Small Town Mattress Hunt

[phoenix]

Hi jhk49,

1. Will an electric mattress pad or blanket ultimately degradate the life of a memory foam mattresses?

There are some comments about memory foam and electric blankets in post #2 here. I would tend to use them cautiously partly because they may affect the firmness of the memory foam and partly because they may also affect the durability of the memory foam over time.

Having said that … there are hundreds of different versions of memory foam that can be more or less temperature sensitive and the design of the mattress could have an effect as well (an electric blanket would have less effect on memory foam that was deeper in the mattress) so the effect of an electric blanket can vary from mattress to mattress so I would follow the recommendations of the manufacturer as far as using an electric blanket on any specific memory foam mattress.

2. You have mentioned “microcoils” as a comfort layer. I originally thought that this was in reference to individual coils (pocketed coils) in the innerspring. It now appears that that is not the case. Are these “microcoils” used on many mattresses or has their time come and gone?

While they are not “common” they are also not common either although I would say their use is gradually increasing. You can read more about microcoils that are used in comfort layers in this article and in post #8 here and post #2 here. They would be a durable choice that can work well for those that prefer the more springy feel of microcoils in the comfort layers of their mattress.

3. I looked on the websites of several mattress manufacturers. Some of these were name brands and some lesser name brands. I did not find any information concerning the actual construction specifications for their mattresses. Is this typical of keeping the customer in the dark? Is there any p;lace where I can find this info? The sales people I have spoke to so far don’t seem to know the details either. Like I said, this is a small town.

It would be relatively uncommon to find the detailed specs of a local mattress on their website and in many cases their websites may be out of date and not even list the current mattresses that they carry or only mention the manufacturers not the specific mattresses. It’s much more common for online retailers and manufacturers to have an up to date website with more detailed specifications but it will also vary greatly.

As sad as it is … most of the members here that have spent more than a couple of hours on the site will know more meaningful information about mattresses and mattress materials than most of the mainstream salespeople that sell them. This is one of the reasons that it’s important to make sure that any retailer or manufacturer is able and willing to provide you with the information listed here before you go and visit them to test mattresses.

Your ability to find out the information you need to make an informed choice about the quality/durability of a mattress will vary by manufacturer (you can see some comments about the largest 15 manufacturers here) and will also depend on the knowledge of the store and salesperson you are dealing with and their willingness to call their factory and find out any information they don’t know that you would need to make an informed choice and make meaningful comparisons between mattresses. Of course this is also assuming that the manufacturer isn’t one of the many that won’t disclose enough meaningful information … even to their retailers (in which case I would completely avoid it). This should be a simple process that is a “normal” part of buying a mattress (just like finding out the size of a hard drive, the amount of memory, and other basic specs of a computer would be a normal part of buying a computer).

Any help will be appreciated. Like I said, the Misses is getting fidgety.

There isn’t much general information I can add to the steps in the tutorial and my replies in this topic but of course I’m certainly happy to answer any specific questions that you may have.

In its simplest form … choosing the “best possible” mattress for any particular person really comes down to first finding a few knowledgeable and transparent retailers and/or manufacturers that sell the types of mattresses that you are most interested in (either locally or online) and that can provide you with all the information you need to know to make an informed choice and make meaningful comparisons between mattresses and then …

1. Careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) to make sure that a mattress is a good match for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP … and/or that you are comfortable with the options you have available to return, exchange, or “fine tune” the mattress and any costs involved if you can’t test a mattress in person or aren’t confident that your mattress is a suitable choice.

2. Checking to make sure that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the mattress that could compromise the durability and useful life of the mattress.

3. Comparing your finalists for “value” based on #1 and #2 and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Phoenix