How to figure out which mattress to buy???

[JennCa]

My hubby says his back hurts from our mattress, it is 7 years old, no matter how often I rotate it, he says he wants a new one and ASAP. He is thinking he wants to spend a good bit of money because he thinks it will be better on his back. How do we go about finding the right one for us? When we go to the store honestly there are several that feel right at the time, but what about later on...Then, how do we get the best price? I've heard people say that matresses are seriously marked up and that by negotiating I should be able to get it for 30-40% less, but not sure if that is true and how to go about getting fair price. Also, what happens if his back still hurts after a month, any recourse? Has anyone bought them on line?

Any advice before this becomes a huge budget buster!

Jenn

 

[Evi]

I wish I had advice I just checked in to see if anyone responded. I find myself in a similar situation. Hubby recently purchased a visco foam mattress and the smell was triggering my asthma so we had to give it away.

Now I am also on the hunt for a new mattress. Our previous was a simmons beautyrest and I've been pricing something comprable to be in the 1,400 range. Something I would like to avoid. If I come across anything good I'll let you know.

 

[starwood]

Whatever you do DON'T buy a sleep number bed. The 20 year warranty is non-existant. The pump went on us twice and that is not covered under the warranty. We just got rid of that and got a tempupedic knock-off from Bob's Discount Furniture. It is extremely comfortable.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I will be keeping an eye on this thread because I would like to know the same!

About 3 years ago we purchased a new mattress. I really wanted a FIRM (but not hard as a rock) mattress. I find that mattresses always sag. My parents have a great mattress but unfortunately it's discontinued.

Anyways, thought we purchased a good one but knew within a couple of months it is not the one for us.

 

[Melrosgirl]

Some mattress companies offer 30 day try it out periods. I know Sleep Number beds do. We have 2 sleep number beds and no problems at all. Had them for 10 years.

 

[Hoopfamily]

Okay here is the skinny. Firstly you should know I used to sell mattresses and speak from a position of knowledge on this.
#1 If you buy a new mattress you MUST replace the box spring. WHen Mattresses sag, it's due to them losing support ie a failing box spring.
#2 Support has NOTHING to do with feel. Mattreses come in different levels with comfort as the option. look at it this way. If you were to sleep over and sleep on my floor and I offered you a pillow, you'd take it for comfort right? That's what a plush or pillowtop mattress is more comfort same support.
#3 Buy the biggest bed you can fit in your space and I mean biggest. Who cares if you barely have room around the sides to walk, a bed room is for sleeping and stuff, for which you will be far more comfortable if you have more room. Kings and some queens come with 2 piece box springs so getting them up small stairways is no biggie. Plus a king is literally 2 xl twins put together, if 1 would sleep on nothing smaller than a twin, how can 2 sleep on something smaller than 2 twins?
#4 Coil count is silly. You can have fewer bigger coils made from a thicker steel, or more smaller coils made from thinner steel. You do the math, which do you think is more supportive.
#5 When you go to the store, spend the day, bring your pillow, take off you shoes and lay on each bed for 15-20 minutes in the position you would normally do.
All of the above does not mean you have to spend a crazy amount of money. When you buy a bed regardless of what you are told you will either need or want a new one in 8-10 years anyway, so why buy one that will last 20? Same with furniture by the way.

 

[Hoopfamily]

Some mattress companies offer 30 day try it out periods. I know Sleep Number beds do. We have 2 sleep number beds and no problems at all. Had them for 10 years.

I would never buy from a company that does that. That means there is a great chance the bed you just bought was in at least 1 other persons home for 30 days. YUCK.

 

[LaDonna]

We just bought a mattress decided to go with Original Mattress Factory because they are still flippable(meaning you get more years use out of them) and the whole thing is just a better product, the coils etc are thicker stronger and sturdier, if you go to one of their shops they'll show you the inside of their mattresses and those of the other companies, the other companies now sale "individidually wrapped coils" well if you actually look at those coils you'll see how flimsy and thinner they are compares to OMF, which means their product isn't going to last as long. I was suprised to find that OMF doesn't negotiate, there prices are their prices, and they are comparable to everyone else's prices especially for the quality you get. HTH

 

[tlbwriter]

#5 When you go to the store, spend the day, bring your pillow, take off you shoes and lay on each bed for 15-20 minutes in the position you would normally do.

This is SO important. It's hard to tell a lot from lying on a bed for 1 minute without a pillow!

The last time we went shopping, we were told that Sterns & Foster is owned by Sealy (or is it the other way around?) and that every S&F mattress has a less expensive Sealy clone. We ended up liking a Sealy even more than its more expensive S&F version.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I would never buy from a company that does that. That means there is a great chance the bed you just bought was in at least 1 other persons home for 30 days. YUCK.

No chance at all. A bed used for 30 days cannot be sold as new, although I suppose there are dishonest sellers who might lie about this fact.

You may have trouble finding a mattress seller who does not accept returns - most do!

 

[tlbwriter]

You may have trouble finding a mattress seller who does not accept returns - most do!

Maybe in your state. In my state, it's almost impossible to find a mattress retailer who takes returns. We did buy one from Mattress Firm, who said they took returns, but when I read the contract they made it nearly impossible. Wasn't an issue, as I love our mattress.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Maybe in your state. In my state, it's almost impossible to find a mattress retailer who takes returns. We did buy one from Mattress Firm, who said they took returns, but when I read the contract they made it nearly impossible. Wasn't an issue, as I love our mattress.

If you can't find a retailer to accept returns (and I believe that all of the large mattress sellers do including department stores such as Macy's), order online from Costco.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22728.../tricks-trade-shopping-mattress/#.Tl5AFKiKnYg

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2009/sep/13/iris13_20090912-192805-ar-30615/

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=3425832

 

[Hoopfamily]

No chance at all. A bed used for 30 days cannot be sold as new, although I suppose there are dishonest sellers who might lie about this fact.

You may have trouble finding a mattress seller who does not accept returns - most do!

What do you think they do with the mattress?

 

[bjscheel]

DH was suffering from sciatica back pain and made up his mind he wanted to try Tempur Pedic. We got the Cloud Supreme. He thinks it's awesome and hasn't had any more back trouble. It was about $3000 for a queen set. Tip: If you don't have tons of room to manuever the foundation piece, get the low profile one. They don't give at all when moving up stairs and around corners! We had to go in through the upstairs window! Also, the mattress was really stiff for a few weeks until it got broke in.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I have been looking for a mattress, too.

What do people recommend for pooh size folks?

 

[ceecee]

We had a sleep number and hated it. We bought a TempurPedic 4 years ago and LOVE it. I know they are pricey but well worth it. We got 2 pillows free and 5% off at the Furniture we bought it at for NOT financing it!

 

[SleepyatDVC]

When we were shopping for a new mattress, we tried out the tempurpedic ones. DH hated the feeling of getting "sucked in." Lol. And it does retain body heat more.

We had a Simmons BeautyRest from when we got married in 1996 that was still going strong and just as comfortable. It was around $1000 then. We wanted the same mattress but a king size instead of a queen. The model was discontinued.

The only one that came close after trying out a ton of mattresses in stores was the Simmons Black BeautyRest. I was cringing at the almost $3000 price tag but DH insisted that he'd rather spend the money on a good mattress than dining room furniture.

Glad he convinced me. I get the BEST night sleep on it and it has almost been 2 years. Worth every inflated dollar.

The problem and the fear for us and many others is that we spend the $$$$ and it is a dud. If we were guaranteed a great mattress, the high price wouldn't be as painful.

 

[marcemc]

I'm on the same boat as some of you guys, need a new mattress but don't know which one to get.

They have so many options out there is overwhelming.

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

just bought a king set and it was delivered last weekend.

Yes, bigger is better

We were in the store for several hours. We finally just bought the one that felt the best and was the right firmness for us.

Don't get swayed by the sales and incentives, like I almost did. I almost bought a simmons because they were offering free sheets and frame, so I kept trying to force myself to like one of them. We ended up with a brand I can't remember the name of

Also, don't forget you can return it if it's awful. That helped me finally pull the trigger. So far so good. Love my king sized! How did we sleep in a queen for 20 years?!?!?

 

[Pooh2]

We bought a $1500 mattress at Sleepys that was great in the store. After the first night, we were roasting hot!! (it was Feb and the bedroom was 58 degrees!).

After 3 weeks of roasting every night, we exchanged it for one that "sleeps cool". The fee to exchange it was $400 but we knew if we could not deal with it in the winter, we would be even more miserable by spring!

We had kept our orginal mattress wayyyy past it's expiration date because we found shopping for a mattress to be so stressful!

Ask upfront if there is an exchange fee, that was a real budget buster and hard to swallow but we knew we could not live with the first mattress.

Good luck!