What did you pay for your mattress?

hoffse · April 2014

H and I are about to be in the market for a new, king-sized mattress.

Right after we got married my parents' best friends down-sized from a 5 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom house. They gave us a king-sized mattress with a split box spring. The king was a wonderful change for us - H likes to sprawl in the middle of the night, and I finally felt like we had space. We had been using a queen up until that point. The queen is now in our guest room.

I obviously have no right to complain about a free mattress, but we've encountered an issue with it. There is now a high point in the middle of the mattress where nobody sleeps. The mattress slopes downward on either side toward the edge of the bed. So we've been sleeping on a sideways incline recently...

The other issue is that the mattress is too soft for both of us, and after a year it's started to hurt my back. We both like a very firm mattress with no pillow top. In that respect the queen is much better because it's quite firm. However, the size of the king is far superior to the queen when both of us are in it, and now that we've gotten used to the size of the king it would be hard to go back to the queen every night. I do sleep in the queen sometimes when H is not here, but he's about to graduate and be moved in permanently.

So we're going to buy a new king mattress sooner rather than later.

I'm trying to get a grasp on what we should budget for this. We don't need a new box spring - that's in fine shape, and I really like the split feature of the one we already own. We don't want memory foam because we both tend to get hot in the middle of the night, and the foam mattresses retain heat.

I'm willing to buy a good mattress. We spend 1/3 of our lives on them, so I do want it to be right. On the other hand, I would love to get a good deal if possible.

What did you pay? Any brands to avoid?

I just found a firm support, no pillow top, king-sized spring mattress without the box spring at my local Sear's outlet online. It's a Sealy for $492. That sounds exactly like what we're looking for, and we might go try it out this weekend. But I haven't been shopping for this long enough to know if it's really a good deal or if Sealy is a reliable brand.

Thoughts? Should we save for something a bit more expensive?

vlagrl29 · April 2014

I have not mattress shopped in years. We went to most of the mattress stores in the area and laid on them to try them out. Back then it was before I met DH and I was shopping for a queen size. I want to say it was 1k or something like that. When I met DH he had a king mattress and it was lovely. I will never go back to a queen and when I do see queen mattress's they look so teeny tiny and when we sleep on a queen if we are out of town it is highly annoying because DH's elbow will be in my face or I have to push him over.

I wouldn't go cheap when it comes to a mattress. Sleep is so important. I really don't know what a King mattress goes for. I know they say to always change out your mattress every 8 years, but I wonder if that's a marketing ploy. Seems not very long to me.

Xstatic3333 · April 2014

That seems extremely cheap for a King to me. Perhaps mattress pricing is regional, but our mid-range Queen is a Sealy and cost mid-800s. We didn't comparison shop much, but wanted something mid-range that would last about ten years. The upper range at our local furniture chain was high-1000s. We are very happy with what we got!

Perhaps it's just a great outlet deal, but I'd do lots of research to make sure the "model" you like holds up well over time. I can vouch that, in general, Sealy is a good brand.

JoanE2012 · April 2014

My first mattress I paid around $1000. It was extra firm and was heavenly. It never dipped or created indentations. I had it for 10 years and loved it. When DH entered the picture, he hated it. We compromised when we bought our king mattress last year and got a firm mattress. It was around $900 (we saved some money because we didn't need a boxspring). It's a Sealy Posturepedic. There is already that slight middle "hump". I hate it, but everything else about the bed is comfortable. But who knows, I could have the same problems with a $2k mattress, but then I'd be even more upset that I spent all that money. I find by me (NJ), anything under $800 just feels awful in the showroom.

Mom987 · April 2014

That sounds about right. We spent $450 for our king 3.5 years ago and it's a "memory foam" knockoff brand from overstock but it's been great.

tigerfighter · April 2014

H and I bought a king size bed last year and with everything I think we spent around 3600. The mattress was either 1800 or 2100.

I just bought myself a queen yesterday that cost all together 800

hoffse · April 2014

Thanks, I think we'll check it out. It did sound extremely cheap, and I'm concerned that it might be too good to be true.

Costco has a few that are a couple hundred more than that which get good reviews... and if we find we don't like it, we can return it to them forever.

My parents got the queen at a discount furniture liquidators place about 5 years ago. It's still perfect. Granted, it has only had me sleeping in it for the most part, but I've always slept on the same side of the bed, and 5 years later I can't tell a difference when I test out the other side. It's been a great mattress - no idea who makes it, though I can check. It's probably too much to hope that the furniture place still carries that brand, but I might check it out. I'm pretty sure they spent about $400 on it, intending on it to be something to just get me through law school. Turns out I'm probably going to get 15 years+ out of that thing now that it's in our guest room.

I wish there was a way to know it advance if it's good or if it's crap!

cbee817 · April 2014

The twin with box spring we bought DD#1 last year was $700. The queen we were looking at was about $1300- it's supposed to last 15 years. At the time, we just got DD#1's- we'll probably buy ours this summer when we get a new bed frame.

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2014

We got an iComfort king-size a couple years ago for $1800, we had to buy the box spring with it, so that price includes the box spring. I love our mattress! it's one of those gel-infused memory foam mattresses. it doesn't hold as much heat as the tempurpedics do, so we can put the heavy blankets I like to sleep with on the bed and we don't get too hot. I think it came with a 25 year warrantee, per-usual that is dependent on it having no stains, so we did spend some money on a really good protective cover that will actually replace the mattress if anything stains it through the cover.

brij2006 · April 2014

Check out the Sleep Number beds. They're expensive, but heavenly.

The one we priced out was $4k for everything, but it was a California King.

vlagrl29 · April 2014

to avoid the hump in the middle of a king mattress you need to rotate it every so often. I'm sure you already know that

hoffse · April 2014

Yeah we've been rotating it... it's actually kind of comical how awful it is. You can visibly see the incline...

I checked with my dad, and he paid $300 for the mattress + boxspring for the queen I love so much. Granted, it was from a furniture liquidation place, but still. I guess that's why I'm skeptical about dropping over a grand for a king. I KNOW deals are out there for quality mattresses. But maybe I need to face the music with this one.

We'll check out the gel memory foam mattresses. If those don't run as hot, that could have some potential. It would be really nice to have limited motion transfer.

We'll probably pass on the Sealy, since returns are questionable with that one. I'm now leaning toward something from Costco so that I can take it back if we hate it.

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2014

We love the gel memory foam, I think the cover we put on it also helps with what temperature it runs at, I also drop our thermostat down to 59 degrees all fall/winter/spring because I like to sleep cold, but it still doesn't stop us from putting flannel sheets on the bed all winter.

I think the sleep numbers are only a good investment if the two of you find you like entirely different firmnesses in your mattresses. My parents purchased a sleep number because in the early 90's they had a waterbed that my mom loved but hurt my dad's back, then they went with a super firm mattress and my mom didn't sleep well, they ended up on the same number on the sleep number and kind of wished they had tried a few other matteresses before dropping all that money on the sleep number.

emily1004 · April 2014

I've got my eye on a Sterns and Foster King sized Ultra Plush. It's very similar to the beds the Four Seasons Hotels use. It's going to set us back about $2K.

blondie42107 · April 2014

Our king size mattress and box spring were $900 - $1,000 five years ago. We purchased from a non-chain furniture store. Love it!

10+ years ago I bought a twin mattress and box spring for college and it was made in state. That was about $300.

Erikan73 · April 2014

We do a lot of our shopping for bigger ticket items at the local Sears Outlet. You should still go and check it out but go to a few regular stores first to check out styles of mattress & prices. The reason that sears is usually so dramatically cheaper is that at the outlet stores they sell scratch & dents & discontinue models. With the discontinued model there is anything wrong with them, but I'm sure mattresses are like anything else and they change things around from year to year or every few years. There is also the possibility it was a sprecial order that wasn't accepted or it didn't fit into the person's home that ordered the king & Sears doesn't want to keep that mattress in their inventory so moved it to the outlet store for a reduced price.

sparklerose · April 2014

Our queen mattress was $1100 on close out. I can't imagine getting a good one for much less. It's pillow top though

CuriousKiddosMama · April 2014

We just bought ours at Big lots this past summer. We paid about $6-700 for it. It was a king pillow top Sealy. We really like it, and it has a 10 year warranty which is awesome. Full replacement for 5 years, then 10% value for each year it has left (year 7 we would get 30%). I don't think you have to spend a ton to get a good mattress. My parents last mattress they spent like $2k on and by year 2 they had to call in the warranty and have it replaced because it was crap.

What did you pay for your mattress?

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