My curiosity got the better of me and I got out my trusty seam ripper and undid enough of the side seam of my Simmons Beautyrest to look around inside. I wouldn’t even give this mattress away so I figured I might as well. We buy these things, sleep on them every night, and then send them away, never knowing what was in them.
Inside I found: The soft stretchy cover (which still looks pristine) is quilted to a very thin layer of what I think used to be memory foam and a layer of regular eggcrate foam.These are feather light and have no resilience. Under this is about 1.5" of soft poly foam. This rests on a thin piece of another foam which is pulled tight over the individual coil springs vault and glued around the edges. I peeled this up and examined the springs. All of the foam has lost its resiliency and feels like it was lightweight to begin with. However- what disappointed me- the springs are shot as well. The springs around the edges seem fine but when you get to where the hip would be, they squish down sideways with little resistance, leaving a hole. Disappointing. I was hoping I could doctor it up to last just a bit longer until we decide on a new mattress. But I like to learn about and understand things, so it was really interesting to me to see and feel what is inside of it myself.
(Side note- I wonder if this construction would ever allow a sag of 1.5"?)
We bought this mattress less than 5 years ago and by year 3 it was causing us backaches and sore hips. You can’t flip it. We turn it once in a while and keep trying things to extend its life, but we can’t take anymore. I cannot figure out exactly how this bed can make a person hurt so bad! It sits there looking lovely but it is evil!
So, now that I’ve done this it seems crazy to me how we buy a mattress without being able to see and feel what’s inside it. What dopes we are.
Anyways, just thought I’d share that, lol. The support layer in this particular bed isn’t any better than the comfort layer.
That’s too bad … it sounds like all the layers and components may have broken down. Are the springs still level? Pocket coils don’t only compress straight up and down but sideways as well so they can leave a gap when they are compressed (especially if they are compressed directly with no foam on top) and if they are low gauge they have much less resistance. This video has an example at about 30 seconds in that shows how they compress and how the springs can leave a “gap” when they are compressed. Is this what is happening with yours or is the gap something else?
Only a relatively small percentage of mattresses ever compress beyond the warranty exclusion … although they will often be close … just a little under.
I appreciate you sharing your experience. Normally it’s the comfort layers that go first but with thinner comfort layers and lower gauge pocket springs they can also have durability issues.
Phoenix, I realized I should update this post. After we got our bed from SleepEZ, before we carted off our old Beautyrest coil mattress, I figured since I had opened the mattress up, I might as well open the whole top and see exactly what was in there first, just curious and since it was going to the landfill, why not. So I took the whole thing apart. I found that the springs were not actually worn out- it was the pockets that had come loose from one another so that some springs were tipped over and no longer functioning as a group. Theoretically, one might have been able to find a way to hold them back in place. The pockets are only glue-gunned together, not sewn, and pull apart easily. So, you are right, the springs themselves were not worn out at all.
The foams on top were shot but because of the way the bed was constructed, there would be no way for it to sag 1 1/2" no matter how worn out the foam got.
Thanks for the update and for “closing the loop” on the aborted mattress surgery.
It’s interesting what happened to the springs and even though it wasn’t the springs themselves … it’s unfortunate that the end result was that you weren’t able to re-use them.
Sometimes I think that a lot of the “engineering” and “research” that goes into some mattresses is to find a way to use lower quality materials without having to replace the mattress with a warranty exchange.
How interesting! Thanks for the report on what was inside. I’m considering a pocketcoil design and was wondering about the glue system. What is the expected lifetime for pocketcoils? Is glue degredation a common problem? Or was this unusual do you think Phoenix?
There isn’t an “expected lifetime” for pocket coils as a whole because there are hundreds of versions of pocket coils that are all different from each other but the amount of steel in any innerspring system (along with tempering and any precompression of pocketed coils) would generally have the biggest effect on durability relative to other types of innerspring of the same type. The amount of steel would come from a combination of the height of the coil, the number of turns, the gauge of the wire, the shape and diameter of the coil, and the number of coils in the entire innerspring. Having said that … while pocket coils as a whole would generally be less durable than innersprings that use helical coils to connect the individual springs together if you were to sleep on them directly (or if there were only thinner layers of foam above them or with higher weights where the coils would be compressed more deeply and more frequently) … the support layers of a mattress (such as a pocket coil or other types of innersprings) aren’t usually the weakest link of a mattress which is usually in the quality of the comfort layers above the pocket coils.
There is more about innersprings in this article and in post #10 here and there is also more about the many variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to each person in post #4 here but in most cases if you are looking for a more durable mattress I would focus on the quality and durability of the materials above the coils and I would focus on the feel and performance of the deeper support layers and how they contribute to the mattress as a whole more than on their durability.
Sometimes pocket coils can have issues with glue degradation or with shifting but again this would be a minority of cases and in the case of pocket coils made by a reputable North American manufacturer (Leggett & Platt is the largest manufacturer) … for the most part the materials above the coil will have the biggest effect on durability.
I’m glad to hear that problems with pocket coils shifting around is a minority problem, and not a normal occurrence. Thanks for the links to the more detailed information.
