Hi Colby,
There are two general groups of âspecsâ that are an important part of mattress shopping. The first is quality and value specs and they have to do with the quality and durability of the materials in a mattress and amount of more costly materials that justifies higher prices. The law tag only lists the category of materials by percentage of weight but it says nothing about the quality of the materials used. For example ⌠polyurethane foam can be really poor quality or very high quality but it will only say polyurethane foam (just like a wood product could be particle board or more expensive hardwood). Memory foam (viscoelastic foam) is the same and has many different types and quality levels. This means that a consumer is at the mercy of the willingness of the mattress manufacturer or retailer to disclose the quality of the materials they use. This unfortunately is sometimes difficult or impossible with the major brands (and others as well) or the larger mass market retail outlets. Consumers who buy thes brands or from these outlets will usually buy a mattress that they have no idea of the quality and durability of the materials inside the mattress and will tend to believe the marketing stories that are âattachedâ to the mattress.
The second type of specs could be loosely called âcomfort specsâ and these have to do more with the suitability of a mattress for each particular person. These are the types of specs such as foam ILD (softness firmness levels) that have more to do with the pressure relief and support of a mattress and are not nearly as important because these qualities can be tested for in a store and personal testing is more accurate in this case than material specs.
In general (and there are exceptions) ⌠smaller local or regional manufacturers will tend to use higher quality materials in their mattresses at similar price points than major brands and will also tend to be more open about the materials they use. The retailer may still not be willing or able to disclose these (because it would take away from their marketing stories that they use to sell mattresses) but in some cases the information is available if a consumer either âpushesâ or phones the manufacturer of the mattress directly. It can be very frustrating to jump through all the hoops that it sometimes takes to find out the kind of basic information that should be readily available or to spend the hours of online research into conflicting information and claims to find accurate and meaningful information. Most consumers just âgive upâ (or donât even know how to determine quality in the first place) and just buy a mattress based on the marketing information and are left with a feeling that they still really donât know what to believe or have any meaningful information about what they bought. The mattress industry has often been âunfavorablyâ compared to the used car industry.
In the case of Rooms to go ⌠they sell mostly mainstream brands (such as Simmons, Sealy, which also owns Stearns and Foster, Serta, and Tempurpedic) which all either donât easily disclose some or all of the âquality specsâ of their mattresses or if they do to some degree (like Tempurpedic) the specs make it fairly obvious that the mattress has poor value compared to other mattresses with similar quality materials. They try to offset this with marketing programs and techniques that attempt to convince consumers that âtheir versionâ of a particular material is better than other versions with the same âquality specsâ. Because they were really the only game in town with memory foam for so long ⌠they have been quite successful and many consumers believe this even though for many years now high quality alternatives that are equivalent have been available. Until recently, their marketing has been a model for âloyalty marketingâ regardless of the facts behind the claims.
There is one âkind ofâ exception at Rooms to go and this is Carolina Mattress Guild. They are a mid sized wholesale manufacturer that tends to use higher quaity materials in therir mattresses compared to larger alternative brands in each budget range. While it would still be difficult to find out all the âquality specsâ of their mattresses because both manufacturers and especially retailers are not geared towards providing ârealâ information and are dependent on marketing information to sell mattresses ⌠at least the odds are much better and in your favor that at comparable price points their mattresses will have better quality and value than the other brands they carry.
ADMIN NOTE:Retired Website | Archived Footprint:carolinamattressguild.com/
The models that they list online are here but you would still need to test the mattresses to find out which are most suitable for you in terms of PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences). Just because a mattress is higher quality or has a higher price doesnât mean that it is a suitable construction type (comfort specs) for a particular indivdual. Even the highest priced version though is less than the iComfort (insight?) that you purchased which is the âbottomâ of the iComfort line.
ADMIN NOTE:Retired Website | Archived Footprint:roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=searchResults&refineType=1&sub_attr_name=Specialty%20Brand&refineValue=Carolina&refine=1&history=22rjxorx%7CsubCategoryName%7EBedding%5Ecategory%7E22%5EcategoryName%7Ecategory%5Froot%5EprodPage%7E12%5Epage%7ESEARCH%252BNAV%5Ewebsite%7ERTG%5Eprice%5Fregion%7EPRICE%5FFL%5EREGION%7EFL%40hrrcjsoi%7Ccanned%5Fresults%5Ftrigger%7E%2528attribute%5Fvalue%5Fnested%253Dcategory%5Froot%253D%2528%2Bcategory%5Fx3D%5FBedding%2529%2528%2Bcategory%5Froot%2529%2528%2B%5Fx32%5F2%2529%2529%2528attribute%5Fvalue%5Fstring%253Dsiteid%253D%2528%2Bsiteid%5Fx3D%5FRTG%2529%2528%2Bsiteid%2529%2528%2BRTG%2529%2529%2528attribute%5Fvalue%5Fstring%253DREGION%253D%2528%2BREGION%5Fx3D%5FFL%2529%2528%2BREGION%2529%2528%2BFL%2529%2529&ViewAll
Hope this helps.
Phoenix