How do I buy a mattress?

[.H.]

On 2/16/2019 at 10:41 AM, Fez said:

Has anyone slept on any of the online mattress? There was an all-foam mattress at the store that reminded me of a Tempurpedic (though different brand) that I liked a lot, but was $3,000.

$3,000?  It had better be stuffed with gold bullion for that much.

We got a King sized one off Walmart.com for about 200 and something dollars, absolutely zero problems and is as comfortable as anything else we had tried.  It even survived us moving it to a new house and jamming it up a somewhat too narrow staircase.  My mother went from some also ridiculously (by my standard) priced mattress to the same brand one we have and she said it was slightly less comfortable, but when you consider the price difference, I couldn't imagine spending that much more on a mattress.  Even if we could afford that much, I don't imagine we will ever by something besides something like what we have now.

[.H.]

47 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Dang, and if you can get as low as $200 to me at least it would really take the sting away if the mattress turned out to be a clunker.  

That's how we felt too.  Thing is, my mother in law bought one from the same brand, a twin size, for an extra bedroom.  So, we had an idea of what I would be like and it certainly didn't seem terrible.  We considered, even if it doesn't hold up as long, who care, because we could buy nearly 4 for the price of what we had gotten one for.

Caveat of course is that I have never owned or slept on a $3,000 mattress.  Perhaps it feels like a chorus of angels cradles your corpus and whispers God's peace to your slumbering psyche.  All I know if that our "dirt cheap" thing gets the job done as a place to sleep and my somewhat bad back, along with my wife's, hasn't suffered for our budget consideration.  In fact, I think we sleep better on this one than the more expensive one, but maybe that was a piece of junk in particular (I don't recall what brand it was).

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I think at least some of these super expensive ones are likely complete nonsense and just upselling you on plausibly good, but ultimately meaningless, "features."  You know, pretty much the whole business plan of "Monster Cables."  But not as if I know anything really, so take all this for what it's worth.

[Fez]

Turns out $3,000 is nothing compared to what some of these mattress go for; and that's before getting to the luxury mattress that are $40,000+. I will say though, a Tempur-pedic, or the other memory foam mattress that are actually as good as them (which are rare), truly are different from anything else out there. Some people won't like the sinking feeling, and they can be bad for people who sleep hot, but damn are they comfortable. On the other hand, they are consistently rated dead last among all mattress for having sex on (turns out, that's one of the main criteria reviewers look at, which actually does make sense), because there's zero bounce at all.

Since my girlfriend and I broke up last summer that currently isn't a concern for me, but that's just more than I want to spend on a mattress (and real Tempurs are closer to $6,000). I found an extremely comfortable hybrid foam/spring queen mattress at local, non-chain store that I got for $1,500 (which includes a box spring, frame, delivery, setup, and takeaway of my old mattress in the price). I didn't see any mattresses as cheap as $200, but I did see a handful online for about $400 (not Leesa, that's about a $1,000). I just don't trust them to last though. The good thing about the store I went to, which even the big mattress chains usually don't, is that they gave me the full specs for the mattress, so I was able to look up online what they meant. And it turns out that that kind of foam at the density it's at, and those gauges of coils at the number their at, this is a mattress that should easily last 15 years. So that works out to $100 a year, and I don't trust the $400 mattress to last 4 years; so, in a way, this is cheaper.

I also decided online was too much of a pain anyway even with the return polices. And I probably would need to do a few returns considering how long I spent in stores finding mattress that were comfortable for me.

[.H.]

On 2/18/2019 at 2:10 PM, Fez said:

And it turns out that that kind of foam at the density it's at, and those gauges of coils at the number their at, this is a mattress that should easily last 15 years. So that works out to $100 a year, and I don't trust the $400 mattress to last 4 years; so, in a way, this is cheaper.

Plausible.  We've had ours for over 2 years now and it was about 200 and something, so we'll call it $300.  Doesn't seem like it is going to be an issue this year, so it probably does break out the the same cost per year, in our case, if not maybe do better.

But who knows, maybe we just got a good one.  I'm a little doubtful that anything made now-a-days will last 15 years, but hopefully what you got is well made and will.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 2/18/2019 at 2:10 PM, Fez said:

On the other hand, they are consistently rated dead last among all mattress for having sex on (turns out, that's one of the main criteria reviewers look at, which actually does make sense), because there's zero bounce at all.

When you're in a LTR with someone with a terrible mattress, you realize quickly just how much this matters. In my experience waterbeds have been the worst. 

[thaliadaniels]

Check your space before you buy a mattress. Like this canine cooler, upon checking this bed which aside from keeping your pet cool, these cool pet beds for your pet are also great for soothing sore joints. In addition, a cool dog bed can provide many therapeutic benefits for several skin conditions and can even help in treating a variety of ailments

[Kalbear]

Memory foam is fine for sex, and is awesome for positions that bouncing sucks for (doggy, reverse cowgirl, spooning). Its not bad for missionary either. But if you're used to your bed giving you some added thrust power it isn't as good and will work your core more. 

[DMC]

I'm..not gonna get as detailed.  But I have been reading this thread and feel like 2 things will be useful:  1. One of my exes had a temper-pedic - definitely one of those ~3000, not ~40,000 btw - and I didn't have a problem sleeping on it.  I though I would, because I prefer to sleep on  something rather firm.  But it adjusts real nice.  2.  In terms of sex I don't know what anyone's talking about.  Just one guy's opinion, but... choose your own burn:

1. That's cuz I wasn't doing it right
2. She said differently
3. My penis is small