How much money have you lost trying to get a good night’s sleep? If you want sweet dreams, read on.
by John Rogers, President, John’s Bedroom Barn
For over a quarter of a century now I’ve been searching for the perfect mattress system. I’ve listened to sales rep after sales rep telling me about their “latest and greatest, new and improved” products ad nauseam.
On many an occasion I’ve bought these “latest and greatest” systems for my own stores, hoping each time that the product would live up to its hype. I’d conservatively guess that over the years we’ve spent over $150,000 on mattress systems that failed and warranties that didn’t work because of the fine print.
And over the years we’ve listened to innumerable clients who are in the same boat. They’ve spent thousands of dollars on conventional mattress systems that failed weeks, months or a couple of years after their purchase, only to find that the terms of their warranty made it impossible to collect.
What’s wrong with the mattress industry
In the old days, mattresses had quilted “comfort layers” both top and bottom. This meant we all had to flip our mattresses regularly in order to efficiently utilize both layers of topping.
Now I never met anyone who enjoyed flipping their mattress, so it was inevitable that sooner or later someone would come up with a solution. This great day arrived in 2003 when manufacturers declared that the “no flip mattress” was the answer. “No more fighting with your bed! With our New and Improved Product, all you have to do is lie down and go to sleep.”
Sounds great, but were they really trying to save you extra work? No – they were trying to cut costs. Instead of quilting mattresses both top and bottom to provide you with two comfort layers, they saved a pile of money by only quilting the top. And because there’s only one quilted layer, guess what wears out twice as fast? You got it – your no-flip mattress.
So it turns out that while the no-flip gimmick may have saved you some work, the real winners are the manufacturers who cut their costs by cutting quality.
Why the warranties don’t work
You can still get 15 to 20 year warranties on these new-fangled mattresses, so it looks like your new no-flip mattress should last as long as your old one.
But let’s take a look at the fine print. Old warranties used to protect you against the excessive softening of your mattress over time. New mattress warranties claim that up to 2 inches of visible height loss, or body impressions, are completely normal and so not warranted.
What does that mean, exactly? Here’s an example. We’ve all sat on a couch that’s old – you know, the kind where you take a seat and your behind ends up lower than your knees. Have a look at that cushion when you climb out of the trough. Has it lost any height from its original size? Unlikely. But the top layer has lost all its ability to cushion you.
It’s almost impossible to lose height on foam, which is what all mattresses are topped with, but that doesn’t mean the foam is doing the job you paid it to do. As the couch example demonstrates, just because your mattress might look fine, it doesn’t mean that it will remain comfortable. But your warranty probably won’t cover you if it doesn’t.
We have some solutions
The mattresses in my stores are made exclusively for my stores according to our specifications. We don’t follow the industry by touting new gimmicks, cutting corners and writing warranties that protect us, not you.
Instead, we use old-fashioned common sense coupled with great Canadian-made foams and we do a little backyard tinkering when we find a better way or a superior product. Our mattresses can be made differently from side to side to accommodate different comfort preferences, usually at no additional cost. The mattresses can be flipped – easily! – and if components like the topping material do wear out, they can be easily and inexpensively replaced.
It’s not expensive!
A good queen-size mattress from us starts at $499.99. Come in to see our mattress specialists and find out why we are “the home of a great night’s sleep”.
