What should I know when shopping for a Mattresses?

Mattress shopping can be a very difficult and exhausting experience. Here at Bradley's, we try and break the process down to make it easier to choose the right bed based on your sleep pattern and budget. As always, feel free to speak with a sleep specialist by email or over the phone: Orders@SaltLakeMattress.com or 801-484-1007
 
Category:
The easiest way to group mattress categories is by separating Innersprings and Innerspring Hybrids, Memory and Gel Foams (99% of these are half Memory or Gel and half Polyeurethane Foam), Latex Foams (either half Latex and Half Polyeurethane or 100% Latex), and Latex Foam Hybrids. Innersprings and Innerspring Hybrids are the most common and least expensive mattress on the market (one exception is an all polyerethane foam mattress which can be even cheaper but usually is only for kid's beds as their lifespan is only 1-3 years). Better quality "Connected Coil" innersprings with re-enforcements on edges and the center of the mattress will usually last 8 or more years but many of the pocketed coil units used today has a lifespan of closer to 3-5 years before significant loss of support is noticed. Even the best springs put pressure against the shoulder and hip area which for back and side sleepers can lead to poor spinal alignment and discomfort (Usually stomach sleepers do well on firmer innersprings). All Foam mattresses have now helped millions of sleepers to sleep with less back and hip pressure and greater conformity but the popular memory foam beds on the marketplace have significant drawbacks such as chemical off-gassing and poor heat displacement. We recommend Latex Foam Hybrids or All-Foam Latex Mattresses for everyone in that they are the most pressure relieving, most breathable, most supportive, and most healthy beds for every type of sleeper.

Innerspring and Innerspring Hybrid Mattresses:
For nearly 100 years, innersprings have been the standard system used in mattresses. Unfortunately, the standard "bonnell" coil that was used offered very little comfort and conformity and tended to develop pocketing. So as technologies improved, companies began using new coils that would flex more while still offering support. Many companies later began using lower density coils and less metal all together due to higher steel costs with a focus on initial comfort more than coil strength, and because of this we see more and more people come to our showroom frustrated because they bought a fairly expensive bed from one of our competitors that felt great for the first year or so then suddenly lost all its support. The largest culprit of these "beds that feel amazing for a few months and then start hurting my back and then get worse and worse" sets are either basic individual pocket coils and cheap chinese made old-school bonnel-coil units that are still on the marketplace.

To prevent that from happening with our customers, we focus on companies that focus on lasting comfort and coil life rather than temporary relief. Every coil unit on our floor is produced in the USA and is reinforced to promote longevity! Serta (ours and America's best selling brand) uses a patented connected spring called a continuous-coil system. This spring system features a long continuous wire which makes up the entire vertical lace of coils throughout the entire set so life is drastically expanded over the standard coil methods. Also for 2018, the Serta Perfect Sleeper Elite line uses a carbon steel zoned pocketed coil to offer even better pressure relief without sacrificing longevity. These two strong innerspring systems have earned Serta countless repeat customers and are the Official Mattress of the National Sleep Foundation along with our recommended choice of name brand innerspring. We also feature a few Individual Pocketed models such as those from Corsicana and Restonic/Therapedic with re-enforced middles to ensure 10 years of life, increased conformity, and very little motion transfer. By adding a layer of memory of gel foam to the innerspring companies can achieve a bed with slightly better pressure relief in general this adds more of a chance for breakdown and impressions after 4-5 years.

Memory All-Foam Mattresses:
Innerspring mattresses have used foam on top of coil systems for quite some time but as companies placed more and more foam to help side and back sleepers sleep more comfortably, the life of the mattress would decrease as body impressions became a problem. With the help of NASA, Visco Elastic Foam or Memory Foam was developed for use in mattresses to give a more conforming surface that could still last 5 or more years without loosing support (see any of our Hybrid collections). After success with the hybrid combo companies like Tempurpedic began testing all foam versions of these beds. While they offered better weight distribution and motion isolation over their innerspring counterparts an unanticipated issue grew with heat transfer, inability to get enough pressure relief on side sleeper's shoulder and hip area, and a "trapped" feeling as the foam responded to body warmth over night. To combat those issues we show beds designed with a new "crushed gel-infused memory foam" method (rather than the older and cheaper swirl gel used in most gel-infused beds today) and bamboo infused memory foam beds which improve on the Tempurpedic method by improving breath-ability and responsiveness. For those of you looking for the conforming feel of foam with out the expenses of Latex or the disadvantages of basic memory foam click to access our Advanced "cooler and responsive" Bamboo and Gel-Infused Memory Foam collections page.

Latex All-Foam Mattresses:
A few mattress companies realized these problems (Posh and Lavish, Therapedic, and Savvy Rest to name a couple!) and looked for a better foam product (cooler, healthier, more pressure relieving, more supportive, longer lasting) that still eliminated the issues arising from innersprings. The answer came in Talalay Latex. Latex is an organic and anti-allergenic foam, rather than a synthetic like Memory Foam, and is breathable as well as instantly responsive. It costs a little more to make in that it must be harvested from Hevea or Rubber Trees but the extra benefits far outweigh the costs for those looking for the best sleep possible. Also, the natural Talalay Latex was found to be the longest lasting softer foam on the market with warranties and life expectencies that exceed 20 years. Be careful of other latex processes, such as Dunlop or Hevealux Latex and even synthetic Dunlop or Talalay Blends as the life-span is closer to 10 years, the heat transparency is lost, and the pressure relief so unique to Talalay is missing).  All of our Talalay latex is also a zero-toxin VOC foam and is Oeko-Tex Certified/Baby Safe at the highest level making it safe for almost everyone in America to sleep on...even those with latex allergies. Our Savvy Rest line even features extra certifications ranging from GOTS Textile, Cradle-to-Cradle-GOLD, and USDA Organic. We have decided to specialize in Talalay Latex foams and carry both Latex Surface/Polyurethane Low-VOC cores and the most natural 100% latex foam mattress variants. Currently we have 9 different Latex models in stock and on display including all three models in the 100% Certified Organic Savvy Rest Line! Click here to see each mattress specifications and our current pricing.

Latex Hybrid Mattresses:
Also in the premium category you'll find Latex Hybrid Mattresses over the past few years. These offer 3 or 4 inches of Latex over a innerspring unit to help give the premium features of the Latex All-Foam Category listed above at better price points for softer mattresses or higher profiles for fimer mattresses. In general you could purchase a firm talalay latex mattress for back and stomach sleepers (if you like firm beds) in only a 6 inch profile and it would work perfectly for you... but... it would look goofy on most high headboard bed frames. The Latex Hybrid set up can fix that problem without paying a fortune more in upgrade costs for those trying to avoid synthetic foams all together.

Reinforcements:
 Edge reinforcements and center zoning reinforcements are key to increasing the life of a bed regardless whether you have chosen an Innerspring or Innerspring hybrid, Latex or Memory Foam bed, or a Latex Hybrid model. In innerspring mattresses, always ask about what has been done to minimize sagging in the middle or edges of a mattress (such as Serta using a 5-Zoned Support system in our Perfect Sleeper and iComfort Mattress). We strongly recommend mattresses (especially King Size!) with foam encasing on all sides of the mattress and recommend rotations frequently throughout the year to help displace weight evenly. King size mattresses are so close to square that doing a 90 degree turn really helps with mattress life. Many beds on the market use what is called a "belly band" where only the middle third of the mattress features reinforcements and higher density foams which eliminates the support needed in the shoulder area for back and side sleepers and also prevent 90 degree rotations on King sized mattresses. We always feature edge-to-edge latex or memory foam to increase longevity and conformity for all types of sleepers. Also, many of our more premium models feature higher-density latex edge guards to further eliminate sagging sides!

Health and Environmental Responsibility:
Lastly we strongly encourage more dialogue while mattress shopping regarding health impacts and concerns of modern mattresses. Due to the push from suppliers to drive down costs while providing comfort unfortunately more and more companies both over seas and here in the USA are being caught using dangerous flame retardants, formaldehyde, and other chemicals known to cause headaches, off-gas, and in the worst case cancer over many years of use. Tempurpedic currently has a class action lawsuit pending for not disclosing the use of formldehyde and other toxins prevalent in their popular beds and frankly it makes us disgusted that mattress retailers continue to carry them due to their artificially high margins. Every bed on our floor meets rigorous testing standards and is specifically chosen out of the models we would feel comfortable with our own children sleeping on. We are pleased at the efforts our suppliers are constantly making in transparency and high-quality healthy beds to sleep on. Serta most recently for example has released a webpage dedicated to health and environmental responsibility in their production process. Many of our supplier's factories are certified to the highest standards of renewable resources and recycling. Every mattress we produce make is free of PBDE flame-retardants, CFCs, lead, mercury, and other dangerous toxins and our flame barriers are made primarily from Cotton and other cellulosic renewable fibers without any harmful chemicals. We even feature a local company that will make a mattress without any flame barrier whatsoever with a waive of liability signed by those customers desiring a more natural mattress.
 
Warranty:
There are both prorated and non-prorated warranties. Non-prorated warranties are the best and never decrease in value over time. Prorated warranties (like with tires) ensure the product's function over the full time but if there is a warranty issue the buyer would only receive a portion of the initial mattress value back to repurchase a new one.  Always look at mattress warranties for an indication of the expected life. Most of our mattresses feature at least a 10 year non-prorated warranty and our Posh and Lavish, Sleep on Latex Hybrids, and Savvy Rest Latex models extend to 20 year warranties.