I'm sick of shopping lol. Narrowed down to three.

[phoenix]

Hi bcsteeve,

That is a boat load of reading! (it doesn’t look at it, but your links have links, and those links have links!)

I agree that it’s probably a couple of hours to scan most of it (and I wouldn’t study it because you will get a sense of the most important themes fairly quickly) but it can also save many hours of shopping and frustration and will also lead to the best possible choices. It can save you a lot of money in terms of paying very high prices for lower quality and value mattresses as well as knowing how to buy a mattress that will last much longer (meaning you will be much less likely to buy a mattress that needs replacing in just a few years or sometimes even sooner).

The two most important guidelines can be summarized as …

1. Never buy a mattress where you don’t know the quality of all the layers so you can make sure that there are no “weak links” in the mattress and that the upper layers in particular are good quality and durable materials. A mattress will soften and break down from the top down and the quality and durability of the comfort layers are the most important factor in the durability of a mattress regardless of the type of materials or components you prefer. Foam softening and breakdown that leads to the loss of comfort and support is the main reason a mattress will need to be replaced and the loss of comfort and support isn’t covered by any warranty.

2. Deal with manufacturers and retailers that are experienced and knowledgeable about mattress materials and transparent about what is inside their mattresses so you can make meaningful comparisons. These are what I call “mattress people” that are willing and able to tell you what is inside a mattresses and will help educate you with meaningful information instead of marketing stories that are designed to just sell you anything they can convince you to buy. When you know just enough to recognize someone who is an “expert” and comfortable talking about mattress materials instead of marketing stories then you don’t need to become one yourself.

With these two suggestions alone the odds are very high that you will end up buying a much higher quality and value mattress that won’t soften and break down much sooner than it should.

But then that brings me to the other little bit of reading I’m managed… you seem very biased (for good reason, I’m sure) away from inner-coil. This mattress is indeed inner-coil. It says “latex” on the bed, but I’m not sure what layer that is. I’ll need to go back for another look. This time, I’ll carefully read your tips about what to specifically look for instead of looking for “overall comfort”.

I’m not sure where you read that I don’t like innersprings but they are a good durable component and reasonable quality or better innersprings are a support component that is deeper in the mattress and will rarely fail. In almost all cases an innerspring mattress that “fails” will be because of the foam layers above the innerspring not because of the innerspring itself. Some of the most knowledgeable people I know that could choose any mattress they wanted to sleep on prefer an innerspring mattress with good quality foam on top of the innerspring (usually latex) over any other type of mattress. Innersprings can make a very good choice but it depends entirely on the quality of the materials over the innerspring and not so much the innerspring itself.

I’m assuming you are in Kelowna and Sleepy’s would certainly make one of the better quality/value choices there. No matter where you shop it’s always important to focus on the mattresses where you are able to find out the specifics of all the layers because with some of the mattresses they carry this information may not be available. You can see some of my comments about Geoff at Sleepys in post #17 here.

Phoenix