The next, but less important thing, to remember about mattresses is how they are made and what they are made of.
There are many, many ways to make a mattress. The list of products that have been used through history to make them is a long one. However, nowadays, mattress manufacturers have focussed around a few (winning?) technologies.
The first bit to understand is the springing system. In this area there are 2 major categories: sprung (also known as open coil, regular sprung and lots of other names) and pocket sprung.
A sprung mattress consists of a lattice of springs tied together with wire – the kind of thing you see rusting in a land fill or on top of skip. This a simple and less expensive structure. Life span of between 3-7 years.
A pocket sprung mattress has each spring wrapped in a pocket of fabric. This gives a slower, softer bounce and also extends the life of the springs. Usually a pocket sprung mattress will last between 7-12 years. Every so often we get a couple coming into the shop with stories of great lifetimes on their mattresses – the longest I ever heard was 23 years.
So that’s the major spring categories.
After that it is just a question of what padding is layered over this spring mechanism.
From more traditional cotton and horse hair, to memory foam and latex.
Memory foam maintains its popularity – and as the name suggests it holds the shape of your body. There are different layers of memory thickness and density that are applied – so when comparing make sure you are comparing like with like.
Latex is a rubber that we at Montana really like on mattresses. It is a little more expensive, but, from personal experience, it does the trick for this 15 stone lump.
Remember, though, from the previous post, the ‘best mattress’ is the one that lets you have a comfortable, good night’s sleep – and that really is different for every one of us. Let me know if you have any questions, always available here to help.
Cheers
Mark