Howdy! I’m in the midst of searching for a new mattress to replace our 20 year old Serta. It has taken to making alarming sproinging sounds at random times.
I was wondering if the list of Austin stores has been updated. I’ve seen this one - https://forum.mattressunderground.com/t/need-help-fast - but 2 links in there are either broken or out of business, and another one is on the way out of business. 2 more links in the San Antonio section don’t work (and one redirects to another company).
Since I’m still not even sure what type of mattress I want other than not memory foam, I need a place where I can go in and lie down for a while and see what suits me. And even though this Serta has lasted a remarkably long time, after sleeping on a Noah’s Mfg mattress in a vacation rental, my eyes were opened to what better options there are. (Regrettably, that Houston company won’t deliver to Austin.)
The list was last updated in Sept, 2015 but some of the URL’s had changed and I also added a note about Austin Mattress closing to the wrong retailer (Optirest) in error. As of now all of the retailers and manufacturers on the list are still in business and I’ve corrected the URL’s and switched the note about Austin mattress closing to their own description.
I’m not sure if you were talking about Noah’s or Sleepworld about deliveries but I just talked to Michael at Sleepworld and he confirmed that they are also still delivering to Austin at least once every 2 weeks and more often if they have a truckload sooner.
There have certainly been many changes in the industry in the last 15 - 20 years and many if not most of them are for the worse … especially when it comes to the major brands (see post #3 here and post #3 here along with post #12 here and post #404 here among others on the forum that have discussed this).
Thanks for the heads up about the URL’s that weren’t working and I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any other comments or questions I can help with along the way.
Thanks so much! I’ll give Urban Mattress and Austin Organic Mattress a peek. I looked at the Aspen from Denver Mattress and it seemed nice, but it was the first thing I saw. I’m a little wary of buying anything from Austin Mattress since they’re going out of business, because warranty issues won’t get resolved.
I did find a place in Cedar Park (Walker Mattress) that carries Spring Air, MLily, Serta iComfort, and Sleep Designs’ Artisan, Eclipse, and Eastman lines. I may check them out, too.
Mattress warranties come from the manufacturer that makes the mattress not from the retailer that sells them so the mattresses they sell would still have a warranty although you wouldn’t have a local retailer to act as an intermediary with a warranty claim so you would need to deal directly with the manufacturer.
I would also keep in mind that mattress warranties only cover defects in a mattress which are relatively rare and generally happen in the first year or so of the life of a mattress and they have little to do with the durability or useful life of a mattress or how long it will maintain it’s comfort and support before you need to replace it. The most reliable way to assess the durability and useful life of a mattress is by making sure that you can find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see this article) and making sure that they meet the quality/durability guidelines here. There is more about mattress warranties in post #174 here.
They are a fairly new business but some of their mattresses may be worth considering.
As you probably know from your reading here and the information in the mattress shopping tutorial (and the guidelines here) I would avoid the major brands such as Simmons, Sealy, and Serta and it’s also very unlikely that you will be able to find out the quality and durability of the materials inside most Spring Air mattresses so you would be safer to avoid them as well (unless you are dealing with a particularly knowledgeable retailer that can provide you with the information you need to make an informed choice).
The mLily mattresses are made in China so there would be some additional risk or uncertainty involved with them as well (see post #6 here) but some of them may be worth considering if you can confirm that they meet the quality/durability guidelines I linked.
The odds are higher that you will be able to find out the type and quality of the materials in any of the Sleep Design mattresses they carry and based on my conversations with Stan the owner they are much more transparent about the materials they use in their mattresses so they would certainly be worth considering … again assuming that the retailer you are dealing with can provide you with the information you need to confirm that there aren’t any lower quality materials or weak links in any of their specific mattresses you are considering.
There is also more information about the 3 most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or any exchange/return options that are available to you).