Need advice / help figuring out our best mattress option in San Francisco at a Sears

I’ve been reading some of the informative posts on this site and thanks to you, have got quite a bit of useful information. I’m hoping now that you can guide us a bit with our issue as well. We had purchased a Plush Foam King mattress 5 years ago, and for the past year and a half I have been experiencing back aches when I wake, and having to ‘dig’ myself out of the mattress every morning. I am 5.6" 140 lbs and sleep on my side and my husband is 6.6" and 160 lbs and sleeps on back and stomach. Our base is a solid platform bed.

As we have a warranty exchange with Sears we are sort of stuck with buying a mattress from them. I checked your list of Top 15 manufactures and the ones you note with good/small possibility are not carried by Sears. They carry the usual known names and some others (I can send you a link to that, if required)

We have tried the Simmons ComforPedic Balanced Days Plush and Sealy Optimum Inspiration (though once you sit on it, its sides sink even in the showroom) and the Stearns and Foster Angie II Luxury Plush (though SnF seem to get a lot of bad reviews re sagging of the mattress), but are still not sure which one will work out best in the long run (which we take now to be 3-4 years), and leave us ache and pain free.

Though we have not tried it out, we have seen good reviews of the Serta iComfort Savant, but I’m not sure if reviewers are side sleepers, and whether they are using the mattress with the split bed frame. As mentioned, we have a platform bed that works as a great firm foundation so we would only be getting a mattress.

We’d like to buy a foam/gel mattress again, as we do like the fact that there is limited to no movement of the bed when turning. . However, as we have to pick a mattress from the Sears lineup, could you please provide us with some guidelines as to what might work amongst these manufactures above or the ones the other brands they carry that equal a medium firm vs a too soft mattress.

Thanks,
Ann

Hi ann,

Unfortunately, like many of the members here that were in a similar situation, you are in a difficult position where you need to exchange one lower quality/value mattress for another because higher quality/value mattresses aren’t available to you and you are locked into an exchange at the store you purchased from.

Post #2 here and the posts it links to has some suggestions that can help you make the best possible choice out of the options you have available and they will boil down to either choosing a mattress where you can confirm the quality of the materials in the upper layers (which is the weak link of most mattresses) or choose a mattress which has the least possible amount of lower quality or unidentified materials (which will often be firmer) and then add a higher quality topper that won’t break down as quickly as a comfort layer that used lower quality materials. This also has the advantage that you can just replace the topper when it softens or breaks down more quickly instead of replacing the entire mattress.

Post #1 here has most of the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will find most useful and would also be worth reading (even though some of the steps won’t apply to you because you are exchanging a mattress not buying a new one).

I would also not pay much attention to any online reviews which are usually written shortly after a purchase and are written by consumers that usually have no idea of the quality of the mattress they purchased and because what works “perfectly” for one person or even a large group of people may be completely unsuitable to sleep on for the next regardless of the quality of the mattress. You can read more about reviews in post #13 here.

Again I wouldn’t pay a great deal of attention to reviews. You can see more information about the iComfort lineup in post #11 here and in the case of the Savant there is only about an inch of lower quality/density material in the upper layers (the “comfort foam” which is low quality polyfoam) which is within the guidelines I would normally consider OK although it’s not great value. The top layer is good quality memory foam and the gel memory foam under the 1" polyfoam layer is medium density/quality gel memory foam. It has comfort layers that are very soft though and it could be a risky choice for a back or stomach sleeper … especially when the memory foam softens a little.

Hope this helps and of course if you have more questions along the way feel free to post them.

Phoenix

Thanks Phoenix, for your helpful reply. I do have couple of follow up questions…

Since we feel we’ll porbably need to replace our mattress every 4-5 years, we do like the idea of getting an extra firm mattress and then adding our own higher quality topper that can be replaced without replacing the whole mattress. Would you be able to point us to posts or resources that could help us choose the best topper for us? Anyone local to San Francisco that custom makes such toppers?

Would you be able to recommend a smaller manufacturer/retailer in the San Francisco bay area? We are actually open to bypassing Sears altogether and foregoing our replacement credit. This is because buying any decent mattress at Sears is already going to cost (roughly) twice what we paid for the last one, and of course we’ll need to pay the difference. If in that same price range we could get a better quality product and help support a lesser known local retailer, we’re fine with that.

Best
Ann

Hi ann,

You should easily be able to make a choice that will last you for longer than 4 - 5 years … especially if you choose a firmer mattress with less “suspect or unknown” materials in it and then add a topper or if you choose a mattress that uses higher quality materials in the upper layers. A topper will also extend the life of the layers below it because it will absorb much of the wear and tear of sleeping on the mattress.

The other advantage of choosing a firm mattress with only thin comfort layers (so there is less lower quality or “suspect” materials) is that it will be significantly less than the softer versions so what you save can be used to add a high quality topper which can end up providing a better quality sleeping system than a much more costly mattress.

Post #2 here and the posts it links to has some guidelines for choosing a topper and some good sources as well. I would make the mattress purchase first and then use your experience on the mattress (which may be too firm) as a guideline for choosing the most suitable topper.

It would also be worth calling some of the manufacturers or retailers on the San Francisco / Oakland list in post #2 here as well although I don’t know which of them specifically carry toppers or which types so you would need to check websites and/or make some phone calls. There are some good quality/value mattresses available in the area if you decide to go in that direction.

Phoenix