Mattress shopping guidelines - finding the best quality & value

Mattress Talk Mattress Selection Process
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Hi him7403,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum! :slight_smile:

The information presented here still holds true for selecting a mattress, regardless of brand. And unfortunately, the largest brands still tend to use less dense materials and not be very transparent to the consumer about what is inside of their mattresses.

This post was a bit of a precursor to the mattress shopping guide here, which lists in more detail the steps I recommend to select a mattress, regardless of brand.

I would be very cautious about brand shopping in general because you are buying a specific mattress, not the brand, and most manufacturers have access to the same or similar components and materials. Many manufacturers make a wide range of mattresses that can vary from lower quality and less durable materials to higher quality and more durable materials in a wide range of prices. The name of the manufacturer won’t tell you anything about whether a specific mattress is suitable for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) or whether there are any lower quality materials or weak links in the design that would affect the durability and useful life of the mattress. There is more about the risks of brand shopping in post #5 here and post #12 here.

The major brands such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors that 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 (see post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here).

If you have specific questions when reading through that guide, feel free to post them in the forum and I’ll be happy to do my best to answer them for you.

Phoenix