Mattress Ratings And Reviews

Advertisements from Kingsdown claim that the Body System beds designed by it take due consideration of the individual’s body contours and provide the needed support and comfort. Such a claim from the manufacturers of traditional inner spring mattresses seems rather surprising in the light of comfort and support that could be provided by newer variety of mattresses like memory foam, offered by Tempur Pedic.

For almost a hundred years, ever since the company started operations, all its mattresses conform to the traditional inner spring design. Till date, the company has not diversified to include any other design of mattresses like pocket coil, water, air, and memory foam mattress.

Let’s check how does the mattress fares compared to other available mattresses and if it really provides the required comfort and support needed for a comfortable relaxed sleep as it claims.

As already pointed out, the Body System mattress is an innerspring mattress, meaning all its coils are interconnected. The manufacturer employs coils made of high tempered steel. It is noteworthy that the company doesn’t manufacture its own coils and procures these along with other hardware needed for making a mattress. But that doesn’t imply that the manufacturer uses inferior quality of products. It’s quite a common practice with many manufacturers to outsource all the raw materials. Companies like Stearns and Foster, making their own coils, produce very expensive mattresses.

Every manufacturer maintains that it’s the design and the technology employed for making mattresses that distinguishes its product from other makes available in the market. Kingsdown has been in business for long and has evolved its own designs from the experience gained over so many years. They make use of computer technology to keep their manufacturing process updated and thus offer top quality product. The Body System mattress is produced in various configurations to accommodate any size or shape the sleeper.

And, Kingsdown makes sure to provide arrangements enabling the user to choose the best mattress. The company employs a computerized system called the Dormo-Diagnostics Sleep Machine that has been compiled from data collected from sleep research carried out on millions of users. The customer is required to fill out a questionnaire and just lies down on the machine and in less than a minute the machine takes the profile of the customer. Subsequently, a sleep profile gets printed suggesting the customer the most appropriate mattress for their use.
Well, some may still argue that the results from the computer employed won’t be accurate to suggest the perfect mattress, but let’s face the hard fact and accept that computers are widely employed to design and offer solution for buying many items.

It will not be wrong to conclude that the Kingsdown Body System is as good or bad as any of its competitors like the Sealy Posturepedic mattress or the Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress. All of them employ almost the same technology, using similar materials and design. What gives it an edge is the use of computer technology to assess the precise requirements of the user and suggest an appropriate mattress.

Amongst the mattress manufacturers, Sealy is a highly renowned name and has been available for a very long time, perhaps longer than most other names. Many reviews reward them a fairly good score. The overall opinion is that it’s a good quality mattress, though overpriced to some extent. So what’s the worth of your money if you buy a Sealy Posturepedic mattress?

First of all, Sealy Posturepedic does not mean one kind of a mattress. It’s more of a generic term used for a range of the company’s mattresses. The one thing common to all these mattresses is the inclusion of the Sealy Comfort System, comprising of these elements: most advanced inner spring available that provides correct orthopedic support, advanced Comfort Materials and UniCased Edge Design.

Here’s a very interesting feature of mattress manufacturing. Every mattress manufacturer claims that the springs needed in their mattresses are the best available but the fact of the matter is that most of the renowned cheap mattress companies (there may be odd exceptions) depend on the same one company for their requirement of coils, the Leggett and Platt, for their highest-end mattresses down to their lowest. Then we have manufacturers who claim to position their coils in such a manner that give you the best orthopedic support – I t simply means that they use more number of coils, or coils of thicker gauge beneath the shoulder and hip area.

The Sealy Posturepedic mattress includes a UniCased Edge Design, making it firmer around the edges so that your weight can’t push the mattress out sideways, thus providing you more support. I don’t find this to be a unique feature as most of the quality mattresses do have some sort of support at the edges.

The company suggests that while buying a Sealy Posturepedic you also get the box spring set that goes with the mattress, which acts like a big shock absorber, providing still more comfort to the user. But that explanation is a bit difficult to understand. Why have springs on top of springs? The coils in the mattress are certainly expected to be good enough to provide the needed comfort and support. The inclusion of extra coils seems to be superfluous, simply adding to the cost of the final product and generating more revenue for the manufacturer. Most Europeans employ platform beds without any box spring set – and we hardly ever hear them complaining about inadequate support or comfort.

The company maintains that it uses hypoallergenic and flame resistant materials, but so do all the companies!

Primarily there are three models of the Sealy Posturepedic range; the Posturepedic, the features of which are described above; the Body Series, which is said to be the most luxurious of the entire range; and the Reserve Collection that comes with a memory foam layer on top of the mattress.

If you find the above review of Sealy Posturepedic to be insufficient, you can have additional detailed reviews on the net and from many others who already purchased the mattress. Most hole the opinion that the mattress is pretty comfortable, though somewhat expensive.

Probably there are not many well-known companies such as Serta, Simmons and Tempurpedic, Restonic, producing mattresses that compete in terms of quality and cost. Moreover, the company produces most of the important types of mattresses that go to include innerspring, air, memory foam and latex. That’s something that not all big players can offer. Nevertheless, principally its business continues to be innerspring and here’s a review of the ComfortCare mattress from Restonic.

Perhaps just to maintain their survival in the competitive market, Restonic has had no option but to follow some of the latest technical innovations in producing specialist mattresses. And, that seems to have helped it cornering a big share of the market of certain kinds of mattresses. For example, at present it offers an air mattress as well as the Restonic Sleep Odyssey Magnet mattress. Simmons too offers the Luxaire air mattress, but none of the renowned manufacturers offers a magnetic mattress.

Quite like any other manufacturer, their main business continues to be the innerspring mattress and at present it offers the Restonic ComfortCare mattress. There’s a lot of twisted terminology, including meaningless terms and confusing words, though one can’t be sure if it’s intentional or the result of marketing hype. Anyway, here’s an attempt to make sense of what the consumer actually gets.

The manufacturers of ComfortCare claim to have developed their own ‘Marvellous Middle System’, designed to offer an additional 25% support in the middle of the mattress where it’s needed the most. There is nothing new in that as all quality innerspring mattresses are built with more springs in the middle. The Sealy Posturepedic mattress is equally guilty in puzzling the consumer. It claims that their Posturepedic offers correct orthopedic support that senses body motion and responds with improved support – as if the mattress had an onboard computer!

A new term that Restonic uses is the ’5-Zone Sleep System’. It simply means that springs are tactically aligned to offer the best support to areas like hips, neck and shoulders. Likewise, the other manufacturers use the term ‘correctly aligned’ springs.

What appeals is the SpiraLok Technology employed in the Restonic mattress. On the whole, it’s a stiff steel weave to hold the coils together. The manufacturer claims that it reduces transferring of motion, thus causing reduced disturbance to partner. In total contrast, the Simmons Beautyrest mattress employs pocketed coils wherein springs are not joined together but kept separate in their own fabric pocket. So, which is the correct methodology? I fail to understand how the deployment of a traditional innerspring mattress can reduce transferring of motion; pocketed coils help but they have shortcomings. The only way to eliminate disturbance caused due to the movement of one partner is to go for either latex or a memory foam mattress – both of which are offered by Simmons and Restonic.

Companies coin their own different words to describe the edges of mattresses. For instance, Restonic mentions using ‘Super Edge Plus Technology’ to ensure a firm edge; Sealy uses ‘Unicased Edge Design’; and Serta claims to be employing ‘Advanced Encasement Design’. Basically, they all are telling you the same thing- use of high-density foam encased around the edges of the mattress to cover the springs.

So, what makes the Restonic mattress different from other makes? Well, as far as springs and materials are concerned, it’s no different really. We are aware that 90% of mattresses are produced using springs from just one manufacturer. Simply put, irrespective of the brand you buy, the mattress is sure to have the same springs. Of course, the number of springs used may vary, but again all quality mattresses incorporate almost the same number.

All manufacturers are equally responsible for offering apparently different variety of mattresses, adding to the confusion of the consumers. The names of mattresses offered by different retailers may vary but the mattresses essentially remain the same. Restonic ComfortCare mattresses are available in three basic models; Firm; Plush and EuroTop, with Firm being the hardest and EuroTop being the softest.

Personally, having used both, a Sealy Posturepedic mattress and a Restonic, I couldn’t say for sure, which of the two was more comfortable. Further, I conducted some research involving users who bought and used both; it was impossible to ascertain which proved better in the long term.

Restonic mattress had one better feature and that was its price, just marginally lower than the other brand. Though ComfortCare is a fine mattress that certainly offers value for money, I wouldn’t award it the label of being the best innerspring available in the market.

Serta is better known for its most sold mattress, The Perfect Sleeper Mattress. The company swears by the comfort it provides and maintains it offers vale for money. Let’s see how true the claims of the manufacturer are.

Serta is considered to be the second most renowned brand of mattress and known to have lowest return rate in this business. And the Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress continues to maintain its status of a best seller. That’s all fine, but it is manufactured using the same techniques and materials that the mattress industry has been patronizing for the last so many years. There is an apprehension that other manufacturers offer a similarly produced mattress at lower prices, and then there are other producers who offer technically superior mattress at prices in line with that of Perfect Sleeper mattress. Here’s a closer look to better understand the difference in two.

Ultimately, the quality of any product, mattress included, is governed by the quality of raw materials used for making it and its design. Manufacturing of any Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress employs continuous wire coil with head to toe helical design and has more than 1500 coils. Going by the industry standard, that’s quite high, a number. Many a time the limitations of continuous wire coil have been realized and are considered almost obsolete. The reported drawbacks of this item include providing inadequate postural support and the disturbance caused to one partner as the other partner shifts in bed. Latest materials like pocket springs, latex and memory foam reportedly overcome all those problems. Yet, the newer mattress too has its own drawbacks. Pocket spring mattresses are known to remain excellent in the beginning, but the springs soon wear out leaving dunks in the mattress. Latex mattresses are not so long lasting as traditional mattresses. The feel of memory foam is quite different from traditional spring mattresses; something many people don’t feel comfortable with. There are many who sleep most comfortably on a continuous coil mattress and Serta, apart from using more than average coil count in the mattress, also make coils from the best grade of steel.

The coil is further intricately covered by 5 zone high-density foam. It also has a fire blocker insulator. An edge support system forms a part of any Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress. The purpose of providing durable edge is to make it last longer, extend the sleeping surface and prevent roll-off’.

The mattress top is finished with Advanced Comfort Quilt. This gives the mattress very pleasing looks and also facilitates ventilation to keep the body cool.

Of course, there are competitors offering comparable mattresses at lower prices, but before you buy any mattress you should be aware of what goes into the making a mattress. Some of the features you should know and compare while buying a mattress are the coil count, density of foam used and ticking and quilt (check if it’s 100%cotton or a cheaper alternative).

Having known all the plus points of Serta Perfect Sleeper, it’s worth knowing its drawbacks too. This being a spring mattress certainly needs to be flipped regularly, else it begins to sag. Now, it’s a heavy mattress, making flipping quite a task, especially for frail people or those having issues of backache. Though Serta Perfect Sleeper comes with a warranty of ten years, customers have complained that the company refused to honor it at times, and claimed that the sagging and lumps appeared because of improper use.

On the whole, the Serta Perfect Sleeper remains a good mattress made to the best standards. If you prefer latex or memory foam Serta also offers the same, but personally I would recommend a Tempur Pedic mattress. The Serta Perfect Sleeper would be the ideal choice for those who better like continuous coil mattresses.