Consumer membership in The Mattress Underground

Hi Jdadburgh.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum! :slight_smile:

I agree that after some preliminary testing it is best to dig a little deeper and “get to the point” of finding out the specifics of the components within any mattress that you are considering…I generally advise against the major brands such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta, as they all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors. Lower quality materials will tend to soften or break down prematurely relative to the price you pay, which is why I would generally suggest avoiding all of them completely (along with the major retailers that focus on them as well) regardless of how they may feel in a showroom along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (You can see some reasons why I generally tend to avoid them in . the guidelines here along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here ).

Regarding each of the individual mattresses you are looking at you can perform a forum search here (just click on the link and type any key term or phrase ) to see comments or posts in discussion about them.

While I or any of the site experts are always happy to help the forum members here with “how” to choose, to act as a "fact check, or to help them find better manufacturers or retailers that have better quality and value but “what” to choose in terms of either a mattress or the balance between comfort/pressure relief and support/alignment that may be suitable for a specific person is always up to the only person who can feel what you feel on a mattress and best left to personal testing and your own experiences or more detailed discussions with the more knowledgeable people at the retailers or manufacturers that sell a mattress you are considering.

The first suggestion I’d have is to start with the tutorial post here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones which would include the major brands such as Serta or any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the quality of the materials inside it and you have no way to identify any weak links in the mattress or make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses so you would be making a completely “blind” purchase. If you change the shopping approach and follow the steps outlined in the tutorial linked above you will have much higher odds of success.

You can perform a Forum Search and you can type in the “key term” any city or area you would be closer to and consider driving such as Pittsburgh or any other area and see what other businesses have been discussed in that region which may be helpful to you. There is a Pittsburgh list here that you might wish to check upon. Other than this we have decided to discontinue the provision of listings of potential retailers in various geographic regions (unless they are already approved site members), because of the difficulty in maintaining such lists in a retail landscape that is constantly changing, and most importantly the confusion it was creating with the consumer members who incorrectly assumed that these businesses had indeed gone through the strict qualification process and were approved as members of The Mattress Underground. Such an assumption is unfair to both the consumers seeking assistance, as well as the very businesses and manufacturers who meet the criteria to become Trusted Members of The Mattress Underground.

Whatever business you’re considering, I would always confirm that any retailer or manufacturer that you wish to visit is completely transparent (see this article) and also make sure that any mattress that you are considering meets the Post #13 quality/value guidelines here. One way to recognize the better retailers or manufacturers who are “mattress people” rather than “marketing people” is that once you start asking questions they will not only provide better answers but will also ask you better questions focused on finding out what you really need and prefer and offer their recommendations based on your answers rather than on “marketing stories”.

Good luck! and once you’ve had the chance to narrow things down a little further, feel free to post back with any specific questions and I or any of our Expert Members will be happy to assist you.

Phoenix