A brief history if I may…
For over 100 years, until the turn of the century, mattresses were made two sided. It’s the type of bed most of us grew up on – a mattress about 8″ to 10″ deep, and not very padded so it was fairly firm. If you cared about your mattress, you would flip and rotate the two sided mattress per the schedule laid out in the warranty card. Seems like yesterday, right?
Come to think of it, these beds seemed to last longer too. There are obvious sanitary reasons why a bed should be replaced every 10 years or so, especially if not properly protected with a mattress protector. But 2 sided mattress DID last longer than today’s typical one sided coil based mattresses. So what happened to two sided mattresses?
About 12 years ago, around the time I entered this industry, manufacturers slowly turned away from the old school two sided products in favor of taller, more cushy, one sided mattresses. To the consumer, these beds looked like an home run. They were more padded and comfortable – many newer models even had a pillowtop! They were now 12″, 14″ even 16″+ tall. And the biggest change – they were one sided meaning that you never had to flip it. Sounded good, but were these changes really a good thing for the consumer?
A resounding NO. These new, one sided beds were more hype than substance. Granted, there were (and still are) some manufacturers that made durable one sided beds using quality components. However, one sided bed price competition was so fierce that manufacturers quickly turned their attention from making a quality two sided bed to making an average one sided bed as cheap as possible. From the gauge of wire in the steel coils to low density foam padding, beds that looked like a great deal simply weren’t due to inferior guts. Instead of lasting 10 years like our old fashioned mattresses did, these new beds were worn out within a few. Unfortunately, many people reading this blog have experienced an inferior one sided bed and is afraid to purchase another one for fear of it happening again.
That’s why at Gardner’s, we’ve aligned ourselves with a company who didn’t change their core philosophy when everyone else in the industry did, Gold Bond Mattress. Gold Bond was founded in 1899 near Hartford, Connecticut by Isadore Naboicheck and to this day is still a family run independent mattress manufacturer…pretty hard to find one of those these days! A Gold Bond mattress is made like the mattresses you used to know. Two sided so you can flip it if you want (you don’t have to though!), steel to steel edge support (coils extend all the way to the edges of the mattress for maximum edge support), higher density foams and memory foams in padding layers (surface lasts longer), and 15 year full warranties (confidence that the two sided bed will keep its shape and provide maximum usability). For more about Gold Bond Mattress, click here. And for info on their mattresses, click here.
So back to the headline…are two sided mattresses “old fashioned” or “the way it should be?”
I’ll preface my answer by stating that our very best beds are one sided – Carpe Diem, Tempur-Pedic, iComfort, Pure Latex Bliss, the Dr. Breus Beds, and more. These beds are not part of this discussion. However, when it comes to traditional coil beds, the very best option is a quality two sided bed from Gold Bond. It will provide the proper support and long lasting durability to you are used to and deserve from a mattress. For coil mattresses, two sided is the way it should be.
To your better health through better sleep,
Ben