Mattress

[freeazabird]

I'm in need of a new mattress. Where should I look to get the best value? I want something nice, at a good price.

[G-String]

Ikea has good value mattresses.

[terran]

Here's a recent thread on the topic you might find helpful: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/buying-a-new-mattress-what-to-look-for-etc/

[EngagedToFIRE]

Just get a decent memory foam mattress on Amazon, read the reviews.  They are cheap and sleep great.  Personally, I have all Purple mattresses because I love them so much, to me it was worth it, but that doesn't mean it's worth it to you.  I would avoid stores for mattresses.  Shop online for sure.

[Parizade]

I've been happy with my Leesa, had it 3 years now.
https://www.leesa.com/

[chemistk]

Mattresses are one of those things that you really, really, really shouldn't be skimping on. Maybe it's a no-brainer, but if you're going to be spending 6-9 hours (or more) sleeping on the same surface, you really should invest some time (and $$, but not too much) into finding the best mattress for YOU.

Back when my wife and I were buying our mattress, I used this forum: https://www.themattressunderground.com/mattress-forum.html as an incredibly indispensable resource to find the right one. A quick overview: you need figure out, for yourself, what firmness and material works best. Avoid all big box store mattresses (Sealy, Simmons, Serta, etc.). There's a HUGE range of materials used to make foam or latex mattresses and many of them are not great quality.

Just remember that one mattress (brand+material) may work for someone, and for you the same mattress would leave you unrested and in major pain.

[FI45RE]

Just get a decent memory foam mattress on Amazon, read the reviews.  They are cheap and sleep great.  Personally, I have all Purple mattresses because I love them so much, to me it was worth it, but that doesn't mean it's worth it to you.  I would avoid stores for mattresses.  Shop online for sure.

Just here to second the Purple mattress. I will never buy anything else again. We have had ours for about 3 years and love it every night. The Purple pillows are awesome as well.

[lexde]

I got a ghostbed and it is terrible. :-( avoid that company like the plague.

[pudding]

I went to Ikea and checked em out.

I liked it there as you can lay down on them and they have a decent selection of soft and firm etc..... prices were reasonable I thought.

[Roadrunner53]

Years ago we had a waterbed and that was the best bed ever for me. Mattress sprung a leak and replaced it and it sprung a leak. Hub went ballistic and we got a regular mattress. It was horrid and we had it maybe 6 months and bought a Tempur-pedic. It was great but got HOT and got a ditch in the middle. We endured that for maybe 3 years and bought another memory mattress on line. After a while it started getting a ditch in the middle and we bought another one from Costco (memory foam). My back started to kill me so we went to Mattress Firm and spent a ton of money on another mattress. We have had it about 3 years and my back is starting to kill me again. So I bought a foam topper to put on top of it. The bed is gigantic with that on it. I HATE this bed too! We spent so much on it, I can't cave in and buy a new one yet!

[BlueHouse]

I'm DONE with foam mattresses.  I hate them.  They're great for the first year or two, but I'm on my third memory foam, memory foam + gel hybrid, latex foam. They all degrade after a few years and start getting hotter and also leave divots.  I sleep on my side and sometimes on my stomach so I need a very firm bed with enough cushion to not hurt shoulders/hips. 

I'm going to buy a new mattress and I think I'm going to try a sleep number bed.  I figure since I'm not getting the right firmness when I buy, at least with this I can adjust it whenever I want.  They have sales a few times a year, so I'll wait until their next big sale. 

[terran]

I'm DONE with foam mattresses.  I hate them.  They're great for the first year or two, but I'm on my third memory foam, memory foam + gel hybrid, latex foam. They all degrade after a few years and start getting hotter and also leave divots.  I sleep on my side and sometimes on my stomach so I need a very firm bed with enough cushion to not hurt shoulders/hips. 

I'm going to buy a new mattress and I think I'm going to try a sleep number bed.  I figure since I'm not getting the right firmness when I buy, at least with this I can adjust it whenever I want.  They have sales a few times a year, so I'll wait until their next big sale.

If you're really just looking for "enough cushion to not hurt shoulders/hips" I wonder how you'd do with a futon? They're pretty indestructible.

[stoaX]

For what it's worth, the best mattress / box spring combo I ever purchased was one for $500 from Costco.    Also, watching "Adam ruins mattresses" is worth looking at on youtube before you buy a mattress..if only to shine a comedic light on what you're going through.

[Roadrunner53]

Seems back in the 'olden' days you bought a mattress, slept on it and had them for years! Why can't we find a normal mattress and sleep comfortably? They have engineers and computers to design these things today. Why are we having such a hard time finding a normal bed? I did sleep in a hotel years ago, maybe a Marriott. That bed was so awesome! Like a cloud. I have heard that hotels sell mattresses but have no idea how you go about that.

I hate my VERY expensive bed and it is starting to form a ditch in the middle of the bed. I want a new bed so bad! This mattress is only about 3 years old and supposed to have a warranty for 10 years. I just can't be bothered to go thru that crap with trying to get resolution. They will just jerk us around over it. They prorate it and they have to do some kind of testing to see what you are talking about. So how do they do that?

I looked at the Purple mattress and of course they have different grades to choose from. Do you choose the cheaper version or the more expensive version? Who knows!

[EngagedToFIRE]

Just get a decent memory foam mattress on Amazon, read the reviews.  They are cheap and sleep great.  Personally, I have all Purple mattresses because I love them so much, to me it was worth it, but that doesn't mean it's worth it to you.  I would avoid stores for mattresses.  Shop online for sure.

Just here to second the Purple mattress. I will never buy anything else again. We have had ours for about 3 years and love it every night. The Purple pillows are awesome as well.

I can't get in to the Purple pillows, just not for me.  I like my MyPillow, lol.  I have several and they work great for me.  I do use the Purple seat pads on all of my desk chairs and they are amazing and reducing my back pain.  The other thing I like about the Purple mattresses is that they really should last practically forever since there isn't anything to break down in the most heavily used layer.  We'll see, though.

[zygote]

We just bought a new mattress a few months ago. We spent all day trying out a ton of mattresses - all the popular memory foam ones, purple, sleep number, hated them all. You can never really know if a mattress is good until you sleep on it, but if it's bad after a few minutes...

We ended up spending $2k on a traditional mattress from a big box store. I have zero regrets. It felt like the right one as soon as we got on it and I've been sleeping great since. If one of the less expensive options had worked, that would have been great. But they didn't. I wanted to see if I could get the one we found in the big box store cheaper online, but I couldn't find the exact (I think it was an exclusive). I didn't want to take a risk that a similar one wouldn't feel the same. Plus we needed it ASAP.

A mattress is not something to cheap out on. It's important to get the right fit for you.

[BlueHouse]

Just because I want to brag about something that no one in real life believes when I tell them:

Until I was 17 and moved out of the house, I slept on an actual horse-hair mattress that was handed down for at least 50 years in my family.  I don't remember any specific complaints about it, other than it was extremely heavy and it took at least 2 adults to flip the mattress.  I hated it for that reason, but I'd love to try it again today.

[Eowyn_MI]

I bought a latex foam mattress from Savvy Rest in 2015.  It was not cheap but it has been totally worth the cost.  It's difficult for me to sleep in hotels now because I like the firmness of my mattress so much.

[DadJokes]

We just bought a new mattress a few months ago. We spent all day trying out a ton of mattresses - all the popular memory foam ones, purple, sleep number, hated them all. You can never really know if a mattress is good until you sleep on it, but if it's bad after a few minutes...

We ended up spending $2k on a traditional mattress from a big box store. I have zero regrets. It felt like the right one as soon as we got on it and I've been sleeping great since. If one of the less expensive options had worked, that would have been great. But they didn't. I wanted to see if I could get the one we found in the big box store cheaper online, but I couldn't find the exact (I think it was an exclusive). I didn't want to take a risk that a similar one wouldn't feel the same. Plus we needed it ASAP.

A mattress is not something to cheap out on. It's important to get the right fit for you.

Did you just go to a big box store and lay on different mattresses until you found one you liked? Did they also carry the same ones you can buy on the internet?

[zygote]

Did you just go to a big box store and lay on different mattresses until you found one you liked? Did they also carry the same ones you can buy on the internet?

Yes, that's exactly what we did. They carried Purple, which is how we tried that one (did not like it at all). We tried sleep number at the sleep number store, and Caspar at a Target. We had also tried one or two of the other popular foam mattresses, but I can't remember where.

As for the traditional mattresses in the big box store, I'm not sure if most of them could also be found online. I didn't do as much research as I would have liked due to a time crunch (long story). If you've got time to shop around, I think it's definitely a good idea to look online first to get a sense of the brands you want to try and their expected price range. Then you'll know when it's better to order online after you find the one you like best.

[EngagedToFIRE]

We just bought a new mattress a few months ago. We spent all day trying out a ton of mattresses - all the popular memory foam ones, purple, sleep number, hated them all. You can never really know if a mattress is good until you sleep on it, but if it's bad after a few minutes...

We ended up spending $2k on a traditional mattress from a big box store. I have zero regrets. It felt like the right one as soon as we got on it and I've been sleeping great since. If one of the less expensive options had worked, that would have been great. But they didn't. I wanted to see if I could get the one we found in the big box store cheaper online, but I couldn't find the exact (I think it was an exclusive). I didn't want to take a risk that a similar one wouldn't feel the same. Plus we needed it ASAP.

A mattress is not something to cheap out on. It's important to get the right fit for you.

Which store did you try out the purple at? Still none around us that have them.

[NoVa]

We just bought a new mattress a few months ago. We spent all day trying out a ton of mattresses - all the popular memory foam ones, purple, sleep number, hated them all. You can never really know if a mattress is good until you sleep on it, but if it's bad after a few minutes...

We ended up spending $2k on a traditional mattress from a big box store. I have zero regrets. It felt like the right one as soon as we got on it and I've been sleeping great since. If one of the less expensive options had worked, that would have been great. But they didn't. I wanted to see if I could get the one we found in the big box store cheaper online, but I couldn't find the exact (I think it was an exclusive). I didn't want to take a risk that a similar one wouldn't feel the same. Plus we needed it ASAP.

A mattress is not something to cheap out on. It's important to get the right fit for you.

Which store did you try out the purple at? Still none around us that have them.

I saw some at a Macy's this weekend.

[zygote]

Which store did you try out the purple at? Still none around us that have them.

It was a Mattress Firm.

[partgypsy]

I think it's really important to try out the bed first, so for that reason don't think I could buy a bed sight unseen online. Some people love memory foam. I personally dislike it. What works for me is either traditional mattresses (with springs) or futons. Like someone else said everyone is different in what works for them.  I think if I was in the market for a bed I might check out costco since they have such good return policies.

[EngagedToFIRE]

It's wild to see Purple at retailers.  What a fucking great job they have done with that business.  It's great people can try them and see if it's right for them. I can't live without my Purple.  But it's clearly not for everyone.

[Roadrunner53]

It's wild to see Purple at retailers.  What a fucking great job they have done with that business.  It's great people can try them and see if it's right for them. I can't live without my Purple.  But it's clearly not for everyone.

What Purple bed do you have. Seems there are different types and costs.

[JLee]

I decided to splurge and buy a properly awesome mattress after I bought my house, given that I expect to be here for quite some time.  I bought an Avocado Green and it's absolutely incredible.  Even my cats seem to be spending more time on / in the bed and are less restless.

[pdxvandal]

This exactly. The online in-a-box ones are tempting but there is no track record as to how long they'll actually hold up. A mattress is just not something to go cheap on, IMO.

We just bought a new mattress a few months ago. We spent all day trying out a ton of mattresses - all the popular memory foam ones, purple, sleep number, hated them all. You can never really know if a mattress is good until you sleep on it, but if it's bad after a few minutes...

We ended up spending $2k on a traditional mattress from a big box store. I have zero regrets. It felt like the right one as soon as we got on it and I've been sleeping great since. If one of the less expensive options had worked, that would have been great. But they didn't. I wanted to see if I could get the one we found in the big box store cheaper online, but I couldn't find the exact (I think it was an exclusive). I didn't want to take a risk that a similar one wouldn't feel the same. Plus we needed it ASAP.

A mattress is not something to cheap out on. It's important to get the right fit for you.

[1WattLightbulb]

Be sure to negotiate lots of pillows, sheets, and blankets as part of the mattress sale. I was amazed at how many freebies we were offered while we were waffling on a purchase decision.

[Ynari]

A friend has a saying - "I'll buy what I like, no matter how cheap it is!"

Mostly to keep in mind that "don't skimp on the mattress" also means "don't equate cost with fit". We got swept up in the Purple fanfare - we tried it in store, the fancy hybrid ones, and came down to a decision between it and one from an independent brand mattress company near us. SO was super excited by it even though I think the indie one was a bit cheaper, and TBH I think it edged out the Purple for me in comfort, but I was also dazzled by the Purple. It really is not magic. It's better than what we had before, better than most guest beds I've slept on... but I regret not giving more consideration to the indie mattress.

[PDXTabs]

Ikea has good value mattresses.

I've purchased two Ikea latex mattresses that I've been very happy with.

[leonblack]

Similar story to zygote.

Bought a house at 28, splurged on a queen sized Casper mattress.

It's going well so far!

[Steeze]

I have had my mattress for about 4 years now. Spent maybe $500 on a firm queens size memory foam mattress from mattress firm. The firmness was great at first, but then started to hurt my shoulders after a few months, so I bought a 4" memory foam topper at Walmart. I hate it. It is so HOT - doesn't matter if the A/C is on blast I am still soaked. I got one of those shredded memory foam pillows off amazon too. That thing is terrible for the same reason. It heats up and stays hot. Flip the pillow and the other side is pre-heated for you.

A cold mattress and pillow are one of those things I am lusting after right now. I need to pull off the memory foam topper and give that a shot first. Is a traditional spring mattress cooler than a memory foam mattress? Maybe I will just get a good cooling sheet from China
something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32370107995.html

[HBFIRE]

Just get a decent memory foam mattress on Amazon, read the reviews.  They are cheap and sleep great.

Did the same, couldn't be happier -- insanely comfortable.

[JestJes]

I'm not sure where you are located but check out Furniture outlets. Bobs is awesome if you are in the north east.  I recently purchased a brand new memory foam hybrid that honestly changed my life. We got the bed scratch and dent and the mattress was some style that they had discontinued. With taxes for a King we got out of there just over $700.

[HipGnosis]

I bought a latex foam mattress online almost 20 yrs ago.
It's still pretty good - but one side is a bit firmer now.
I flip and rotate it every couple of years.
I'm on my 3rd memory foam topper.
My next memory foam topper will be bamboo charcoal infused for coolness.
My next mattress will be from Ikea.

[Sibley]

Surprisingly, Macy's might be a good option. I've bought 2 mattresses there in the past year or so and the prices seemed to be comparable or less than other stores. Plus, if you want a traditional innerspring mattress, they've got them.

[SunnyDays]

I’ve mostly owned Simmons Beauty Rest mattresses and love them.  I buy the flat top firm and they’re perfect for me.  I did own 2 foam mattresses and the first was okay but softened up too quickly and the second was a rock from day one and just got lumpy over time.  I can’t fathom how anyone can buy a mattress without trying it out first.

[FINate]

We've had a latex-hybrid mattress for well over ten years now. The latex foam is similar to memory foam, yet it breathes so you don't wake up drenched in sweat, and the steel coils provide support. A cotton-wool comforter also helps.

They aren't cheap, but they last longer than a traditional mattress.

Even better, most latex-hybrid mattresses are made from natural biodegradable materials (latex, cotton, wool, wood), which is my main motivation for paying a bit more. I'm not really worried about "chemicals" as much as not wanting to discard of a mattress in ~10 years that is going to take thousands of years to biodegrade.

We've just ordered a replacement mattress from Avocado, will soon find out what it's like to sleep on.