Mattress Base

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In 1999 I bought a Simmons Back Care Queen Size mattress from a local dealer. I purchased a “floor model” that, they claimed, was under warranty. Shortly thereafter, the store went out of business. Needless to say, the mattress only lasted two years. Simmons attributed this swift breakdown to the fact that the mattress was a “floor model.” They also explained to us that the sales person had misled us and that floor models are never covered under warranty.

Given the situation, however, Simmons did replace the mattress for us with the understanding that the new mattress would not have a warranty. I felt this was fair. I was naive in my mattress purchase and they did not have to honor what the salesman told me. They did show compassion and, as a result, excellent customer service. After all, we felt that the mattress had to have been mistreated or it wouldn’t have broken down so quickly and it was very kind of them to replace it with one that would last “a lot longer” as they put it.

Although Simmons did not give us specs on our new bed when they replaced it, they did tell us it was called the Edgewood (a factory made Simmons name, which is not found in the stores due to the “Mattress Name Game”). We were told that it was comparable to the mid-line Simmons Back Care mattresses available at that time. As a result, our mattress can be best described as the following:

1. A queen pillowtop, no-flip mattress.

2. A 5 Zone Sleep system. This is represented by Simmons as 3 Comfort Zones (Shoulder, Hip & Lower Legs) and 2 Support Zones (Lumbar and Thighs).

3. Zoned continuous coil system that is intended to add support in the same areas as the first layer of foam by changing the coil gauge in each of the support zones to add or decrease support as needed. The comfort areas have a higher gauge number, which equals a thinner coil. (It is important to note here that gauge does not solely determine quality or support in a mattress. The combination of Gauge –the lower the number, the thicker the coil – and Coil Count equals the support/quality of a mattress. Ideally, the higher the gauge, or thinner the coil, the more coils you need to balance out the support in a mattress. Likewise, a heavier gauge needs fewer coils to provide a good back support.)Simmons did not provide the coil count for each of these zones.

4. The pillowtop consists of gradient foam that supports each area of the body differently to correspond with the 5 Zone system in the coils. Extracted foam is placed in the comfort zones and denser foam is placed in the support zones. The quilting is also designed to go along with the 5 Zone sleep system as the stitching on the quilting is tighter over the support zones.

5. When we received this mattress from the factory, Simmons was using a number system for their lumbar support areas to designate the firmness applied to that particular area. I do not recall if the system was 1-3 or 1-5, but I do know that we received the middle of the system, not soft but not overly firm. (As Goldilocks would say, “Just Right.”)

6. We were never explained anything about the foundation for this mattress, just that it supports the 5 zones system. Recently, however, while shopping for my new mattress, quite a few Simmons reps told me that the majority of the older system (versus the brand new system) beds used a basic wood foundation, not a box spring. There is a possibility that this is the case for my mattress.

7. Unlike some of the newer Back Care systems, this bed does not have an encased edge support system. It uses a standard metal bar support. This is one of the areas that broke down quickly on this bed, so I do believe the new edge support might increase some of the durability on this mattress.

The new mattress has a manufacture date of 6/27/02. Since I am writing on 08/24/03, I think that you might be able to figure out why they were kind enough to replace the first mattress. Yup, you guessed it. This new mattress lasted a shorter time than the floor model.

Now, I know that a lot of the reviews on this site are positive reviews when it comes to the Simmons Back Care. This is understandable as, in the beginning, this mattress is a dream. After 6 months to a year, however, sleep does not come so well. After a year with this mattress, I am waking up in severe pain every morning. I have gone the last two weeks with 6 hours of very fitful sleep every night. And, in case you are wondering, we are not talking about pillow top breakdown. The springs on this mattress severely squeak, creak and groan beyond belief. And we’re not talking about the box spring. The springs have become painful (even through the pillow top) and pressure on the joints is unbelievable.

Also, in case you’re wondering, this was not a bottom line mattress. The 50% off price on this mattress in 1999 was $900, before the floor model discount. Because they did not give us the same mattress for a replacement, I cannot say how much the replacement mattress would have cost; however, Simmons did tell us it was comparable, if not a slight upgrade (mostly due to the no-flip feature not found on our first mattress).

If asked if I would recommend this mattress, I will only say one thing: Yesterday, we bought a Sealy. Ironically, I only had to mention the word “Simmons” to the sales people at both Sears and Burdines and they responded, respectively (and without us telling them how long we’d had the Simmons) “Broke down incredibly fast, didn’t it?” and “We sell those here, but I tell my customers they’re crazy if they want to buy one. Of course, the newly designed Back Care looks to be built a lot better, but, since it just came out, we’ll see….”

Although, I think Simmons gets kudos for their generosity in switching out the original mattress when they didn’t have to, I cannot recommend this pain to anyone.

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