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Where to buy a great mattress without dealing with the shitty mattress industry?

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C

Colonel Mustard

Banned
Pickman said:
Wait for the next holiday and buy one at Sears. I got a fantastic mattress for half off with free delivery and a free box frame.
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Grats bud, you got ripped off.

Go to a specialty story, OP. Specifically one that's locally owned. Industry standard for margin is ~55%. Talk to the sales person, haggle. They'll take money off if the offer is reasonable (something places like Sears cants really do).

*Excludes Tempurpedic, they're unilaterally priced.
 
P

pelicansurf

Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
I got my mattress at bedinabox.com it's super awesome. If you need help shopping online though, www.sleeplikethedead.com is the website for you. It aggregates reviews from beds all over, plus their own personalized touch. It's what led me to bedinabox in the first place.

Good luck!
 
T

thoseAREmySHOES

Member
Damn, this thread may have inspired me to finally get a new mattress. The one I bought at an estate sale is, unsurprisingly, just not cutting it anymore.
 
F

flyover

Member
ReAxion said:
Anyone tried Casper yet? They ship it to you in a box.
Click to expand...

I just ordered one today, since I'm moving into a new place in a few weeks. They supposedly don't heat up too much (latex top layer, rather than foam) and are better for side sleepers than Tuft & Needle (which are pretty firm). Thought about some cheaper mattresses at Amazon, but this seemed the safest bet. Here's a decent video review.

Hoping for the best. If it's notably good or bad, I'll post here about it.
 
G

GalacticMouse

Member
If you live in the northeast, try Bob's Discount Furniture. They have a "Bob-O-Pedic" mattress that gives Tempur-Pedic a run for its money in comfort and durability...it's also reasonably priced at sub-$1,000 (Tempur-Pedics run well over $1,000). I know multiple people that have these and all of them love their mattress.

If you don't live in the northeast, I've had good luck at BJ's before. They carry some decent Sealy mattresses that I'm sure compare to higher-priced models at other furniture stores.

My current mattress I bought from a traditional mattress shop on Black Friday two years ago. It was a little confusing as there are a lot of choices and very little in the way of specs to compare, but we were comfortable with the price (~$500) we paid for what we were getting!

Good luck, OP!
 
W

Warm Machine

Member
A high end ikea one is worth it. Also Black Friday / Boxing Day at Sleep Country is normally worth it. You need to drop about 1k to get a great mattress.
 
C

clav

Member
flyover said:
I just ordered one today, since I'm moving into a new place in a few weeks. They supposedly don't heat up too much (latex top layer, rather than foam) and are better for side sleepers than Tuft & Needle (which are pretty firm). Thought about some cheaper mattresses at Amazon, but this seemed the safest bet. Here's a decent video review.

Hoping for the best. If it's notably good or bad, I'll post here about it.
Click to expand...

The thing about mattresses.

You can't really review them until years later because of longevity. You really don't know your purchase was worth it until you have owned it for a while.
 
T

Turbowaffles

Member
I need a new bed. Frame and everything. I've had the same single size bed for like 20 years. Never bought a bed/frame/mattress.

What the fuck do I do? Where the fuck do I go?! D:
 
F

flyover

Member
claviertekky said:
The thing about mattresses.

You can't really review them until years later because of longevity. You really don't know your purchase was worth it until you have owned it for a while.
Click to expand...

Okay, then I will return in several years with my initial thoughts on the Casper mattress. Nobody buy any new mattresses until then!
 
G

gcubed

Member
Stumpokapow said:
I would recommend against the mattress pad. I have a Tuft & Needle. It is firmer than average, yes, but their claim is that firmer than average mattresses lead to better sleep and less back pain, and so far I've found no reason to disagree. If they are correct, then trying to "fix" their product seems counterproductive--and if they're not correct, then buying their product to begin with seems like a bad idea. Just my two cents. My partner "doesn't like" firm mattresses, but I told her "can you just try this for a week and not complain and after the week if it's a problem, tell me and we'll get something else" and lo and behold, the complaint never came and she also hasn't whined about back problems since.

The other advantage of Casper or Tuft & Needle is that both have a no-questions-asked warranty, which compares favourably to the shitty "we will hassle you" warranty every other mattress brand has. Both also have no-questions-asked trial periods, so if you're scared to buy something that person-specific online, don't worry. The way T&N's works is that if you don't like the mattress, they find a local charity in your area to pick it up from you. You give the charity the mattress, the charity gives you a receipt, you take a picture for T&N, voila refund.
Click to expand...

awesome to hear, since the biggest issue with getting a mattress delivered is the insane cost to ship it back if you didn't like it... it kind of defeats the 90 day in house test if you need to pay $400 to return it
 
G

giga

Member
Note that Tuft and Needle recently increased their prices (from 10-25%) because they're using a new, more expensive type of foam in the top 30% layer of their mattresses now. A 10" queen, which was $500 before, is now $600.

They're also increasing their warranty (for both previous and new customers) from 7 to 10 years.

See the letter at the bottom of this review: http://jlcollinsnh.com/2014/10/26/tuff-needle-a-better-path-to-sleep/ Edit, here too: https://www.tuftandneedle.com/n/pricing-update-november-2014

Evan here from Tuft & Needle. I head up our customer experience and operations teams.

Thanks for raising this concern. We’re all about transparency as a company so here we go! I apologize in advance as this is an incredible amount of information. We just want to be as honest as possible and give you all of the details (something we should have been more proactive about in the first place.)

This past Tuesday, we started shipping a new version of our mattress. We’ve been working over the past year to develop a new type of foam. For years, the industry has had the same three options in foam: Memory Foam, Latex Foam and Poly Foam.

Before Tuesday, we used poly foam. All three have their pros and cons. And for years, mattress companies have tried to layer them on top of each other to realize the benefits of each. It honestly just doesn’t work.

While we used our poly foam, we heard a few complaints from customers. Not many, but they kept us awake at night none the less. So we set out to address these.

The new foam we’ve created is truly unique. We partnered with some of the best manufacturers in the United States and created it from scratch. We’re not big fans of gimmicky names but I can tell you that we are the only place that offers this new formulation.

The biggest innovation in the foam is that it is more comfortable for more people. If you have our current foam and find it comfortable, this foam wouldn’t feel like much of an improvement. But for anyone in the past who has returned our foam for being too firm or too soft, we’ve devised a way to provide different levels of comfort to different individuals. We’re now able to set the firmness for individuals of any weight, independent of each other.

The new foam also has a new technology we call localized bounce. Memory foam is great in that you won’t feel your partner moving around. The downside is that it feels like quick sand when you try to roll over. Our new foam is both responsive and pressure relieving. It’s like that old commercial where someone would put a wine glass on the bed and drop a bowling bowl on the other-side and the glass wouldn’t move. The only problem was the bowling bowl wouldn’t bounce. On our foam, it will.

The final innovation is better pressure relief. Again, for owners of our current foam who find it comfortable, they’re not missing out by not owning the new foam. But for the customers who chose to return their mattresses for being too firm, they would likely find our new foam to be extremely comfortable.

There are only two downsides to this foam. It’s heavier and it costs A LOT more to make. The heavier piece doesn’t have an impact on the consumer, except that the box it ships in is slightly heavier to lift when you first move it in. After that, it won’t have any impact on comfort. It’s also no heavier than a traditional mattress. It is heavier than our previous version though.

We’re using this foam on the top 30% of the mattress. Using it all the way through would cost way too much and does absolutely nothing for comfort (The same way a box spring has little to no impact on comfort level). Just how much more expensive is this new foam? It’s three times the cost of the old foam we were using.

The good news is that foam is only part of the cost of our mattress, and in this case, only 30%, of part of that cost, has increased in price by 3x. This is where you saw price increases of up to 25%

John Lynch also made a good point that our King Size mattress price increased more than the rest, up to 25%. The reason for this is the increase in weight was most profound on our king size mattress. FedEx (and UPS) charge us based on three factors when shipping a mattress. How much it weighs, how much space (cubic volume) it occupies and how far it travels. The king size mattresses now cost more to ship than our old king size mattresses. And the increase in price related to shipping was much more expensive for the King size mattresses than the rest.

All of this is a long way of saying that our price increase only reflects our increased cost for making this new product.

Some people might argue that this is still our fault for not setting our prices with enough cushion in the first place to handle increasing costs of manufacturing. Or that if we were developing this product over the course of the year, we could have slowly introduced price increases over time.

We whole-heartedly disagree. One of our core values as a company is to charge fair and transparent pricing. It would be completely unfair (in our opinion) to charge our customers a higher price before this new product arrived. We wanted to ensure that only those individuals who got our new foam, paid a higher price.

So to address your specific concerns, we’ve operated our company with the same margin since we started. It’s modest and is enough to cover our costs, pay our employees competitive wages, manufacture in America and continue to innovative on our product.

Our goal was never to create the cheapest product. It was to create a product of superior value. We’re not blind to the fact that this was a significant price increase. That being said, our goal from day one has been to make the best mattress in the world, at a fair price. We truly believe that this new version is a major step in reaching that goal.

We back all of this up with our 30 day return policy. You can return the mattress for any reason at absolutely no cost to you. No questions asked.

Next week, we will also be announcing that we are increasing our warranty to 10 years. This will apply to new as well as existing customers. We stand behind the quality of our mattress and are always looking for ways to increase the value we provide to consumers.

I hope this helps provide some clarity on why we chose to increase our prices. We really do appreciate your feedback and if we’re putting ourselves in your shoes, we agree these price increases are a bit shocking. We apologize for not being more in front of this and explaining all of this reasoning to our customers in the first place. With the information available, your conclusions were fair and warranted.

If you have any other questions, we’re always standing by. You can email myself or our cofounders and we’d be happy to discuss it in more detail. evan@tuftandneedle.com, jt@tuftandneedle.comor daehee@tuftandneedle.com.

I said it before but I want to re-iterate that we’re grateful for your feedback. Our customers have called us out before (why are your products $299 and not $300) and we’re only better because of it.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
What box spring do you get for foam matresses?
Click to expand...
I just got this wood frame and slats from ikea and didn't bother with a box spring: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S29930097/
 
C

Ceebs

Member
oh hey a mattress thread.

I ordered a Casper recently and have been sleeping on it for about a week now. Thought I would throw out some impressions.

For starters, the mattress is way firmer than you would ever believe. I was kinda shocked at first. As for sleeping on it, night one was pretty awful, I had a hard time getting to sleep.
Just a few days in however and I am totally used to it now though and falling asleep almost as soon as I lay down. My back already feels a hundred times better as well compared to how I would feel at times sleeping on my old spring mattress. It is warmer than a normal mattress though, so if their claim to be a cooler foam mattress is true I would hate to see how the others fare.

So yeah, reasonably happy so far with it.

As for box springs on a foam mattress, you don't need them unless you just really want to sleep higher up. I have mine sitting straight on the floor.(I can't decide on a new bed to buy since I went up a size)
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
I'm dealing with this shit now. I got a memory foam mattress ten months ago and I am not happy with it. I've realized I need something a lot more firm. I also hated how it held heat, and I prefer to sleep cool. I replaced it with a regular pillowtop mattress a week ago and it turned out to not be nearly as firm as I thought it was....I wake up in the middle of the night sunken in to the mattress a lot more than when I first laid on it. My back has been killing me. This is so frustrating.
 
G

giga

Member
demon said:
I'm dealing with this shit now. I got a memory foam mattress ten months ago and I am not happy with it. I've realized I need something a lot more firm. I also hated how it held heat, and I prefer to sleep cool. I replaced it with a regular pillowtop mattress a week ago and it turned out to not be nearly as firm as I thought it was....I wake up in the middle of the night sunken in to the mattress a lot more than when I first laid on it. My back has been killing me. This is so frustrating.
Click to expand...
Try the tuft and needle talked about above. It's not memory foam.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Acrylic7 said:
why not?
Click to expand...

Well, I currently have a slatted bed, but even if I didn't, it's not clear to me exactly what a boxspring does nor have I ever noticed a difference between the times I've had one and the times I haven't. Maybe when I'm ancient and need my bed four feet off the ground to get out of bed safely, I'll change my mind?
 
J

Jenov

Member
speculawyer said:
Costco.

IKEA?
Click to expand...

Oh god no. I just returned an IKEA mattress because of how horrible it was. Definitely recommend against getting one there. The beds in the IKEA showroom are nothing like what you'll be delivered. Customer service claims it's because people sit on them all the time (no shit). but the difference between showroom and real product was a rock, and I ordered the 2nd to highest priced one they had. On top of that, their return policy is horrid, they'll only give you store credit and not a full refund. Stay away from IKEA mattresses.

I ended up going with Bed in a Box for the superior return policy (60-120 day no-hassle, full return). It's going well so far, the bed is soft enough for a side sleeper like me. I was tempted by the DreamFoam Latex from Amazon, but got scared away by the lackluster return policy...

I think your best bet is to start with a company that has good reviews AND a great return policy (full refund, they'll eat cost on shipping and won't make you repack the bed). I think only a few companies do this: Casper, Bed in a Box, Tuft and Needle? Do your research and don't get burned on a return like me! Good luck.
 
Acrylic7

Acrylic7

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Well, I currently have a slatted bed, but even if I didn't, it's not clear to me exactly what a boxspring does nor have I ever noticed a difference between the times I've had one and the times I haven't. Maybe when I'm ancient and need my bed four feet off the ground to get out of bed safely, I'll change my mind?
Click to expand...

The way my bedframe is I think I need one. Also my mattress doesn't stay solid at the bottom.

How many people here dont recommend box springs?
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
Darn, you people and your fancy mattresses and crazy bed-purchasing habits.

From when I started using a bed until I was like 14, I used a hand-me-down bed that had been my mother's when she was a child.

Then, when I was 14, I got a new twin-sized bed. I continued using that until...

Last week, when at 31 I finally got a new full-sized bed.
Woo! Moving up in the world!



Alright, that's not completely accurate...
My wife and I did share a king-sized bed from 2008-2011...
Frankly, I got more space in the twin-sized bed than the shared king-sized bed though >.>



Oh yeah, for brand, don't even remember, Seely I think, paid like $700 or something at Sleepy's.
Yeah, I probably paid a bit much, but, meh. New bed!
 
G

giga

Member
Acrylic7 said:
The way my bedframe is I think I need one. Also my mattress doesn't stay solid at the bottom.

How many people here dont recommend box springs?
Click to expand...
I recently stopped using one. Unless you like your bed high, I no longer see the point in one.
 
X

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
terrisus said:
Darn, you people and your fancy mattresses and crazy bed-purchasing habits.

From when I started using a bed until I was like 14, I used a hand-me-down bed that had been my mother's when she was a child.

Then, when I was 14, I got a new twin-sized bed. I continued using that until...

Last week, when at 31 I finally got a new full-sized bed.
Woo! Moving up in the world!



Alright, that's not completely accurate...
My wife and I did share a king-sized bed from 2008-2011...
Frankly, I got more space in the twin-sized bed than the shared king-sized bed though >.>



Oh yeah, for brand, don't even remember, Seely I think, paid like $700 or something at Sleepy's.
Yeah, I probably paid a bit much, but, meh. New bed!
Click to expand...

You and your wife shared a twin?
 
Machine

Machine

Member
I'd like a new mattress. Biggest problem for me is disposing of the old mattress and box spring. Local stores will deliver the new one and take the old one away but if you order online, you have to figure out disposal yourself. I can't just walk it out to the dumpster and leave it there because the condo association will just tell me to fuck off.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
Machine said:
I'd like a new mattress. Biggest problem for me is disposing of the old mattress and box spring. Local stores will deliver the new one and take the old one away but if you order online, you have to figure out disposal yourself. I can't just walk it out to the dumpster and leave it there because the condo association will just tell me to fuck off.
Click to expand...

Cut it up into small pieces and put a couple out each week?...
>.>
Alright, that sounded kind of creepy...
<.<
 
W

Watcher

Member
so ive been sleeping on a shitty mattress for years now, this thread has convinced me to buy a new mattress. Cant decide between the casper or tuft. I would prefer something slightly firm for my back(back and neck problems galore) Can anyone who owns either of these chime in with more thoughts? thanks in advance
 
J

Juice

Member
Haha I love when my threads get an epic bump.

My dreamfoam has deteriorated a little bit just like my northwestern buddy. I'm still cool with it for a couple years at least though
 
B

BruceLeeRoy

Banned
I was in Thailand for an extended period last summer and tried out a typical Thai pad which is basically like sleeping on a wood floor with an inch of cushion. I was really wary of it but after 3 weeks it gave me a whole new belief system to what is best for my body. I never woke up stiff either in my neck or lower back. I had solid uninterrupted sleep. Now that im shopping for a new matress I'm going with the firmest thing I can find
 
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