Questions about Major Mattress Brand Manufacturers.

[phoenix]

Hi broken1812,

I have read quite a bit on this site (I’ll admit, I haven’t gone into all the details though) and I have a few questions about some of the major manufacturers…I’m basically trying to get some more ammo to help convince my wife and my mother in law that OMF will be the better choice (obviously they are cheaper, but that argument does’t always work due to the ‘pay for what you get’ argument).

There is a lot of information here but the first place I would start is the tutorial post here which has all the most important information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

I have read quite a bit on this site (I’ll admit, I haven’t gone into all the details though) and I have a few questions about some of the major manufacturers…I’m basically trying to get some more ammo to help convince my wife and my mother in law that OMF will be the better choice (obviously they are cheaper, but that argument does’t always work due to the ‘pay for what you get’ argument).

Post #4 here was also from a member that was trying to “convince” their other half about the same things and the links I included in my reply would also be well worth reading.

Since it seems that Tempur-pedic owns Sterns & Fosters, as well as Sealy, are they all manufactured in the same place? Does anyone know where they are manufactured?

No … they have many factories across the country and internationally.

From what I am gathering about Stearns & Foster, Sealy, Simmons, etc… is that the main concern is that aren’t transparent about their materials. Does this necessarily mean that they aren’t using quality materials? What about their craftsmanship? Do they breakdown easily? Is the consensus that they hold up for a year or so and then break down?

The major manufacturers make hundreds of different mattresses so it’s not always possible to generalize about all of their mattresses (outside of suggesting to avoid them completely) but lack of transparency and/or lower quality materials and/or poor value relative to other similar mattresses can all be issues depending on the specific mattress. It’s normally very difficult to find out meaningful information about the materials they use (lack of transparency). If you are successful in finding out (which often requires some very time consuming research or “inside information”) then you will normally find that in most cases they use lower quality materials in their comfort layers which is the main reason you see so many complaints about soft spots or impressions in their mattresses. In those cases where you are able to verify the use of higher quality materials they are generally priced much higher than many of the smaller local or regional manufacturers.

Even on the forum here there have been many cases of higher end Stearns & Foster mattresses developing soft spots or impressions in about 3 - 5 years (or sometimes sooner) that aren’t covered by their warranty (as you can see in post #174 here … only visible impressions that are deeper than the warranty exclusions are covered by mattress warranties). The reason for this is almost always the use of lower quality/density foams in the comfort layers of their mattresses.

The only site I know that lists all the specifics of the major brand mattresses they carry is Jordans here and if you look at the materials inside the major brand mattresses they carry and compare them to the guidelines here you will see many specific examples of the use of low quality/density materials in the Sealy and Simmons mattresses that they carry … even in the higher end. This would be typical of their similar mattresses that are sold around the country (it’s not just the versions that Jordans carries in other words).

If money wasn’t an issue, are S&F mattresses still not as good as something like a OMF mattress? Or are they still good, just overpriced?

It would depend on the specific mattress you are looking at but in most cases the quality of the materials in the comfort layers (which are usually the weak link of a mattress) would be lower and I would avoid them based on the quality/density of the materials alone.

Phoenix