I know it’s a personal thing and we need to test a few out (we just did), but has anyone got any advice or horror stories on buying a king-size mattress, and where to go? Looked at a couple from Silent Night and Sealy (both now the same company, I think). Around £700-900 (WTF? – could buy some new forks for that) for the ones we liked most, so I’m just hoping to avoid any costly mistakes if anyone has used these brands and found them crap. Need something fairly firm that doesn’t wobble like a jelly, so I’m guessing ‘pocket sprung’ (hence high cost). Are memory foam toppers sweltering in summer? Ta.

Personal experience – I love the Ikea firm one. Mine’s over a year old, and shows no sign of wear or even use.

It’s a “standard, normal” king size, not an “Ikea special” size. Edit: it’s called “Hesseng” – still £600, mind!

Are memory foam toppers sweltering in summer? Ta.

yep

I like Harrison mattresses.
You can choose firmness, have a warm side and a cool side.
http://www.haskinsfurniture.co.uk/bedroom/mattresses/harrison-paradise-5000-double-mattress-only

Just got Miss Houns an IKEA one a couple of weeks ago. Would recommend plus I like their guarantee and exchange thing they do if you find it’s not the right mattress for you

I got the demo one out of John Lewis in their sale. Had to go ask for it though.

Reason being that when trying them out my wife liked the medium side and I liked the firm side, so thought – **** it, let’s just buy this one that is different on each side.

We had a memory foam one but it was way too hot, comfortable though.

We changed to an M&S non memory foam one and its been great.

We looked at memory foam ones but got an standard type in the end, memory is hot in summer, cold in winter and apparently rubbish for sex. Have a good look round at various types and try them out, there is a bewildering amount of choice.

‘rubbish for sex’ what do they say about a bad workman blaming his tools 🙂

Get a non-flip mattress.
I got one that needs flipped regularly and it is a total pain, and if you don’t do it regularly, you end up sleeping in a groove/hole!

Silent Night I have had the non turn ones and they kept collapsing, and neither of us are porkers. Customer care was terrible too and ended up being thrown away.

SealyI have had for about 15 years, and is still going strong, but it became a spare room bed a while ago. Bit firm but comfy.

Current Mattress is a JL, Pocket Ortho 1400. It’s coming up to 3 years old, and no wear, great and comfy, no rolling into each other. Still looks and feels brand new. Best bed I’ve ever slept in.

Where are you in the country? We’ve got our last 3 from the matress factory in York.

Cheap and decent and as they’re making it for you they can spec it for however you want it.

Also worth considering the base its going on, a slatted / solid base is a world of difference to a sprung base. This has as much bearing as the actual matress.

Cheers for these replies – lots of helpful info.

mrjmt – I’m in Calderdale, West Yorks, but I’m from York and head over there fairly often so I could look into this. Thanks for the tip. Bed is slatted, btw.

‘rubbish for sex’ what do they say about a bad workman blaming his tools

🙂

What we read was something like “the memory foam encourages more passive behaviour”, ie you just sink into it and get stuck. Didn’t sound so appealing to me, buy expensive mattress and get lower quality action – that’s a big no thanks ! 😯

Agreed on what @mrmjt says, the base make a difference to which type of mattress is best

wl, this is the company.

They used to be in the city centre but due to a compulsory purchase order passed by everybodys favourite council they’ve moved out to Acaster Malbis, just outside York.

We needed a new mattress (so I was told) in January. I hated going round shops and being told to lie down and test them. What relevance does lying on a mattress for 5 minutes in outdoor clothes and boots have?

I looked at this websiteand found it gave us the answers.

We bought one of their mattresses after phoning them for a couple of bits of advice and it’s just right. It wasn’t cheap but I’m certain the quality is equivalent to ones costing several times more in the shops.

John Lewis.
(We now have sprung with memory foam top. Comfy, but way to warm for me in summer. Mrs_oab loves it)

“Rubbish for sex”?
Im not surprised, Im amazed the springs don’t damage your sack.

FWIW Sealy are the same company as Silentnight (as well as Rest Assured, Layezee, Pocket Spring Bed Company), all aimed at different bits of the market, different ages and budgets.

Ikea mattresses are good value for money (check the sizes though!). I’ve seen a lot of mattresses, comparatively they don’t match quality wise with the more premium brands they emulate, but you have to pay more for that premium.

Depending on how much you wanted to look into it… I’d want to understand the different types of mattress, the qualities they bring. Here’s a quick summary… apologies if you know all this:
* bonnell sprung mattress (usual entry level mattress) – Silentnight’s miracoil is just a fancy version of this.
* Pocket sprung – where instead of all the coils being joined together, each coil spring is individually housed in it’s own fabic case, so less “roll-together” effect, and no squeking – generally more springs = more movement in the bed and greater comfort.
* Foam – Memory Foam, Latex, or Reflex. I really like latex here, it’s better for the environment and very comfy. I have never seen the advantage of the foam staying in the position that you were just in (surely all that matters is the support and comfort it gives you at the time you are lying on it), and all the visco elastic (aka memory foam) beds I’ve slept in seem “too warm” – and I’m a hot sleeper. Reflex foam is great value for money but is mainly only used in Europe, we don’t seem to get it much over here.

If you keep a good mattress for ten years it’ll cost you something around 2p a night, so a sound investemnt.

I’ve got a sleepeeze 2000 sprung pillow top mattress, on it’s tenth year and still very comfy.

Oh, I used to work for a bed retailer. It doesn’t look like beds move at the same pace of progression as mtbs, so I hope all the above still stands.

This will sound very STW, but spend as much as you can afford. You’ll be using it for 10 years, so about 3500 nights, and 700 is pretty cheap to be honest – 5 pence a night, I’m afraid.

Not a fan of mattress toppers, I think they are a fix for a poor choice.

I do like VI, but you can choose one of their cheaper ones. We bought a Millbrook 20 years ago, the mattress was replaced after 10 years with the same, but firmness had increased, so they took it back and we’ve had VI since.

Don’t buy something too firm. It should provide support not just contact at your hips, feet and shoulders! Try them at John Lewis and talk to the staff.

Memory foam is the biggest con ever perpetrated on the buying public and I hope one day it will be exposed as such. It’s crap for a mattress as you sink into it and get sweaty; it’s the best proof currently of the old Marketing thing that if something is expensive, 50% of the public will believe it to be superior.

Best thing we ever did was to buy two linked mattresses so Mrs Gti can have soft and I can have orthopaedic. Two are also much easier to turn than one big heavily-built pocket spring job.

Memory foam is the biggest con ever perpetrated on the buying public and I hope one day it will be exposed as such. It’s crap for a mattress as you sink into it and get sweaty; it’s the best proof currently of the old Marketing thing that if something is expensive, 50% of the public will believe it to be superior.

Glad I’m not the only one.

M&S Natural 1250 ‘firm’ here and very happy with it

Somnus.

Not read all so might have been mentioned already, but these guys are a standard stw recommendation. We got one of their mattresses 4 years ago and still love it. It was an Origins Pocket Latex for circa £700. It looks like it has changed a little but still exists as a model.

Can’t remember much thought went into this. We went to a bed shop, chose the bed, then lined up all the mattresses. Lay on all of them and bought the hardest one.

(think it was a shop own brand – feather and black)

Yak – Member

Can’t remember much thought went into this. We went to a bed shop, chose the bed, then lined up all the mattresses. Lay on all of them and bought the hardest one.

(think it was a shop own brand – feather and black)

Think wl’s probably sorted now 🙂

I had a similar spitting-my-coffee moment when I realised the sort of money you’re looking at for a decent mattress. But then someone pointed out to me that I will spend more time using it that anything else I own and probably have it for longer as well, and they’re right. It’s a false economy to go cheap I reckon.

Anyway, we like firm ones so we got one from Hypnos,* who make the ones they use in Premier Inns which we’ve always found comfy.

*Ours is made by Hypnos but badged as John Lewis so a bit cheaper.

eh – that’s odd. It was right at the top of the list when I just logged on.

Honest- not been searching for 9month old threads about mattresses to comment on! 🙂 😕

hmmm

Ha, I didn’t even notice the date

Ikea here and would do again.
Still the comfiest bed I’ve used after 15 years!
At the time it was the top of the range pocket sprung and we use it with a thinnish mattress topper.

Can’t stand going into these retail park ‘sales’ places where everything is inflated/discounted.

(just noticed the date – ha!)

Another vote for John Ryan beds here. After a recommendation from several posts on here, we’ve had an Artisan Naturals for about 2 weeks. It’s the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever used.

We had a sealy posturepedic coil sprung on the spare bed and it was very comfortable and also very good edge support – there was some transition of movement from one side to the other though which was the only thing that wasn’t as good as a pocket-sprung.

Sold that to the MIL recently, along with the lovely bed-frame that wasn’t quite the right shade of grey for the wifes liking, and am now looking for a replacement.

Went to dreams and all the mattresses seem pretty expensive and weren’t that comfortable.

On the main bed we have a firm Sleepezee Ortho Supreme pocket-sprung with 1000 springs (which seems maybe low for these days) and it has been exceptionally comfortable for the 15 years we have had it.

It has very good edge support so you can sleep up to the edge, which is handy when the cat is occupying the middle of the bed.

I think they have stopped that range but Debenhams still have them, and they are doing 25% off atm and also another 10% with some code that popped up at me when I visited yesterday.

And I saw an online shop in Essex which had a 4ft 6 sleepezee ortho supreme 1000 for £289 (50%) off, which is a much more reasonable price.

Some of these mattress have huge numbers of springs nowadays but looking at the reviews I am not sure that always equates to comfort.

Aren’t Ikea funny dimensions ? Their bed frames used to be.

Aren’t Ikea funny dimensions ?

Better dimensions, yes 🙂 Although I think they do more now than they used to do.

Better dimensions, yes

not better for me as I would have to give up my lovely Mahogany 19th century Arts & Crafts bed for an Ikea bed…

not better for me as I would have to give up my lovely Mahogany 19th century Arts & Crafts bed for an Ikea bed…

🙂
Like I said, I think they do lots of sizes now (not just ‘European’):

Size Description Mattress Size (Imperial) Mattress Size (cm)
Small Single (Kids’) 2’6” x 6’3” (30″ x 75″) 80 x 200 cm
Single (Standard) 3 x 6’3” (36″ x 75″) 90 x 190 cm
Double (Standard) 4’6” x 6’3” (54″ x 75″) 135 x 190 cm
King (Standard) 4’11” x 6’6” (59″ x 78″) 150 x 200 cm
Super-king 6′ x 6’6″ (71″ x 78″) ? 180 x 200 cm
Single (European) 2’11” x 6’3″ (35″ x 75″) 90 x 200 cm
Double (European) 4’7″ x 6’6” (55″ x 78″) 140 x 200 cm
King (European) 5’2″ x 6’6” (63″ x 78″) 160 x 200 cm

Memory foam is BS don’t touch it with a barge pole.

Highgrove Beds, Yorkshire based old-school quality without added value hipster bullshitter pricing.