Mattress Shopping :(

[mark_wpduet]

I have a Sealy Posturpedic

That is approaching 8 or 9 years old. It's a pillow top plush. I hate firm! It's still pretty comfortable but you can't flip it! So what I do is every time I change the sheets, I rotate the foot part of the bed to the head part of the bed, and next time I change sheets do the same..

I often wondered to myself if I buy a new mattress if I need to buy new box springs, because the ones I have look fine. I thought about buying a new one a year ago but changed my mind (for now)

 

[mrb627]

$110,000 ???

Does it come with a house?

Malcolm

 

[countryguy]

No and it didn't even come with a head board! I lay on it for 10 minutes and I could not tell the difference between it and my mattress at home.

 

[whirlcool]

There are also places that will custom make you a mattress to your own specs. These are normally about $3K & up. Sometimes "The Dump" will have them on sale for a cheap price. All handmade, no machines involved.

The worst mattress we ever had was a brand called "Englander". We bought it a John M. Smythe furniture in Chicago which was known for selling quality goods. This must have been around 1977 or so. The mattress was fine for about the first three years, then the center collapsed in. It was like a hole. You'd get on the bed and the "hole" would pull you in by gravity. It wasn't a cheap mattress either. Then to top it off if you tried to sleep on it you'd wake up with a horrific back ache. By 1981 we got rid of it and got our first Stearns & Foster. What a difference! The Englander brand was well known in the Chicago area, but I have never seen it anywhere else.

 

[washman]

volvoguy

I have the ORTHOPEDIC PILLOW TOP. Would not trade it for all the tea in China. And yes, I had the edges reinforced so I could actually get in at night and up in the AM. Same price twenty bucks. They are blue cylinders that go in every other spring around the outside. Well worth it.

On top of that, the actual innerspring goes all the way to the edge. Not like the other brands that stop a full 3-4 inches shy then you have the "encased" foam to bring a queen size to 60x80. Translation: we use less steel for the innerspring and make it up with much cheaper foam. This, of course, is total BS.

Let's see, I got it in 2006 after a severe bout of sciatica. Thus it's going on 9 years and while the padding has settled a bit, it is just as comfy now as when I bought it.

You would do well to get an OMF mattress. And box springs while you're at it.

 

[dustin92]

In my opinion, don't bother with a Serta. I have one currently, it is about 10 years old, but spent it's first 6 or so in a guest room (because I hated it from day 1). Starting from day 1- it had a horrible chemical odor, like cheap foam, which only got worse over the next few years, then finally decided to back off. It has a very slippery polyester cover, so sheets always slid off and bunched up, I figured out how to live with this by keeping a tight fitted cotton mattress cover on it. I don't like firm beds at all, and while it felt pretty good in the store, it is rather hard in real life. Very hot to sleep on, which is only made worse by the next issue- it has developed a deep sag in the center, which is near impossible to pull out of. I have a twin comforter, and a foam egg crate pad under the cotton cover. Makes it bearable to sleep on, and somewhat fills the sag. All in all, very disappointed and won't be buying another Serta when this one goes.

 

[yogitunes]

most box springs today are just the "BOX"...hollowed wooden framework, a piece of cardboard topper, and covered in material........not what we were used to of yesteryear, actual springs that bounced.....

many times you will see a sale on a bed, and the box spring is only 10.00 more.....all it does anymore is lift the mattress itself off the bedframe to a somewhat normal level...

my preference is a platform base....to which I am using my waterbed base and frame, and slid the mattress inside.....in fact someone is giving away a king bed set waterbed, with the drawer bases....I like extra storage...

to empty a waterbed completely, using a garden hose and or pump to get the majority of water out, then use a wet/dry vac to vacuum pack that mattress down to a lighter flat sheet that is easy to handle.....been there.....I have used both, semi-motion and motionless...

 

[volvoguy87]

I'm a Friggin' Genius!

Dustin, it sounds like your Serta has gone! Better start planning a replacement.

As I wrote earlier, I couldn't get the super-thick mattress because it would partially cover the shelves on my headboard. I thought "wouldn't it be nice if someone made replacement bed rails that were lower so you accommodate a thicker mattress without affecting the height of the bed?" I did a little whimsical searching online, and LO & BEHOLD, someone else who had a bed rail factory thought the very same thing! My low profile bed rails did exist, and I could easily order some and I could have the mattress I liked with my family heirloom head and foot boards! Did this satisfy me? Of course not! I thought that a queen sized bed isn't all that much bigger than a full.

Maybe...

YES YES YES!!!!!!
I found I could purchase a set of replacement full size bed rails with small extensions on the sides which would allow me to retain my full size head and foot boards, along with the rest of the matching bedroom set, yet accommodate a queen size mattress.

If only I could somehow combine the two rail sets and have a low profile full size rail set that could also accommodate a queen size box spring and mattress. I wonder if anyone else has already thought of this? I wonder if that person might have access to a bed rail factory? I wonder if this has already happened?

YES! YES! YES! and even more YES!!!!!!!
The link to it is at the bottom of this post. It's affordable, it's on its way, and I shall order the queen size mattress upon its arrival.

Dave

http://www.amazon.com/Glideaway-DRC...8-1&keywords=queen+full+bed+rails+convert+low

 

[danemodsandy]

Be Careful....

....To check the thickness of the new mattress against that of the old.

Mattresses are not the standard seven-inch depth of yore; they now come in all kinds of different thicknesses.

If your new mattress is much thicker than the old, you may have to ditch all your old sheets and buy new ones.

Sheet manufacturers are trying to accommodate this by making deeper-pocketed contour bottom sheets, a tactic that I find only partially successful. I personally don't like the new contour sheets; they're loose on all but the thicker mattresses. I like a taut bottom sheet.

 

[jkbff]

On the topic of mattresses, does anyone have any thoughts on wool beds?

http://www.surroundewe.com/Products.asp?d=0&ID=8

I have a Serta iComfort that was the middle choice of three options when it was new. I have a love hate relationship with it... I wished I could just flip it over and use the other side but I don't think its made for that. The other thing is it would be nice to wash the outer cover, because it is removeable but it warns against it. I have the bed in the corner of my Studio Apartment against the walls at the head and right side. I twist the mattress around when I change sheets and having the bed against the walls, I can lay direction/position on the bed because some nights, I just can't find a way to get comfortable... I seem to flop around when I sleep.

Generally, when its not one of those nights where I can't get comfortable, I love how this mattress feels.. It provides just the right amount of support and feels like one of those old down beds. Thats kinda where the Wool bed idea was going.

I did go for the iComfort vs the tempurpedic because these sleep cooler... I still have nights where if I don't have my fan on, I wake up drenched in sweat... But the apartment stays 65 degrees, winter/summer because it is in a basement. If I don't block the heat vents etc, it easily gets to 75 down here winter/summer.

I wished we had access to some of these mattress companies you guys are talking about. It'd be too simple to have a NFM up here...[this post was last edited: 1/28/2015-04:09]