Hi Steeks,
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with your Technogel mattress and I’m sorry to hear that it isn’t working out very well for you.
It can be a very risky to assume that mattresses that are in higher budget ranges use better quality and more durable materials … because they often don’t. This is one of the reasons that it’s so important to know the type and quality of all the layers in any mattress you purchase so that you can identify any weak links in the design or the quality/durability of the materials (particularly in the upper layers which are generally the weakest link of a mattress) and so you can make more meaningful comparisons with other mattresses. There is more about the most important parts of a mattress purchase in post #13 here although this won’t be much help in your current circumstances.
I’m not sure of which Technogel mattress you purchased or the specs of the materials inside it but if you look at the specs of the Technogel Deluxe model that are listed in post #13 of this topic as an example you can see that 3.2" out of the top 3.7" of the mattress are low quality materials (less than 4 lb memory foam) that could soften or break down much more quickly than higher quality materials and would be a significant weak link in the mattress.
[quote]I’m so annoyed and have contacted Snooze (the store we bought from) and they have teed up for a rep from technogel to come by tomorrow ‘to assess’ if it is a manufacturers fault or not. The warranty seems short to me upon reading it and says that “body impressions are normal” while the mattress conforms to your body shape “in the first few years”! It comes under the heading of "personal choice and says that this does not constitute a manufacturing fault and therefore, is not covered under the warranty.
My concern is that based on this warranty jargon, they will dismiss my claim for a refund. I have a lawyer friend who has offered to look over the warranty but any advise I can get about handling this would be greatly appreciated.[/quote]
Unfortunately … all warranties in the industry only cover defects in the materials and don’t cover the loss of comfort and support or foam softening that is the most common reason that people would need to replace a mattress. If the visible impressions in a mattress (when there is nobody on the mattress) are less than the warranty exclusion (which I believe is 1.25" in the case of the Technogel warranty) then it’s not considered to be a manufacturing defect … no matter how much the materials under the heavier parts of your body have softened. There is more about mattress warranties in post #174 here but they are certainly not an indication of the useful life of a mattress or how long it may be before you need to replace it.
These types of issues have very little to do with the type of support system in a mattress (innerspring or polyfoam or latex or any other) because the weakest link in a mattress is generally the quality and durability of the materials above the support core. If anything, innerspring mattresses made by most major manufacturers have even worse issues with the quality and durability of the upper layers of the mattress. Regardless of which type of mattress you tend to prefer or the materials and components that are inside it … outside of testing for PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) the most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is to make sure that you know the type and quality of all the layers inside the mattress (see this article) so you can make sure there are no weak links in the mattress.
You can’t “feel” the quality or durability of the materials in a mattress because most types of materials have lower quality and less durable versions and higher quality and more durable versions that can feel the same when they are new. The difference is that the lower quality versions don’t maintain their original properties that was the reason you purchased the mattress for nearly as long.
Unfortunately there are no great solutions to “fix” a mattress that has softened or is sagging (virtual or visible impressions) because you would generally need to remove and replace the layers that have softened and are causing the issues but there are some suggestions in post #4 here that may be helpful at least partially or temporarily if your warranty claim isn’t approved.
I hope you have the chance to let us know what happens.
Phoenix