Lord of the Mattresses

It is kind of embarrassing to admit, but in the year after getting married we owned six mattresses.  If that is not bad enough, they were all Cal Kings.  The average price of these beasts was $1,000 but fortunately didn’t drop 6 Gs into the mattress.  I’m not one to take advantage of the system, but picking a mattress is tough work and I’ll share my story to help make a better next purchase.

Our mattress saga

Costco had a sale on mattresses so I bought a Luxury Plush firmness one which was Mattress #1.  It worked for a little bit but then we found it ultra soft.  So we put the mattress on top of my dad’s truck and returned it to Costco.  Finding it so soft we jumped to Extra Firm, big mistake.  That one was too hard, which is funny now if you recall the picture of my piece of foam on wood in Taiwan.  Back through the exit of Costco where everyone stares at you because the receipt checker has to stop the outflows of people so your double-wide cart can fit through.  On the first trip, they sent me back out to wrap it in plastic. The following two times I knew to wrap it up first.  Next, Costco’s Firm and final chance was delivered to our house and we liked Mattress #3.  Skip forward a few months and we still liked it but we noticed it starting sagging on my petite wife’s side.  So as you can imagine back to Costco and hope I don’t get kicked out.  Mattress #4 was a foam one from Tuft & Needle which returned because my wife woke up super tired daily after 9+ hours of sleep.  Mattress #5 was a foam from Leesa and I don’t even remember what the issue was, but in order to get a refund we were able to donate it.  Finally, we went to Sears and Macy’s and tried a bunch of mattresses and then went online where they sell the same BeautyRest mattresses under different names, but really, they are the same.  This was a tough choice because we got it from US-Mattress which did not have a money-back policy but allowed exchanges.  So we pulled the trigger on Mattress #6 and it has been great for over a year now.  So what did the princess and the pea get you may wonder? Well, it was a Simmons Beautyrest Recharge Lydia Manor II Luxury Firm which has a Comfort Score of 3.5 (1 for ultra hard and 10 for ultra soft).  I can’t tell you what you will like but I can provide some suggestions.

Lessons

• Laying on a mattress for ten minutes isn’t going to help you pick the perfect one.  I found that once we sleep a week on something we could determine whether it was alright or whether we wanted something firmer or softer.
• Don’t buy something that you can’t return or lacks a warranty.  Costco took back our mattresses because we couldn’t sleep well on it.
• Get something you like because you will use it every day.  People will upgrade to a new iPhone for $800 but balk at buying a mattress that will last many years longer.  It may be a sad truth that some of you use your iPhone more, but that is all the more reason to get a good night’s sleep.

Conclusion and your choices

We ended up with a traditional mattress, but a foam one worked pretty well.  I can’t tell you what you will like, but I can inform you about some of your choices.  A traditional mattress can run from a few hundred to $7,500+ for a Duxiana.  For a traditional mattress, I’d recommend Costco or US-Mattress.  As for foam, there are so many mattress startups out there now in the business of providing a good sleep at a decent price and often without sales tax.  With a foam mattress startup you are not inundated with choices so choose your size and there may be an option for firmness.  Below I will give you many choices for mattresses.  To standardize the comparison I will use a Queen sized mattress, if you want a King it is usually $100 more.  If I could find a coupon code, and often you can, I subtracted it from the price of the mattress.  I chose companies which are under $850 and have one product, though perhaps a few firmness levels, and offer at least a 100-day money-back trial with free shipping and returns.  If they list philanthropic causes I will also list them here.

Aviya: $825, 100-day trial, 10-year warranty, 3 firmness levels

BrooklynBedding: $715, 120-day trial, 10-year warranty, 3 firmness levels

Cravemattress: $500 and up, 100-day trial, 10-year warranty, 3 firmnesses levels at different prices

Dromma: $800 , 200-day trial, 12-year warranty, 2 firmness levels

Leesa: $815, 100 day-trial, 10-year warranty, plant a tree and donates 1/10 mattress for each sale

LiveandSleep: $700, 100 day-trial, 20-year warranty

Nolah: $775, 120-day trial, 15-year warranty, purchase helps adopt an imperiled animal