Mrs BigJohn tells me we need a new bed. I haven’t noticed but as I’m a fair bit heavier than her I’ll take her word for it. Apparently a thousand bloody quid is the sort of figure we’re talking about. My fault for buying that RRD Firemove windsurf board a few months back I guess. (Bargain at £1200 – spotted the theme?)

It seems like the bed industry is some huge cartel. No way of getting online prices and the standard of furniture store salesmen is – grrr – conducive to an application of fist pie.

OK, so we’ve narrowed it down to a pocket sprung mattress. None of this memory foam or latex malarkey because apparently I run hot at night. I’m told it’s like “sleeping next to a furnace”. A standard 150cm kingsize is what we’re after.

Do I believe all the guff that Vi-Spring is better than Hypnos is better than Somnus and anything is better than a brand I might conceivably have heard of? No. I just want to speak to somebody who can listen to what I want, tell me what I need and not rip me off.

Over to you…

We just went to Ikea and bounced up and down on a bunch of beds, then bought the combination we liked the best. But we’re poor scumbags 😉

I was invited lots of times to lie down on a bed in outdoor winter clothes and shoes yesterday but declined as a) it’s not me who ever feels uncomfortable in any bed, b) it’s not really representative and c) it’s not going to tell me how i feel getting up next morning.

Don’t Ikea let you test/try a mattress for 90 days or something as well?

Apparently £1000 is a bargain….

http://www.factory-beds-direct.co.uk/mattress-sho/king-size-mattresses/artisan-bespoke-002-kingsize/

Beds and mattresses are bloody expensive, but I use my bed probably more and for longer than most other things in my house.

I seem to recall Ikea beds being a funny size, so worth checking for bed sheet fitting etc before buying it.

I need a new bed, but massive Christmas overspend and imminent Alps trip mean I’m all tapped out for now!

For reference I’ll probably head to John Lewis for the next bed I buy, the mattress I have at the moment is from them and it is easily the most comfortable thing I have ever slept on.

It’s fine to buy a cheap bed, but you’ll regret buying a cheap mattress…

Just go with the flow, and tbh it’s the kind of product to buy local as they expect to deliver it – so usually it’s next day.

Lazgoat – Member

Don’t Ikea

Unless you want to also replace all your bed sheets, Swedish metric ****.

We went to Ikea. Mattress was £300 and bed was £300, if you want to add a mattress topper on it’s about £200 for one of the memory foam type ones. Ikea beds are odd sizes but if you want one of their mattresses they do them in the usual 4ft6in and 5ft sizes as well. The 90 days thing is a bonus as wel, I initally didn’t like ours but 2 months down the line once it softened up I loved it.

I found that factory beds direct website yesterday and it was the only voice of sanity I came across all day.

I’m going to speak to them when they re-open after the break because we might just get a mattress and they seem to have good ones in our price range.

But I’m nervous about just talking to one seemingly plausible company without anything to compare it to.

The best quote of yesterday “Well they’re all the same really, it’s just down to how much you’re comfortable spending”

OP, IME the people at Furniture Village where very helpful. Regularly sleep in an IKEA bed/mattress and it does the job although a topper would make it more comfortable. You are correct that a foam mattress won’t be good for you is you “run hot”. Also prices easy to find online.

Also a kingsize is 180, there is a European size at 160 which in fact we have (also from memory that’s the IKEA sizing)

ikea do standard sizes now as well. Their mattresses are vac packed and rolled.

My last £100 quid ikea mattress lasted 10 years no problem.

I’m afraid with beds it really is try b4 you buy as all are different dont believe any of the orthopaedic guff it has no basis in fact (was dream’t up by some sales person and the industry ran with it) what you actually want/need is a matress that supports you in all you places that touch the bed when at rest/sleeping. there re 4 general types of bed traditional spring, silint nights miracoil, pocket sprung and memory foam, as the foam is out for reasons stated then either pocket or miracoil are the next best options with pockets as many pockets as possible as the support mentioned above is better (pocket is prob my favourite type) with the miracoil its down to the amount of comfort layers.

this is all from my previous incarnation working for MFI when they were one of the biggest bed retailers in the country

I was invited lots of times to lie down on a bed in outdoor winter clothes and shoes yesterday but declined

I’m struggling to comprehend why you’d not want to try out something you’re going to be spending a third of your life using, especially at that sort of money.

Because it would just feel like lying down in my clothes. Which is something I don’t do in bed.

In the evenings if we are watching TV Mrs BigJohn is usually lying on the settee and I an sprawled out on the wooden floor. Sometimes I wake up like that hours later. If I can happily sleep like that then I take it as proof the comfort of bed’s an issue for her not me.

Oh and thanks a bunch Kev for mentioning Miracoil. That’s something else to get confused about.

Agree about it being a sneaky industry. You can’t compare like for like. Pick a brand of matress, then notice that they have different model names in different stores. ” Yes sir, it’s an exclusive product”. Crafty. Can’t be that different, just stops me googling make and model to compare price.

We bought two zip link mattresses from here: http://www.factory-beds-direct.co.uk/

Great service, cheap, super quality, two are easier to turn than one big one and we got firm for me and soft for Mrs Gti.

Thoroughly recommended.

miracoil is basically the whole spring system is made from one piece of metal and therfore supposed to give better support

different model names in different stores

Not just me being thick then. I took photos of the labels but couldn’t find a match for a few of them. “Hypnos Pillow Comfort” – that doesn’t appear on the Hypnos website, and trying to find a price online for that price range is not easy.

It’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas Factory-Beds-Direct

John Lewis special purchases are your friend for reasonable prices and great quality.

Highgrove mattresses can be bought on the web. I bought an Affinity about four years ago and I am very impressed. 2000 springs and traditional fillings – seems well made. Much better than the memory foam mattress we had before. I get up in the morning with no back pain now.

Last year I bought another and moved the original into the guest bedroom to replace the rubbish mattress there.

If you get a double sided one, don’t forget to rotate and turn it to extend its life. It should last a lot longer than a single-sided one.

Land of Beds do loads online and are decent. They’re actually local to me and turns out he’s a neighbour, but a straightforward firm with good prices.

We’ve used:

Warren Evans

Twice now. They deliver and assemble the bed for you. Last one we changed our mind on – they took it away and installed a different one.

Mattress came from John Lewis, but they do a range of mattresses as well.

Hth
Marko

Somnus user here. Comfy and pleased with it. Comparison to others led us to this one. It is very heavy mind for turning, ours too is king size.

Lots of good leads and advice here. Thanks guys.

Get your wife to sleep on the floor for a week before going bed shopping. Even the cheap beds will seem like a comfortable bargain then!

We have had a tempurpedic memory foam for the past 6 years and I’d never go back to a coil-spring. I know that, for some people, they are hot, but we use a sheep-skin mattress cover and the heat is a non-issue (plus it makes a great bed even more comfortable). After 6 years, the mattress still shows no sign of body-imprint sagging.

Tempur! Ghastly, hot, sweaty, and a massive rip-off for latex foam with a fancy brand name.

Us big guys need the right mattress and it’s hard to find one you will both agree on. Memory foam didn’t work for me and we’ve not got the firmest sprung mattress available and it’s a great nights sleep.

Think about it – you spend far more time in bed than you do anywhere else in life. It’s well worth spending the money.

Premier Inn have hypnos beds if you want to have a proper try before you buy.

We have a Dunlopillo mattress. We love it. Not cheap at all, but lasts well. Every time we go away, it is so good to come back to sleeping on it – I have never slept on anything so comfortable. I see that Land of Beds, recommended above, sell them.

John Lewis +1.
We got an extra discount for a ‘special offer’ mattress by taking the display one – but had to wait until the end of the sale.

In the process of buying a bed too. Thought we had found the perfect one after staying in hotel which had a Sealy Posturepedic. Ordered what we tthought was the same bed from Argos and it was like a brick! Turns out they have a huge difference in various Posturepedic models so it’s back to researching and testing 🙁

Another vote for IKEA 90 day love it or exchange it, a range of UK sizes and types and a 25 year guarantee, buying mine was a lovely experience and 4 years down the line I’m still happy with it.