One more question

The place we want to buy our mattress from only has a ten day tryout period. Is that enough time to figure out if you like a mattress?

You will typically be advised that it can take up to 90 days to determine comfort on a new mattress. It may take that long for you to adjust to it, and it to break in. Therefore, I would say that 10 days is more risky to determine overall suitability.

Hi adler223,

Just to add to dn’s comments it would also depend on how carefully and objectively you test the mattress for PPP and on the options you have available to make any changes to the mattress after a purchase outside of an exchange (some mattresses allow you to exchange layers and some manufacturers will make custom adjustments to a mattress after a purchase). It would also depend on whether you are closer to the “I can sleep on anything” side of the scale or the “princess and the pea” side of the scale and on your confidence you have made the most suitable choice in terms of PPP. The risk would also depend on the store you are buying from and what other mattresses are available to you if you do decide to make an exchange because if there are no good quality and suitable mattresses to exchange for then an exchange policy may not have much value. In some cases exchange policies can also be a profit center for the store as they step you up to a higher priced mattress.

In most cases if you test a mattress very carefully following the testing guidelines you can usually get close enough to only need minor fine tuning in a mattress that doesn’t require an exchange or a return but of course there is always some risk in any mattress purchase and the tradeoff for a trial period that offers an exchange or return is that it increases the price of the mattress and the people that don’t exchange or return a mattress pay for the ones that do. If an exchange period is an important part of your personal value equation … then I would want one that was in the range of 30 days or so or more and I would look very carefully at the exchange (or return/refund) policy and costs involved. You can read a few more comments about exchange/return policies in post #9 here and in post #6 here and in post #25 here.

Just in case you haven’t read it yet … I would also make sure you’ve read the tutorial post here so that you have the best possible chance of buying a good quality/value mattress that is the “perfect” choice for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences).

Phoenix