What should I sleep on for the next 20 years--the topic is Mattresses

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, the budget is in good shape, so I’m looking to buy some new household furnishings, including a new bedroom set.

What I’ve noticed in the browsing of a number of stores is that Mattress costs vary more widely than any other piece of furniture. I mean, there are some you can get for $200, and one salesman today showed me a temperpedic (which was very nice) for $4,000!!

I plan to sleep on it for the next 20 years (I’m 66 now, if I’m still using it in 20 years I’ll consider it a miracle), so I want a good quality one, but don’t need to break the bank if I don’t have too.

So Dopers, what kind of mattress do you suggest I get??

2

First, tell us what you plan to put it on.

Memory foam, IME, will transfer a sleeper’s weight to whatever is beneath the mattress over time. 100% memory foam is not something you want a box spring or cheap platform frame under. The frame under my memory foam mattress supposedly has a 2500 pound capacity but my 280 pounds eventually snapped two of the thinner support bars.

3

I tried memory foam mattresses in the mattress store but didn’t like the “dead” feeling of them, so when I bought my current mattress set a few years ago, I replaced an innerspring mattress with another innerspring mattress. And not a particularly expensive one either. I think the double-sized mattress and box spring were $800 or so.

4

Don’t forget the online vendors, of which another 50 pop up every month (according to a story on NPR I heard yesterday). They have 100-night testing periods and if you don’t like it, you don’t pay for it (sometimes they’ll pick it up, sometimes they don’t, apparently). There’s a new thing where people sleep on new mattresses every 99 days and just keep returning them and trying it on again with another vendor.

Larceny aside, I have read reviews of some of these mattresses that make them sound quite good compared to mainstream mattresses. They are almost all foam, with varieties of different types of foam in layers to get different feels. Most of them require platform beds underneath rather than box springs.

5

I have been happy with my mattress from Original Mattress factory. They have been around a long time and in a lot of cases they make their mattress in your local area.

6

We had a Tempur-pedic for years, and really liked it. When we moved cross-country, we gave it up and bought a Sealy version of the same thing for a lot less. We still have it. I have to say that it’s not really in the same class as the Tempur-pedic, but it’s been adequate.
I’m now strongly considering a Purple mattress. They cost a lot less, and they sound great. I’ve only found one person who has one (and they loved it). I wish I had a bigger data set before deciding.

7

Our TempurPedic is about 15 years old now. We had a warranty issue at ten years, and the company replaced the platform at no cost. While the bed was fine for most of those years, my wife has started to have trouble with the “medium” firm of this one. Rather than invest $4,000 or so in a new, softer version, I bought a 3" memory foam topper for a few hundred that solved the problem. We both sleep better now.

8

We’ve had a waterbed for over 30 years. My husband is heavily-armed, should you even think of taking it! We have a waveless mattress, and we sleep like the dead on it!
~

9

Hi, longtime (retired) furniture/ mattress store owner here.

I sold:

•Tempur-Pedic
•Sealy Posturepedic
•Simmons Beautyrest
•Serta Perfect Sleeper
•Select Comfort Sleep Number (they currently only sell through their own stores or online)
•Various and sundry regional mattress brands

To address only your desire to get twenty years out of your new bed:

Any mattress can last 20 plus years and as long as you can sleep soundly on it and it isn’t causing back/ hip pain etc then there you go.

That being said, thick pillow top innerspring mattresses will often develop deep body impressions rather quickly as the various poly foams that makeup that pillow top breakdown.

Tempur- Pedic seems to maintain its initial feel for a really long time without much change. Not everyone likes that feel.

Select Comfort has many fans too. You will likely need to replace various components (air bladders, pumps) a few times over 20 years (IF you can get them).

Natural latex mattresses will last that long. Sometimes you can find them with non- prorated twenty year warranties. (Once upon a time, at least) “Natural” latex is the key. You often find it blended with poly foam now. And if you get it with a thick pillow top then that’ll be poly foam on top that will break down well before the latex core.

As someone mentioned above, traditional ( as opposed to soft-sided) waterbeds can last that long. I didn’t know anybody still manufactured them.

That was fun! Thanks for listening.

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10

Thanks, I should have mentioned I’m in the same weight class as you (about 290lbs, or 130kg).

Have slept on spring or coil mattresses all my life and haven’t had the ‘memory foam’ ones to the best of my knowledge.

11

I’m in the ninth year of a Serta Perfect Sleeper. While I would consider another Serta when I replace this one in a couple of years, I would not get another pillow top. To begin with all of the issues that 2bits mentioned, you can only rotate it 180 degrees. As a large person, it needs to be flipped as well as rotated every couple of months to avoid the human shaped depression that develops.

12

A lot of mattresses sold nowadays can’t be flipped, because the pillowtops are only on one side.

13

Will you be sleeping alone? If not, do you or your partner mind falling into the crater created by the other? That might nudge you to foam or to beds that are constructed to avoid this. Also, we have a kingsize mattress that I flip or turn every month. No problem now, but 10-20 years out, might be a literal killer

14

Some hotels and motels advertise their beds are Temper-Pedic. Give it a test drive.

We tried it once. It seemed all our body heat was reflected right back at us, so the blankets got thrown to the floor.

Temper-Pedic gets our “no” vote.
~VOW

15

If you are curious about mattress warranties (covering construction as opposed to a “sleep guarantee “. ):

I can’t imagine this has changed much in the ten years since I retired so here goes…

Mattress manufacturers warranties (usually 10 years and often prorated) are designed to be worthless. They don’t cover your inability to sleep. They don’t cover body impressions beyond some super-extreme predetermined depth of 4, 5, 6 inches. They are often voided if you don’t purchase the matching “foundation” which is not a “box spring.” Instead it will have “torsion modules “ and is no better than a solid platform. (I’ve been told that that foundation creates more profit for the manufacturers than the mattress). Warranties are often voided due to any stains (sweat, blood, wine, etc) as well.

The big three innerspring makers, Sealy, Simmons and Serta (I think Simmons bought Serta a few years back. And Sealy owns Tempur-Pedic now) have three different coil designs but one is not superior to the other. I always found the pocketed coil in Simmons Beautyrest particularly comfortable and because the coils aren’t wired together there’s very little motion transfer. (Good for couples if one or both are restless sleepers) but I can’t imagine one lasting more than ten years.

I can’t comment on the current crop of home-delivered, compressed foam (either poly or “memory” foam or a combination) because I’ve never sold them but I suspect they are rather “disposable.” When I was in the biz all the manufacturers were focused on how to get people to replace their mattresses more often.

Everyone still awake?
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16

I’m a Sleep Number fan, personally.

17

Here’s the wisdom I have gathered about buying mattresses over the decades, as summarized and recapitulated in a post last February. (I strongly recommend watching the video in the link below.)

Here’s the bad news. (Adam Ruins Mattresses video.)

As it happens, I figured out that mattresses were a huge scam more than ten years ago.

Here are two posts I made in similar threads several years ago. I haven’t bought a new mattress since then, but according to Adam, nothing has changed.
Originally Posted by Me in 2008
DO NOT pay the listed price! Shopping for a new mattress last summer, I went into Mattress Discounters and tried out a bunch of different models. After deciding that I like a firm mattress with a pillow top, I expressed interest in a Simmons Beautyrest with a list price of about $2,200. When I said I liked it, but couldn’t pay that much, the saleswoman said it had been on sale a week or so earlier. She got on the phone to see if she could still offer the sale price, and came back and said I could have it for $1,100. So obviously, prices are highly negotiable.

I ended up buying a similar Simmons Beautyrest at another store for under $800.

BTW, the whole business of mattress stores saying they won’t be undersold, or will match other stores’ prices, seems to be a complete scam. From what I could tell in my shopping research, different stores don’t carry the same model of mattress: they have the same brands, but similar mattresses have different model names in different stores. Presumably they do this so they can make these falsely reassuring claime and discourage comparison shopping.

So go and try out as many mattresses as you can, and pick the features and general style you like. Tell the sales person you’re willing to pay half of the list price. When he/she says, no, walk out. (Not too quickly: they may offer a lower price before you get to the door.) Go to the next store, repeat.

If my experience is any guide, you should be able to get a mattress you really like for half the list price or less.

Originally Posted by Me in 2010
If you don’t haggle, you will pay about twice as much for your mattress as you should. No exaggeration. If you’re no good at haggling, take a friend who is better.

I bought a mattress (no box spring) a few years ago, and from my experience, you should usually be able to get a mattress for slightly more than half of the stated retail price. Free delivery and removal of the old mattress should be standard, no matter what price you negotiate.

First, find out what type of mattress you like: firm or soft, pillow-top or plain, etc. You have to lie on them for a long time, and in the positions in which you sleep. Relax, take it easy. Take your bedmate so that both of you can try it out. Do the two of you roll in toward the middle? Do you like that?

This could take quite a while if you check out a number of mattresses at three or four different stores. They’ll each have different models with different features, and each manufacturer seems to provide each store with its own unique model names, so you can’t get the same model from different stores. Very annoying.

Once you find a mattress you like, find a salesperson and say that you’ll buy that one today for half the price on the tag. And you want free delivery and removal of the old one. If they say no, you say, “Okay. Bye,” and head for the door. As others here have reported, they’ll stop you and make an counteroffer. (If they don’t, leave and go to the next store.)

If they’re willing to sell at half price, you can let them charge you a moderate delivery/removal fee, say $100. But if you pay anything more than half price, free delivery is a must. You should aim for no more than 60% of full price and free delivery. Paying more than 75% is getting ripped off.

Do not buy a box spring if you don’t need it, and don’t let them make it a bargaining point. If they keep trying to sell you a box spring, walk out.

18

For 15 years I have slept on a hand made Yucatan Hammak. Paid $30* for it fifteen years ago. The Yucatan hamacks are made with a Buckmaster Fuller type triangular weave that distributes your weight evenly over every square inch of your body. No tossing or turning. You wake up in the same position as when you went to sleep.

Takes about three nights to adjust to them. If your house is cold you will need to sleep in sweat pants and shirts. There is just too much air flow.

Sexual activities are ackward. With most people preferring a normal bed.

I am sure most people may not be interested in this idea. So, I won’t go into size and types of materials here. But PM me and I will give more information.

*price has gone up. But you can probably get a top of the line for less than $100USD.

I am not a seller of these items. Just providing information. I can tell you what to look for then you can google a seller.

19

I’m happy with my memory foam. I forget which company made it though but I paid about 2k for it. Good investment

20

I’m happy with my memory foam as well and paid well under 2k for it, but it’s only a full size. If you saw how small my apartment is, you’d understand