S&F Mattress Surgery and Rebuild

[phoenix]

Hi cg22,

I got around to installing the second 2" dunlop (other side) yesterday. The over-stuffing of the mattress (from 1.5" poly to 2" dunlop) on BOTH sides did the trick. There is no more sag at all.

Thanks for the update on your Stearns & Foster rebuild. I’m glad that it is feeling better for you now. Congratulations!

We understand that companies have to make profits but the new model of “screw the buyer” (no offense given as I would buy from either of you as you are both extremely honest and know your products well). This applies to most industries and is very sad for America in general. My wife puts it the best….years ago “Made in USA” meant make a product that beats the competition’s products and lasts for years. Now things are made to fail and not to last."

There are still hundreds of mattress manufacturers making durable products using quality components (such as the site members listed here), but your comments further emphasize the point that as a consumer you need to be informed, regardless of the item you’re considering purchasing. And that’s one of the main reasons for this site.

They also don’t give a hoot for the waste of millions of tons of materials that end up polluting the planet too (by promoting one-sided mattresses)….very sad. I see this with appliances, cars, electronics and more. A smart company who would go back to this model and market the heck out of it would be very successful imho.

Having a component-style mattress is one way to extend the life of your mattress materials, keeping the outer covering and replacing the interior foam layers every so often.

If S&F used Dunlop (instead of poly) back in 2002 when I purchased my $2200 mattress (a lot of money back then), I probably would not have to rebuild today. The poly started giving way at about year 4-5. You would expect more from a “top of the line” product, don’t you think?

I would expect about 10 years for a mattress using higher quality componentry, and anything beyond that would be considered “bonus time”, so even if your old mattress had used higher-density polyfoam I would expect that you would have still replaced it by this time (but your comfort would probably have been more consistent over that time frame). While latex is certainly a durable material, it is also more expensive and mattress companies aren’t always desiring to produce products in the price range demanded when using latex, and there are also different ranges of comforts that mattress companies try to achieve across their lines, and latex wouldn’t always be conducive to those comforts.

And memory/poly foam is a joke and is making a lot of people sick from the fumes (breathing this for 8 hours/day). Memory/poly has its place in furniture but should be banned for use in the top layer of mattresses.

While I do appreciate your concern regarding chemicals in mattresses, I would keep in mind that there is quite a bit of “fear mongering” in the mattress industry that is often designed to steer consumers to purchase products that are more costly than they might actually need, and I always try to avoid “painting with too broad of a brush” in this area. For others who may come across this post and are curious, there is quite a bit more information in post #2 here and the more detailed posts and information it links to about safe, “chemical free”, and “green” mattresses and mattress materials that can help sort through some of the marketing information and terminology in the industry and can help differentiate between them and answer “how safe is safe enough for me” or “how natural is natural enough for me” and that can help people decide on the type of materials and components they are most comfortable having in their mattress or about the certifications that may be important to them. These types of issues are complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.

Again, thank you for your genuine input with our rebuild. I hope others read this post and do the same. It was not that hard, mostly time consuming and gave me and my wife a fun project (quality time together) to do.

I’m glad you had fun with your “project”, and it’s even better that it was successful, and I’m happy that you took the time to share the details with us.

Phoenix