I don't like the bedding portion of our furniture industry. As a category, its the sleaziest, most confusing, most misleading and borderline dishonest segment in home furnishings. Its mostly lies told upon other lies, to get you do buy THIS brand (fill in the blank) and for that reason I pretty much wash my hands of it, so I'm probably the wrong guy to ask. Nevertheless! I have an opinion, and since you did ask, here goes - I'm sure many disagree with what I'll post here but I've not seen anything over the years that would cause be to alter my opinion.

I will only carry premium hand-crafted bedding in my store. I have one brand and thats Royal-Pedic out of California. Together with Shifman beds out of New Jersey (whom I used to carry), they make the finest bedding in America. Its expensive and most people don't want to pay the price. But both brands are well made and can honestly last 15 to 20 years before replacement. A typical queen set in the all-cotton series from either maker will cost $ 2,500 or so, depending on the dealer.

The other option is to buy the basic hotel grade bedding from any of the majors such as Sealy, Simmons, Serta, King Koil, etc, and throw it away every three to four years. Conventional bedding does not last, period. Most people hang onto it far too long. The internal structure of the bed breaks down (not covered under warranty, despite the length of the warranty they may give you on paper) and what you will see in a bed occupied by two people is a ridge develop in the middle of the mattress. When the ridge no longer goes away with flipping the mattress, the bedding is used up and needs to be disposed of.

Hotels know this. Hotels also know if their beds are broken-down that customers won't stay with them, so they replace their bedding frequently - about every 24 to 36 months. That's why when so many people go on vacation they stay in a hotel and proclaim the beds are EXCELLENT! Well, they are really only sleeping on a mediocre grade of bedding but they do get replaced frequently - and that person that thinks the hotel beds are so good is typically sleeping on a used-up mattress at home.

I say go inexpensive (hotel grade bedding) and toss frequently or go to the top-line bedding and you have it function well for many years. The 'dead' zone where you don't want to be is conventional bedding all dressed up with fancy outer covers, lots of technical jargon, ludicrous warranties and price tags around $ 1,000. They don't last any longer than the hotel grade yet its hard to get folks to toss them when they're used up.

A nasty little secret in the bedding industry is that there are regional bedding factories that produce many brands of bedding off one production line. There will be a plant that might make King Koil beds in the morning, then shift the line to make Simmons beds in the afternoon. Change a few outer covers, maybe a spring grid and keep the line running. It takes a modern bedding factory 8 minutes to make a mattress....it takes Shifman or Royal-Pedic 8 hours to make a single mattress.

OK, now that I've opened up this hornet's nest, I'm sure others will have different opinions.

-Duane Collie

[Long silence as I take this all in.]
Thank you so much for that honest judgment -- it was really eye-opening to the uninitiated.

I guess I always assumed that, if a mattress was warrantied for 20 years, it should last for twenty years. We bought a pretty good Simmons eight years ago and, while it's not uncomfortable, it's not as wonderful as it was.

For my son, if I were to buy a name brand on "sale" for, say, $500-$600, would I be buying something comparable to what some of those unfamiliar-named brands sell for $300-$400? If it's not going to last more than four years or so, should I save the extra few hundred dollars and spend less? In three or four years he could afford to buy himself another mattress.

The thing to remember about bed warranties, is they cover defects in workmanship - not wear and tear. Beds fail from use, not from manufacturers defects. Most the time when a bed has defects its stitching that comes loose or a broken spring. Read the fine print on bed warranties and you will see there are so many exclusions that they are almost worthless. For example if the bed is soiled or has any body fluid stains at all, the warranty if void. If the bed shows body impressions, the warranty does not cover that, etc.

In a common factory bed from the major brands, there are layers of inexpensive foam (similar to the foam you see that is under wall-to-wall carpeting) laid up over springs. That foam eventually breaks down and loses its resiliency over time due to compression and moisture, so the foam interiors stay compressed and are degrading internally. The end result is the body impressions that won't come out, and the subsequent ridge in the middle of the mattress. A bed is used up when body impressions are 2" deep from the center.

This is why I like all-cotton bedding, as it doesn't have a foam interior that breaks down, plus its less likely to attract dust mites since its not breaking down, nor does it have the outgassing of petrochemical products (all foam-based beds have outgassing).

Yes, I would go into any mattress store and ask for a Hotel Grade bedding set, and pay no mind to the exterior covers or 'spring rates' or be misled by a warranty statement. Just get the base grade, give it to your son and then remember to toss the bed at some point (or move it to a guest bedroom) when it shows signs of breakdown.

Good luck!
Duane Collie

Thanks so much, Duane. You took a lot of time to give me a very thoughtful answer. At the very least, for my limited budget I'm gonna take the advice in your last paragraph.

Dear Duane:
Your comments about mattresses is 100% right on. I'm new to posting on line and find it a bit addictive. I will try to keep up with you and I am sure I can learn a thing or two on the way. Your knowlege appears to go far beyond Bore and Wedge bowbacks. I got out of the mattress business 20 years ago when one of the "S" started bribing my sales staff to sell only their brand. World war three nearly broke out on my sales floor.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://barnyardgazette.blogspot.com/

Duane:

Your input is wonderful.

I have been wanting a new mattress for a couple of years and each time I go shopping come home dazed and confused. Your explanation of being in the "dead zone" is what I have encountered in every store. All I see is the same stuff, wrapped up in different coverings. Then factor in the varitey of tops, i.e. pillowtop, eurotop, plush etc. it complicates matters even worse. I have learned by reading reviews that pillowtops are not a good idea.

Funny you should mention too that the life span of these things is less than 5 years as my theory yesterday after shopping for 3 hours was just buy the best deal I come across that feels comfortable and be prepared to replace it in 5 or so years. I am referring to Therapedic mattresses I saw for the first time and their "Therapudic Pure Touch" style with bamboo cotton covering and claims to be latex but the brochure on display shows a 7 inch "foam core" with only a couple of inches of Talaly foam for $1299 sale on a Queen. They also had the Therapedic Lloyd & Penfield style for $1499. This brand seemed different and more comfortable than the hundreds of Sealy and Sertas and the Beautyrest with the big pillow tops that look like a bad idea from the get go, but haven't heard much or seen this line elsewhere.

Do you have any knowledge of the Therapedic Line?
Thanks for your time and valuable opinions.

I'm not familiar with the Therapedic line, sorry.

Latex beds are often confused with foam beds. Pure latex is not a petro-chemical product, its derived from rubber trees and expensive to make, poured into the bed molds in liquified form. Royal-Pedic has pure latex lines and I'm shocked at how expensive they are ($ 3,200 and up for a Queen set- and I keep a set on display in my store), but apparently that's the cost to do them right. In an effort to keep prices down, you will see other makers doing what you describe and utilizing foam cores in the interior. While that may sound like a good idea to 'fill' the interior void, when that foam breaks down inside your mattress will fail. The more expensive exterior overlayment of pure latex is of no use when the core collapses.

I still have to go with my thoughts of High/Low on buying bedding..and stay out of the middle price ranges. If you don't want to buy in the over $ 2K + category, then stay in the simple base grades and don't try to get too many years from the bedding - replace frequently.

I do a decent business in Royal-Pedic and go on many of the home deliveries myself. I'm amazed at how 'used-up' most the old bedding is when we replace it and haul it out of the home. In most cases folks push it way-way past the normal lifespan of 5 years to 7 years for conventional bedding. People should have a comfortable bed for a good nights sleep yet there is a noticeable resistance to replacing mattresses or spending much money on one. They have a new $ 70,000 Mercedes in the driveway that will be lose $ 50,000 of value in five years, yet they won't spend $ 2,500 on a bedding set that they will sleep on 300 + nights every year for the next 15 years in comfort?

If you are allergy sensitive, look at All-Cotton bedding as they tend to perform well for folks bothered by chemical outgassing of conventional bedding, and they don't generate as much dust as the bedding ages. I also get a lot of calls for the 100 % organic 'Foxfire' line of bedding from Royal-Pedic from severe allergy sufferers, but folks need to know that FoxFire has no flame retardants in the bedding and would go up in flames immediately should a fire source be nearby. Always be aware of that risk when buying pure organic bedding - the fire retardants are in the bedding to give you time to get out of the bed rather then going up with it.

Get your kids a good bed too. It doesn't have to be expensive, the hotel grade of conventional bedding will suffice but toss it when its sinking after a few years. Kids need a supportive bed just like adults. In my home, we're all on Royal-Pedics, kids and grown-ups alike, though I'd own Shifman bedding as an viable alternative.

Use you head when shopping bedding. Don't listen to the sales pitches, and don't get caught up in the technical jargon of number of coils, the Point-of-Sale material, the 'chiropractor-recommended' nonsense, the no-flip builds (breaks down even faster), the ridiculous warranties that have no meat in them, and the fancy damask outer covers.

Get one that is comfortable, spend some time on it at the store, and make a promise to yourself to replace it when its fatigued and showing signs of breakdown.

Duane Collie

Duane, ( I am also visiting from the other k and d side of the forums)
That is what we have done in the past, and it is good to know that our instincts were correct about the sales pitch and hoopla. We were thinking that we should emphasis on should get a new better mattress since we are getting ahem, older and I have arthritis in my spine now. However,
you just saved me $$$ thanks