When is the Right Time to Replace My Mattress?
This is a common question.
Many retailers, in an effort to enhance sales, suggesting to people with older mattresses that they buy a new one, by promoting an age limit.
The problem with this advice, from a consumer’s perspective, is that so much has changed for worst in the mattress industry, you’re likely to give up your perfectly good older mattress for an inferior new mattress that requires frequent replacing.
The older your mattress is, the more likely it is that nothing is made so well today.
Well, maybe not ‘nothing’, but certainly none of the ‘name brands’ that you could once trust for quality.
It’s quite likely, that if you own an older name brand mattress, you could easily be persuaded to by that same brand mattress now…expecting the same quality.
I’ve gotten many letters of regret from people who have done so.
Sealy and Stearns & Foster were purchased by Tempurpedic in 2013.
Tempur-Sealy is the name today.
Simmons and Serta were purchased by an investment group in 2016.
They are still sold separately, as two different companies today. But, they are one.
What changed to make the mattresses made by these companies so much lower in quality, is the use of memory foam as the primary upholstery material.
Memory foam is specifically designed to cause a mattress to need frequent replacing….and not under the terms of the warranty, which is now, almost useless.
So, if you have an older mattress, you might want to hang on to it until it really does need to be replaced.
How do you know? Easy!…
…when you aren’t sleeping well anymore or waking with some aches and pains.
Keep in mind that a mattress is a pressure sensitive product.
The more you weigh, the sooner you’ll need a new one.
The higher the quality of the components, the slower it will wear.
If you’re a lightweight person on a high quality mattress, you could be happy with the quality of sleep you’re getting for decades.
There is a way to extend the life of today’s short lived mattresses.
Add a mattress topper to create barrier between you and the memory foam.
(Obviously, not one made of memory foam).
Memory foam is a temperature sensitive material.
As it warms from your body’s heat, it softens…allowing your body to sink.
At first, only a little, creating a very comfortable cradling feel.
Unfortunately, that comfort is short lived, as memory foam (by its nature) isn’t as resilient as other upholstery materials that aren’t temperature sensitive.
After a matter of a few months, especially for heavier people, the trunk of your body begins to sink into the mattress further and further.
Lighter weight people might get a few years…still, not a long life.
The result is back pain from sleeping out of your natural alignment and numbness in the extremities because they aren’t sinking as much.
Here are links to mattress toppers.
One of the things that promotes early wear is moisture seeping into the upholstery materials…regardless of which upholstery material is in your mattress.
The primary source for this moisture is your own perspiration.
This premature wear, along with the increasingly ripening odor, can be prevented by using a waterproof mattress protector.
Here are links to mattress protectors.
Another thing that you can do to extend the sleeping comfort life of your mattress is to rotate it regularly….once a month for the first year and once every 3 months thereafter.
A standard size king size mattress can be rotated a 1/4 turn.
While not quite square, it’s close enough to square for this trick.
What commonly happens with a king size mattress is a hump that develops up the center. This occurs for 2 reasons. 1, nobody sleeps in the center. 2, there may be two box springs supporting the mattress…with the center edge of each creating firmer support up the center of the bed. Many platform beds also have a firmer center support.
The 1/4 turn trick mitigates the development of the “center hump”, which is otherwise considered ’the nature of the beast’.
The best time to employ all of these preventive measures is when the mattress is new…before the problems arise.
Thanks, Pete - TME
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Use a waterproof mattress protector.
Your new mattress will last longer if kept it clean and dry.
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