I was speaking with the owner of Tucker Mattress Co. about the innards of their mattresses. I asked what type of innerspring they use and he said ‘helical’. In my limited understanding helical refers to a tightly coiled thinner wire that joins coils together. I continued to query “pocket? continuous? offset?” and again got ‘helical’. I’m not sure what they use? Does this make sense?
Hi JannyGoats,
A “helical” innerspring would be either a bonnell coil, a continuous coil, or an offset coil which all use helical wire to link the coils together. It’s probably a bonnell or an offset coil (which is a variation of the bonnell). A pocket coil (also called a marshall coil) doesn’t use helicals so the coils can compress independently of each other. It really makes little difference because your testing will tell you whether the coil system in the mattress in combination with the rest of the components is a suitable choice for you in terms of PPP. They should be able to tell you the gauge of the wire and number of the coils (and for that matter the type of coil as well) although this won’t tell you how the mattress will feel for you.
Innersprings with helicals can be stronger and more “supportive” because the coils act together but they are also less conforming and motion isolating than a pocket coil. Innersprings aren’t usually the weak link of a mattress (the foam layers on top tend to soften and break down before the springs) and there are so many variations of design between innersprings (see post #10 here) that I would focus more on your testing (including testing together for motion separation if you sleep with a partner) to decide if the innerspring inside the mattress is a suitable choice for you.
Phoenix