Buying a Mattress

[mythbuster]

We need to replace the 20+ year old mattress in the guest room. The last time we bought a mattress, the SOP was to go to a mattress store, lie on a few and place an order.
   Looking now at Consumer reports  and other reliable sources, they all recommend online vendors. How do you choose one without being able to at least briefly test them out? MY big thing thing is motion isolation, since I sleep with a partner and pets. This is something you can easily test in a store. Also, no one sells a box spring anymore? It's a whole new world since we last did this.

Has anyone here bought a mattress recently- any advice?

[mahagonny]

Don't be hasty. Before you invest in a new one, sleep on it.

[clean]

I use a sleep number bed.
I have back issues, and being able to change the inflation level is like having a whole selection of mattresses.  There are still stores, and the primary selection will be the foam thickness.

I also have an adjustable base.  As I mentioned I have back issues and I once had to call the fire department to get me up.  The ambulance to the hospital was over $700 for a 2 mile trip! 
Now that I can adjust the base, I can have the bed sit me up. Once I am in a sitting position, I can stand up!  so the additoinal cost offsets the next ambulance ride! 

(Also I have a 'split king' which is really 2 long twin beds anchored together.  that way I can be flat, but My Bride can sleep elevated as that is her preference, so she isnt forced to be flat or worse, me forced to have an incline!

BUT IF this were a guest bed, I would not be so concerned. After all, how often will you have guests? If they dont sleep well, then they wont stay long!

[AvidReader]

Our last two mattresses we

a) bought from one of the big firms with "Mattress" in the title and tested in-store. This one is 10 years old and going strong.

b) bought from an online retailer with a 90-day satisfaction guarantee (but in our case, you can only buy other mattresses from the same company with the refund). We have had it 2 years and it is also very satisfactory.

The online mattress was about 40% the cost of the in-store mattress, so we figured we had 3 shots to get it right (assuming one free replacement if the first one were a dud) before we would be disappointed to have tried the online purchase. Your budget and preferences may vary. We did like the free delivery of the online mattress, and we did read a lot of reviews. Both are memory foam on firm bases rather than traditional mattresses on box springs, so nobody gets bothered by motion elsewhere on the bed.

AR.

[The Future]

A lot of these buy before you try mattresses come with 100% refund for a limited time.  I really really really want to get the Big Fig as my next mattress - this is one that you buy online and cannot try out in a store.  I would suggest asking people you are close to if they have ordered one without trying, if they liked it, and can they demo it for you (instead of you getting on it) - I know a little forward, but as I mentioned (people you are close to).  Sleep is a very important thing.  Perhaps you could ask a potential vendor too, if any hotels feature their mattresses.  I think years ago there was one company that was featuring their pillow-top mattresses at hotels.  YouTube videos also show demos.  Good luck. 

[paultuttle]

We bought our California king memory foam mattress (14" thick) for our platform bed from Costco Online. It had to be aired out for ~2-3 days (standing on edge in the hallway with a fan on it and another fan exhausting the outgassing) before the plasticky smell had dissipated enough for us to sleep on it.

It's great for (ahem!) sleeping, because it doesn't transmit vibrations when the other person rolls over or gets out of bed to go to the bathroom. The only problem is that it tends to hold heat and reflect it back on us, which causes issues in the summers because we both need to sleep with something covering us. Our "temporary" solution for the last seven summers: Turn the AC temps down to ~70 degrees F and pull a soft cotton sheet (me) or blanket (my hubby) over us so we can drift off into dreamland.

So if we were buying a mattress now, we'd likely be a bit pickier and pay the premium for a "cooling memory foam" mattress with matching "cool-touch" pillows (I've seen these advertised recently on TV and online ads from various stores). And I'd make very sure that we could also afford either high-thread-count cotton or those really soft bamboo sheets and pillowcases.

Because, y'know, you spend 1/3 of your life in bed.

[ohnoes]

Our "temporary" solution for the last seven summers: Turn the AC temps down to ~70 degrees F and pull a soft cotton sheet (me) or blanket (my hubby) over us so we can drift off into dreamland.

Costco has a little Woozoo fan that's great for sleeping because it oscillates up/down and left/right.  It's very quiet, has a timer, and has a little remote control.  Additional bonus: it looks like a baby Death Star.

[mythbuster]

Paultuttle, so you bought without being able to so much as sit on it first? This is the part that just stumps Mr. Buster and I. Maybe it's because we do science experiments for a living, but I can't imagine buying a mattress without being able to touch it first.
    I stopped by the Casper store on the way home yesterday and so tried them out. Horrible edge support, which means that the dog will likely destroy the thing too quickly.  They have been eliminated from contention. I also thought they were all a bit too squishy/soft. Even the one labelled firm.

[AJ_Katz]

I use a sleep number bed.
I have back issues, and being able to change the inflation level is like having a whole selection of mattresses.  There are still stores, and the primary selection will be the foam thickness.

I also have an adjustable base.  As I mentioned I have back issues and I once had to call the fire department to get me up.  The ambulance to the hospital was over $700 for a 2 mile trip! 
Now that I can adjust the base, I can have the bed sit me up. Once I am in a sitting position, I can stand up!  so the additoinal cost offsets the next ambulance ride! 

(Also I have a 'split king' which is really 2 long twin beds anchored together.  that way I can be flat, but My Bride can sleep elevated as that is her preference, so she isnt forced to be flat or worse, me forced to have an incline!

BUT IF this were a guest bed, I would not be so concerned. After all, how often will you have guests? If they dont sleep well, then they wont stay long!

We have a sleep number bed too.  It has been great for us. 

We had a leak we couldn't find recently and looked into replacing the bed.  WOW!  Prices have gone up.  But worse yet...  they've changed the control system on their beds so that the only way you can operate it is by using a smart phone!  What a joke.  I'm not going to mess around with that. 

Anyway, bottom line is, they are worth keeping and repairing. 

[AJ_Katz]

We need to replace the 20+ year old mattress in the guest room. The last time we bought a mattress, the SOP was to go to a mattress store, lie on a few and place an order.
   Looking now at Consumer reports  and other reliable sources, they all recommend online vendors. How do you choose one without being able to at least briefly test them out? MY big thing thing is motion isolation, since I sleep with a partner and pets. This is something you can easily test in a store. Also, no one sells a box spring anymore? It's a whole new world since we last did this.

Has anyone here bought a mattress recently- any advice?

Instead of buying a bed for our guest room, I bought two twin-sized air mattresses (21" tall), a padded cover, and their own sheet sets.  It was a great investment and makes it so that, most of the year, we can use the room for our own purpose and are not stuck with a bed in there.  I've had to sleep on one of the mattresses while in covid isolation in the house and found it quite comfortable.  I'd highly recommend considering this option.

[jerseyjay]

I believe the New Yorker had an article about buying a mattress earlier in the summer. I don't think it would help you, but I found it interesting.

[mamselle]

Yep:

   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/27/how-to-buy-a-new-mattress-without-a-phd-in-chemistry

M.

[apl68]

I didn't know that buying a mattress could be so fraught.  I've always figured that if it's not the floor I'm sleeping on, it's good.

[mamselle]

I actually don't use a mattress or a bed, haven't for years.

My back likes the floor.

M.

[ergative]

NYTimes's Wirecutter just did a thing on buying cheap mattresses.