FWIW...
Getting started
You should think about buying a new mattress if you wake up tired or achy, you tend to sleep better at hotels than at home, your mattress looks saggy or lumpy, you’re over age 40, or your mattress is five to seven years old. Use this mattress guide to help with your purchase.
Choose a size
Most sleepers shift positions during the night, and cramped quarters can keep them from moving freely. Standard mattress dimensions- are king, 76x80 inches; California king, 72x84 inches; queen, 60x80 inches; full, or double, 53x75 inches; and twin, 38x75 inches.
Consider an innerspring first
A conventional innerspring mattress is the most common choice and often the least expensive. Memory foam, which was developed to protect astronauts against g-forces, is heat-sensitive and conforms to your body. Tempur-Pedic is the big name, but there are other brands. Not all memory foam feels the same, and it can take time to get used to. Another option is an inflatable mattress; with this kind you can choose a different firmness for each half of the bed. Select Comfort is the major brand.
Decide where to shop
Buy at a store, not online or over the phone, unless you’ve already tried the identical mattress in a store. A product manager for Tempur-Pedic told us that more online customers return their mattresses than shoppers who buy in a store.
Department stores have frequent sales and lots of brands, but can be crowded, cluttered, and short on sales help. Bedding stores such as Sleepy’s and 1-800-Mattress, and furniture stores such as Seaman’s, offer plenty of variety and are often less crowded. We found the salespeople at these stores more attentive and sometimes more willing to bargain. Company stores selling only Duxiana or Select Comfort provided especially good service, because employees can afford to take time with customers. Queen-size sets cost about $4,000 to $7,000 at Duxiana (there’s no bargaining) and about $900 to $3,800 at Select Comfort (there are occasional sales).
One specialty bed we tested, Tempur-Pedic, is sold at a variety of stores, but we found that discounts were few and far between.
Understand the name game
Manufacturers usually modify innerspring mattresses for different sellers, changing the color, padding, quilting pattern, and so forth. Then each seller can call the mattress by a different name. Consumers are the losers. Since such mattresses are at least somewhat different, and the names vary, you can’t comparison-shop. (A big chain such as Sears or Bloomingdale’s has the same model names for the same beds at all of its stores, usually at the same price.)
Some mattress makers provide helpful information on their Web sites. Go to
www.simmons.com, for example, and you’ll find basic information about the company’s flagship Beautyrest lines, the Classic, World Class, and Exceptionale. You’ll see those names wherever you find Beautyrest, and all beds in each line share attributes.
Choose the right firmness
Don’t rely on names. One company’s ultraplush might be another’s supersoft. Orthopedists once recommended sleeping on an extremely firm mattress, but there’s little evidence to support that view. The best surface is purely subjective, says Clete Kushida, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research.
A study published in 2003 in the British medical journal Lancet suggested that people who suffer from lower back pain would benefit from a medium-firm mattress. That made sense to several experts we interviewed. If a mattress is too firm, it won’t support the body evenly and may cause discomfort at the heaviest points (hips and shoulders). If it’s too soft, a sleeper could sink into the surface and have a hard time moving, which could cause tingling, numbness, or aches.
Alan Hedge Ph.D., professor of ergonomics at Cornell University, noted that the best mattress supports the spine at all points while allowing it to maintain its natural curve. By age 40, Hedge said, skin loses elasticity and becomes more sensitive to pressure points, so a softer, more cushiony surface is more comfortable. “Slightly softer works better because there’s less compression on the skin.”
Do the 15-minute, in-store test
Don’t be embarrassed to lie down on lots of mattresses in the store. Salespeople expect it. Wear loose clothes and shoes that you can slip off. Spend at least 5 minutes on each side and on your back (your stomach too, if that’s a preferred position). Panelists who took beds home for a month-long trial rarely changed the opinion they formed after the first night. On the whole, their opinions were the same as those of our in-store testers.
Assess your need for a new box spring
Foundations can sell for as much as the mattress, even though they’re generally just a wood frame enclosing stiff wire and covered with fabric to match the mattress.
We found that companies frequently pair the same foundation with mattresses in different price ranges. You can save by buying a higher-priced mattress and a lower-priced foundation. Once the bed is made, no one will know. If your current foundation is only a few years old, with no rips, warps, creaks, or “give,” consider using it with a new mattress. If the old box has bouncy springs instead of stiff wire, it should be replaced.
If your new mattress is ultrathick, consider pairing it with a “low profile” foundation, 4 to 6 inches thick.
Be wary of ‘comparables’
If you like a mattress at one store and ask elsewhere for something similar, you’re likely to be steered toward a same-brand mattress that’s supposed to have the same construction, components, and firmness. It’s unlikely. Manufacturers don’t publish a directory of comparables. Retailers that claim to sell them, insiders say, generally snoop in competing stores and compile a list of beds that appear equivalent. But when we went to three bedding chains and asked for mattresses similar to those we’d bought at three department stores, five of the six mattresses were way off the mark. A two-sided mattress, for instance, was said to be comparable to a one-sided bed.
Look for a comfort guarantee
Some retailers give you two weeks to several months to return or exchange a mattress or box spring you don’t like. Everyone plays by different rules, and a return usually costs you. At Bloomingdale’s, you’re encouraged to keep a bed for 30 days; then you have seven days to return or exchange it, but you’ll pay for delivery plus 10 percent of the price up to $250. Sears doesn’t charge for returns or exchanges within 90 days.
Don’t count on warranties
They cover defects in materials and workmanship, not comfort or normal wear. They’re usually in effect for 10 years; Duxiana’s, Select Comfort’s, and Tempur-Pedic’s are in effect for 20. Some warranties don’t cover full replacement value; instead an annual usage charge is deducted from the current retail price.
When you make a claim, the store or manufacturer sends an inspector to your house. You’ll need to show a receipt. If you say the mattress has sagged, the inspector checks whether the dip is below the allowable limit, 1 1/2 inches. A company will void a warranty if you remove the “do not remove” tag, if the mattress is soiled, or if it has uneven support from a box spring or frame—a common reason for sagging, says Stan Steinreich, a Simmons spokesman.
Wait for a sale, and bargain
Specialty mattresses usually have a set price, but you can save at least 50 percent off list price for an innerspring. Ads for “blowout” sales make such events seem rare. They aren’t. If the price is good, buy; if not, wait. Our shopper spent $1,300 more for a Serta Perfect Sleeper set at one Sears store than for the same set at another Sears a week later.
An advertised “bargain” may not be all it seems, so read the fine print. A Bloomingdale’s flyer we saw touted 75 percent savings on mattresses, but a footnote revealed that the list price from which the discount was calculated “may not be based on actual sales.”
Have options at several stores
If you’re ready to shop elsewhere, you may be able to get a discount. When our reporter asked a salesman at a 1-800-Mattress showroom if there was a better deal at the company’s Web site, the salesman said he’d double the value of a $100 Internet coupon if the bed was bought at the store.
Seal the deal
Ask about disposal of your old mattress (some deliverers will take it to the curb, others charge to cart it away). Insist on a no-substitutions clause in the sales agreement, in case the bed you ordered is out of stock. When it’s delivered, look for damage, and request a replacement if necessary.
The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten, so build your teardrop with the best materials...
You can talk amongst yourselves and any input appreciated.
by fireaunt » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:26 pm 
Bought a Beauty Rest instead of a cheapy. It sags and is a back killer.........We hate it and it is too late to return. 
