I’ve found that the quilted ones definitely make summer sleeping more comfortable. They absorb sweat that otherwise renders the bottom sheet a thin, sticky mess stuck to the mattress.
So I suppose it’s safe to assume that the body grease that would otherwise sink into the mattress goes into the pad, which then gets washed. But that’s not why I do it; I do it because it’s just more comfy.
Yes, you really must use a mattress pad and wash it occasionally. Re: the plastic covers, I have also found they get crinkly and noisy, even the ones that are supposed to be super-wonderful. If anyone know of a plastic cover that stays quiet and supple, please let us know!
It’s not exactly a plastic cover as such, since they’re not waterproof, but the dust-mite-proof allergen covers are silent.