Mattress Buying Tips from Consumer Reports – good info or misleading?

Consumer reports just put out a paper on how tips for buying a mattress. There is some good info in there, but some clarifications can be made. The whole article is here: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/personal/shop-smart-sleep-better-with-these-mattress-buying-tips-692739/  but I’ll post their bullet points below and you’ll see my comments after each.

When it comes to mattress shopping, roughly 40 percent of surveyed subscribers said they had buyer’s remorse. But there are ways to make the experience better:

  • Try before buying. Don’t rely on softness or firmness claims — nearly half the mattresses tested were softer than promised. Gauge comfort by lying on any mattress in consideration. Spend at least 10 minutes on each side, back and stomach — depending on typical sleep position. At Gardner’s Mattress and More, we don’t rush you and encourage you to try the beds out for as long as you like. In addition we offer our exclusive Dream Room. The Dream Room is a private mattress testing room. We’ll take the mattress of your choice, put a mattress protector and clean sheets on it and place it in our testing room. The room has Cable TV, WiFi and an adjustable bed base so you can try multiple sleeping positions or flat. This way you can really see if this bed is a good fit for you. Plus, if you do this we give you a 1-year comfort guarantee on the mattress.
  • Consider the winter months. Using a temperature-controller chamber, the tests found three innerspring and three memory foam mattresses that were better at retaining body heat, which should help keep users warm when the weather turns cold without feeling clammy when it’s hot. Sleeping hot is a huge buzz word right now in the mattress industry and most manufacturers have modified their products to be temperature neutral – meaning they shouldn’t make you hot or cold. What you do want to watch out for is if you live in house that isn’t air conditioned, you may have issues with a memory foam bed. If you have a room that is 90 degrees memory foam will be softer, if you have a room that is 60 degrees memory foam will be harder. But if you have standard climate control in your home, just buy the bed that is comfortable.
  • Keep an old box spring if possible. Replacing the box spring that goes beneath a mattress can cost anywhere from $150 to more than $300. For those swapping out an innerspring mattress for a new one, keep the box spring if it is not sagging or damaged. If switching to memory foam, a solid platform may be necessary to provide enough support. However, for both foam and innerspring mattresses, some brands require consumers to purchase their box spring to receive the full warranty. With most new mattress sets the majority of the cost is in the mattress. For example in a 1999.00 Serta set, 225.00 of that money is for the foundation. Something that changed in the mattress industry years ago is that in most cases a box-spring is a thing of the past, most products are foundations, meaning a solid-hard platform that is upholstered similar to your mattress. If you have a quality foundation, say from a waterbed or memory foam bed – I’m sure they are solid and will support your new mattress just fine and you can save some money. However, if you have an older spring-type box-spring you should replace it as putting a new mattress on there will make it feel differently in your home than you experience in the showroom.
  • Don’t forget to haggle. Most mattresses have huge markups that allow retailers to run frequent “sales” of up to 50 percent off. But don’t wait for a promotion to save — one-third of Consumer Reports’ subscribers who haggled slashed $150 or more off the price. Sadly, less than reputable retailers have put mattress shopping on a similar playing field as used car shopping, where who gets the best deal is the person who is the best haggler. We do not get into that game at Gardner’s. Mattress factories work on a JIT (Just in time) standard meaning if we order a mattress on Monday, they make it Wednesday, deliver it to us on Friday. It isn’t sitting in our warehouse or in the manufacturer’s warehouse. If someone is truly having a 50% off sale on new product they would be selling the product for a loss. Typically what happens is they artificially inflate the mattress price just so they can offer a discount. Many regional and national chains buy their advertising 3, 6, or 12 months in advance so they might be running a “50% OFF Sale” way before they even know what they are paying for a mattress. Then when the weekend comes they quick adjust the prices so after the 50% Off the price is at the margin they want anyway. True sales are usually driven by the manufacturer or if a store is looking to sell off floor models or stock of product that they are discontinuing.

People typically keep their mattresses roughly 10 years before replacing them. Consumer Reports recommends tossing any mattress that shows sags or lumps. For a mattress that looks serviceable but causes discomfort, try these quick fixes before buying a new one.

  • Flip or rotate it. Many older, conventional innerspring mattresses can often be flipped and rotated. But models with an obvious top layer can be rotated only, not flipped. And those with different firmness levels for each sleep partner, including some memory foam, can’t be flipped or rotated. The majority of mattresses today are 1-sided, so they can be rotated but not flipped. I’d recommend rotating them at least seasonally if not monthly. Two-sided mattresses do last longer and allow you to flip as well as rotate, and most will come with detailed instructions of how to do this easily.
  • Check the pillow. A firmer or softer one may be what it takes to nod off. Evaluate the firmness of pillows by putting them on a flat surface and compressing them to about half of their original thickness; the more pressure needed, the firmer the pillow. Pillows are EXTREMELY important for your sleep and putting you in the proper sleeping posture. You want to avoid your neck bending in sharp angles, you want a nearly straight line from the top of your neck to your tailbone when you are sleeping. Generally a side sleeper likes a thicker pillow than a belly or back sleeper. Your sleep consultant at Gardner’s will help you pick out the right pillow for you and your bed. I say ‘your bed’ because your bed can affect the pillow as well. For example, I used to have a firm innerspring mattress and a thick pillow was great for me, but when I bought a Tempur-Pedic mattress the thick pillow was now too thick as my shoulder now sunk into the bed a bit, so I now have a thinner pillow and love it.
  • Top it off. A mattress topper can improve a too-hard bed. Consumer Reports’ tests have found that paying more for foam- and feather-filled toppers didn’t guarantee more comfort. Toppers will not fix an old saggy bed, but if it is too hard they can help with relieving pressure points and filling in the lower back and other curves of our bodies. Feather and Memory Foam toppers are good, but a Latex topper is the longest lasting and provides the most pressure relief. Toppers can also be used in conjunction with a new mattress as it provides a replaceable component that makes the mattress last longer.

-Pete, Sleep Consultant at Gardner’s

 

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