From Consumer Reports:
Mattress sets
Once you've settled on the firmness and size you're most comfortable with, compare quality details and price from brand to brand and store to store.
If you think shopping for a car is an ordeal, try shopping for a mattress. Sure, you can lie down on a mattress, maybe even take it home for a 30-day "test drive." But try to peek at its innards and you'll be thrown out of the showroom. Worse still, while a Ford Taurus is a Ford Taurus nationwide, the names of essentially identical mattresses--called "comparables" by the industry--often differ from store to store. Independent bedding shops typically offer mattress sets from manufacturers' national lines. Major chains such as Macy's and Sears and telephone-order sources such as Dial-A-Mattress sell mattresses from the same manufacturers' lines but with names unique to the chain. Comparables are supposed to share basic components, construction, and firmness but may differ in color, fabric pattern, or quilting stitch. Consumers are the losers, since they can't comparison shop. This name game allows retailers to vary the price of similar mattresses by hundreds of dollars.
WHAT'S AVAILABLE
Sealy, Serta, and Simmons account for nearly three out of every four mattresses sold, but there are more than 35 other brands. The big makers offer no-frills models, but most people are more familiar with their flagship lines: Sealy Posturepedic, Serta Perfect Sleeper, and Simmons Beautyrest. You can buy a mattress filled with water, foam, or air, but innerspring mattresses--named for their coiled steel springs sandwiched between layers of padding--remain the most widely purchased type. The padding, usually identical on top and bottom so you can flip the mattress, is generally made of several materials, including polyurethane foam, puffed-up polyester, or cotton batting. Mattresses used to be about 7 inches deep. Now they can range from 9 to 18 inches. If you buy a thicker mattress than what you have now, you may have to buy sheets with deeper pockets or corners.
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Most stores have a cutaway or cross-section of at least some of the mattress sets on display. Here??s what you should look for and ask about:
Ticking is a mattress??s outermost layer. On most models, the ticking is polyester or a cotton-polyester blend. Low-end mattresses may have vinyl ticking, which can eventually stretch and sag. Fancier mattresses have damask ticking with the design woven into the fabric, not printed on it. Some also contain a bit of silk, which is more a marketing gimmick than any substantial benefit.
In most cases, quilting attaches a few layers of padding to the ticking. Stitch design varies and is largely an aesthetic consideration. Make sure stitches are uniform and unbroken; broken threads can allow the fabric to loosen and pucker. Top padding is generally polyurethane foam, with or without polyester batting. Batting provides a uniform, soft feel but tends to lose its loft faster than does a soft foam.
Middle padding lies below the quilted layer and often starts with foam. Convoluted foam, shaped like an egg carton, feels softer than a straight slab of the same type of foam, and it spreads your weight over a wider surface area, which should make you more comfortable. Soft, resilient foams feel almost moist to the touch. Foams that feel dry or crunchy won??t spring back as readily. Other padding often consists of garnetted cotton (thick wads of rough batting that provide loft but compress quickly) and more foam of varied thickness and density. In some mattresses, firmness differs from area to area. One side may be firmer than the other, or a middle section may be firmer than the head or foot. A "test nap" is the only way to tell if a mattress is right for you.
Insulation padding lies directly on the springs and prevents you from feeling them. Commonly used bedding insulators include "coco pad," the fibrous matter from a coconut husk, and ??shoddy pad,? pieces of fabric that are matted and often glued together. Coco pad, especially in more than one layer, makes a mattress stiffer. Plastic webbing, nonwoven fabric, or a metal grid directly atop the springs can help keep them from chewing up the pad above.
Extra support is added to certain areas--at the edge, say, so you have a solid place to sit when you tie your shoes. If you want extra support at the head, foot, sides, or center, ask whether the mattress beefs up those areas by means of more closely spaced coils, slabs of stiff foam inserted between the coils, thicker wire, or extra springs.
Coils are the springs that support you. While coil design doesn??t affect a mattress??s ability to withstand use and abuse, it does shape the bed??s overall "feel." The wire in springs comes in a range of thicknesses, or gauges. As a rule, the lower the gauge number, the thicker and stiffer the wire and the firmer the mattress. The higher the gauge number, the thinner the wire and the softer the mattress.
Handles let you reposition the mattress on the box spring. They??re not meant to support its full weight, which is why most warranties don??t cover broken handles. Best are handles that go through the sides of the mattress and are anchored to the springs. Next best are fabric handles sewn vertically to the tape edging of the mattress. Most common is the weakest design: handles inserted through the fabric and clipped to a plastic or metal strip.
The foundation, or box spring, can be a plain fiberboard-covered wooden frame, a wooden frame containing heavy-gauge springs, or even a metal frame with springs. A plain wooden frame, usually found with cheaper sleep sets, is adequate only if the wood is straight and free of cracks. Placing a mattress atop a plain wooden frame can make the mattress seem harder than it actually is. Corner guards help keep the foundation??s fabric from chafing against the metal corners of the bed frame.
HOW TO CHOOSE
Performance differences. A firmer mattress won't resist permanent sagging better than a softer mattress. A thicker mattress sags more than a thinner mattress. And because all the permanent compression is within the padding layers, not the springs, more padding equals more potential for sagging.
Recommendations. The only way to judge mattress comfort is to try out a variety of brands and models in the store. (If you buy by phone, of course, you'll have to do your testing at home--after having made sure you can exchange an unsatisfactory mattress.) A good mattress will gently support your body at all points. Although we could find no published scientific data on which type of mattress is best, orthopedic experts generally recommend the firmest mattress that you find comfortable.
Never pay list price for a mattress. Sales are common, and deeper savings are often possible if you bargain. If you spend at least $450 for a twin-size mattress set, $600 for a full-size, $800 for a queen-size, and $1,000 for a king-size, you can get a high-quality, durable product. Spending more for a mattress gets you thicker padding, damask ticking, and perhaps a pillowtop--a cushion on both sides of the mattress that's filled with foam, wool, silk, or a down blend. Mattress-by-phone businesses usually offer rock-bottom prices, especially if you persist in seeking low quotes, but you buy the bedding unseen and untried. Be sure you can exchange it.
When you buy a mattress, buy a box spring, too; they perform as a unit. Putting a new mattress on an old box spring could void your warranty.
