Mattress Base

I purchased my king size Select Comfort bed at the Select Comfort store in ‘The Falls’ Shopping Mall in Miami. The bed cost me almost $4,000.00 in December of 2002. I was told by the sales representative (Rosa) that the bed was just wonderful and came with a 5 year warranty. I was concerned about the dependability of the bed, because I already have enough gadgets in my life, the last thing I wanted to worry about is the bed that I sleep on. Rosa assured me that everything would be wonderful. It has not.

What Rosa failed to tell me, and I am sure that the other Select Comfort Stores probably do the same thing, is that you are dealing with two separate companies. You have Select Comfort that makes the mattress and Leggett & Plat that makes the adjustable, vibrating foundation. The foundation is a nightmare, and breaks about twice a year. Since I bought the bed, I have had more service calls for my mattress then I have for my central air conditioning, and I live in Florida. Getting it repaired can be challenging because they have one repair company that works out of Palm Beach, Florida and I live in Miami. If it’s not the adjustable foundation that isn’t working, it is the vibrating motors that are attached to each side (4) of the king size bed, and are housed in this cheap foam attached to the base of the foundation. If you like this feature, you will have to deal with steady service calls to replace either the motors that burn out or the foam that desinigrates to the point where the vibrating motors makes contact with the bottom portion of the Select Comfort mattress and makes you think you have an outboard boat engine connected to your bed.

Remember that 5 year warranty I mentioned in the beginning? Well, getting passed the dysfunctional foundation was one thing, but I thought at least I was covered with the mattress. The air pump was not working properly and I contacted Select Comfort about a month ago. I was told to pull the mattress pump motor in and out of the plug a few times and maybe it would reset itself, and if it did not, to call them because the air pump was covered for 5 years. I went out of town, and when I returned I was having the same problem. You would set the bed to a certain “Sleep Comfort Level” and it would keep blowing up the mattress until it was at the point of bursting. Called Select Comfort today and spoke to John in customer service, and I was told that I would have to pay $180.00, because they changed the warranty on their beds in August of 2002, and I bought mine in December of 2002. He also told me that he had no record of my call to Select Comfort a month ago. Isn’t that convenient. Not only do I have to pay to get a new pump, but I have to install it myself–and was told that it could be a little tricky, so I should make sure I detach the hoses properly or I could have worse problems.

People who listened to Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and others who recommended Select Comfort, bought into this service nightmare and paid a hefty chunk of change to have to deal with these problems. All of the recommendations are bought and paid for by Select Comfort and it’s the uninformed consumer that ends up having to deal with becoming a mattress repair man or waiting for the mattress foundation repair people to show up. Do you really think you want to do this? I wish I never had.

Honestly, I would be looking at another company entirely. We purchased our king-size Englander “laytex” pillow-top foam rubber mattress in 1999 when I was 8 mos. pregnant with our first child. The initial comfort in the store and the first six months was wonderful. Our salesman told us that we didn’t really even need to rotate it, but I did once every few months. We started noticing body impressions within the first year. They have gotten steadily worse and now it’s to the point where (only 6 years later) we both wake up aching all over and my husband’s arms fall asleep. He’s resorted to placing a folded blanket under his side of the bed to at least make it bearable. The only nice thing I can say is that the pillow-top is in perfectly lovely shape, too bad the mattress itself is pure crap.

Comfort and support are very important for me in a mattress as I am a full time pet groomer.

Wear and tear on my back and shoulders is a constant battle in lifting and cutting unwilling dogs everyday. Some of these beasties weigh in at 80 lbs. which puts a lot of strain on muscles and joints.

Our innerspring bed of only six months was terrible. It already had sags in it on both sides and turning it did not help. Upon hearing all innerspring mattresses will eventually sag over a few years use I decided to check into another type of mattress.

I began to do research on epinions.com to see what kind of mattress got good and bad reviews. My husband especially wanted me to check out the airbeds that had been advertised on the telly (yeah he’s British), mainly the Select Comfort and the Nautilus Sleep Systems.

I loved the idea of not having to turn the mattress as with a King size that is a two person job. I also loved the idea of being able to adjust each individual’s own side to the amount of firmness desired. My side needs the support and my husband liked a bit of a softer type mattress.

We picked the Cerulean as our choice of mattress for the extra 2 inches of air and the pillowtop mattress covering. On the advise of the salesperson at AirBed Depot (Mark, which by the way, is the nicest guy around)I also ordered the Visco Memory Foam.

The mattress comes with a 2.5 inch comfort pad but can be replaced for an extra charge with the Visco Memory Foam which is a better type foam relieving pressure on the heavier parts of the body. It is heat sensitive and conforms to the body as you move at night.

After all was said and done, I decided that the Comfortaire mattress was the choice for us and ordered it from AirBed Depot as I received a lot of information from Mark. What really sold me was the fact that he and his wife had had this bed for around 20 years and were still sleeping on it. Anything that was still up and going after 20 years was to me quite impressive.

The order was shipped out on Monday and (WOW!!) I received it on Wednesday of the same week by Fed Ex. It came in two boxes and the Fed Ex guy put it right inside the back door for me.

The boxes (about 50 pounds each) contained everything I needed to assemble the bed. The instructions were easy to follow and I had it hooked up to the pump in no time flat. But the bad news was the pump did not work. Power was getting to it, but no air was being pumped to the air chambers.

I called AirBed Depot immediately and Mark shipped out a new pump with a postage paid slip from UPS for the return of the defective pump.

Mark assured me that all the pumps were tested before leaving the warehouse to be in good working order upon arrival.

I did note that although packed into it’s own box, the pump was not packed tightly and was without padding to take all the bumps and knocks from being transported from four states away.

The unpadded box was loosely packed into the larger box containing some of the other parts of the mattress. It could have easily been jarred around during transport.

The new pump arrived next day air from UPS and worked fine. It had been packed tightly into a box which was padded on all sides, top and bottom.

A lot of people on epinions.com complained about the noise from the pump. The noise was not that bad and it was only when you added air. As this should be done before you go to sleep, it should not be a bother at all. Letting out air even in the middle of the night is no problem as there is not enough noise to wake even the lightest of sleepers.

The air chambers which were made from Latex Rubber really have a strong odor. But after putting the Visco Foam layer and then the pillowtop cover on, we could not smell any of the odor at all.

I love the look of the mattress. It fit nicely on top of our existing box springs and since I use a dust ruffle, it blended nicely with everything.

I did have to get new sheets as our old mattress was only 8 inches thick and none of the old sheets would fit. You do need the deep pocket sheets or at least make sure the sheets you have will fit a 13 inch or thicker mattress.

The mattress was not very comfortable at first and we did have to work several nights on adjusting the amount of air in the chambers to each of our own tastes. But we finally got there.

I think I should take a bit of time here to give AirBed Depot a big hand of applause. Mark worked hard to get our new pump out to us with as little effort as possible. It was a bother to have to wait for a replacement, but not knowing how these things are packed and how much trauma Fed Ex. and UPS puts these boxed through, I cannot blame AirBed Depot for something not under their control. Customer support is hard and Mark handled the situation very well I think. Thanks AirBed Depot for smoothing things along!

Most of us don’t expect to talk to the owner of a company when purchasing a bed. But, when we do we like a straight forward person and no shady salesmanship. With COMFORT DIRECT(aka SATBED.com) You can be assured that even if your product is up to satisfaction you will still likely end up with a bad taste in your mouth due to the typical east coast used car dealership approach used by Kevin and his small staff.

I did a lot of research when I was buying my mattress. I had been in a car accident and have had back problems ever since then. The back pain was the worst in the mornings and I could never really get comfortable on my innerspring bed. Thats when I started looking into different kinds of beds. I had seen the tempurpedic commercials and thought that maybe a foam mattress would be better for me. I looked around on the internet and found all different kinds of mattress web sites. Comfort Direct was one that seemed to have a lot of good information. I did some reading and was impressed by their medical credentials. That is when I became interested in the SAM mattresses. From what I read this mattress it seemed like it might be an answer to my back problems. Although I had originally been interested in the foam beds, when I read more about this mattress I thought that this one would be better for me. The SAM is made up on 9 separate air cylinders that support you in a way that relieves the pressure points on your body. I decided to call in and find out more about the mattresses. I spoke with a sales person who gave me some more information and did recommend the SAM mattress to me. He told me that the foam beds are better than innerspring mattresses, but they don’t really support you in the best way possible. The just absorb the weight and the SAM actually adjusts to your body. The sales person also explained that this would be best for my back problems because it would fully support my back. He told me that this was the best possible environment for sleeping. When he told me about all the hospitals that the SAM is in I was sold. Honestly I was probably sold before I even called in, but that certainly made me feel better about it. I then placed my order and a couple of weeks later the mattress arrived at my door. I was very excited to try it. After the first night I felt a little better than I had before, but I was really hoping for something more substantial. I called Comfort Direct and spoke to someone in their customer service who assured me that there is acclimation period and I would soon feel much more comfortable on the mattress. In a few more days I hardly had any pain when I got up in the morning. Now, after a little less than a year on the SAM mattress, I hardly ever have any back pain and when I do it is never after I first wake up. I want people to know that I have had a great experience with the SAM mattresses and after walking up with no back pain I would never go back to any other type of mattress

Alright, I read some of these reviews and now I had to say my peace. I am a LONG term buyer.

I purchased my comfort select 5000 almost 4 years ago. I will admit that the cost absolutely sucks. However, my husband and I sleep just fine and are considering going from a queen to a king this year. (and putting the queen in our ‘guest’ room).

My number one reason for purchasing this bed, is that my fiance’ at the time could not sleep on my water bed… Not without sloshing me out of it, or him having to wake up covered in sweat and STUCK! We looked around high and low. We visited tempurpedic. I got too warm when trying them out.

I was a bit skeptical to order a mattress online. My hubby and I had been around the local stores and laid on every bed imaginable. I like a softer bed and he likes it firm. The highly advertised one on TV with the ‘NASA’ technology that starts with a T and ends in “empur”,was the only one we could agree on, but the price was ridiculous. Somehow I came across Bragada online, I think I googled memory foam mattress. We took a leap of faith and decided on the Silver Cloud model. The reason for our choice was, I wanted 100% natural latex foam and I couldn’t find that in any of the “T” models. I’d read that latex foam holds it’s shape better and offers more support. This bed was a fraction of the price of the other brand. The other thing that really hooked me in trusting that this was the bed for us, was the Orthopedic Research Institute Seal. We received our bed in less than 2 weeks. The delivery guys helped set it up and told me of other people that had ordered more than one of these mattresses. This made me feel great that people were return customers. I couldn’t wait to lay on it. I know it sounds corny and gushy, but I fell in love with this mattress immediantly. My husband ’steam rolls’ me less, snores less, when he does snore it’s more quiet, and I fell like I’ve slept better. I’ve actually woke up early feeling rested and not wanted to get up because the bed feels so good. We have the pillows that come from Bragada too. I’m used to sleeping on a nice big fluffy pillow. When I saw these contoured pillows from Bragada I thought for sure that would end up in a closet. I decided to try them out. WoW! I never thought I’d pass on my fluffy pillow that I bring with me to hotels and on vacations for this pillow that seems so flat to me. It’s amazing the neck and head support I get from it. No more waking up with neck pain. If you’re hesitant about buying a mattress online, I suggest going out to your local mattress store, laying on one of those “T” beds, and if you like it, buy a Bragada instead… Mostly because I have a friend that owns the “T” one and she says it makes her hot. HEHE! My first night on my Silver Cloud mattress, my hubby, who complains about being hot all the time, complained about being cold. I couldn’t believe it. Even people at work tried to get us to change our mind and buy an air bed instead, saying the memory foam would make us hot. We definitely have the last laugh. Thinking about it? Just get it! You won’t be sorry.

I’ve had a Tempurpedic twin-size mattress for several months now. Initially, I had the full-size one, but I discovered that sleeping on this particular mattress, I didn’t really roll around a whole lot, so I downsized to a twin. This was ok with Tempurpedic, so long as I signed a waiver saying I would give up the remaining of 3-month trial period. I agreed to this which was a mistake. I should have returned the mattress and purchased a new one. I think I didn’t want to do that, b/c I would have had to pay shipping charges for the twin mattress (as opposed to the single charge I paid for full-size and then exchanging it for free).

I have a lot of bedrooms to put mattresses on, and I really like to be able to accomodate our guests’ needs when they do visit. I have access to so many types of mattresses, since I sell them, that I decided to try out the Englander

Nature’s Finest on one of the guest room beds. I was, happily, very surprised!

The sound of ‘foam’ mattress, just didn’t seem right to me. I think of foam as a material that sags after just a little use, or under a lot of weight. (Some of our relatives fit in that last category!) But, I decided to give this mattress a try, when one relative, who just has so many allergies that are real, was coming to visit.

After trying out what seemed to be every bed in every store in my area, I found the Simmons Backcare to be the most comfortable for my hip and shoulder problems. But then I read the reviews posted here and worried that this expensive ($1,400) bed might not stand the test of time. So I did some research and learned that the Backcare line has been totally revamped for 2005.