A while ago the National Bed Federation (NBF) noted that retailers were not informing customers that all new mattresses, in particular high end mattresses were subject to settlement. This means that initially, body impressions would be more visible as the mattress fillings directly beneath the user are compressed.
Although settlement of fillings occurs in every mattress it seems that mattresses with comfort layers of memory foam, reflex or other high density foam and latex are less susceptible to this. Mattresses with very soft layers such as wool, wool cotton, polyester are more prone and therefore constant twisting and rotating of the mattress whilst new is extremely important to even out the wear pattern.
Even Vi-Spring -one of the premier mattress manufacturers – gives this essential information on their site advising that initial body impressions are not a fault of the mattress but an intrinsic part of the mattress bedding in period.
In my experience settlement can be a cause of unnecessary concern. It shows itself more in mattresses with a bigger span area such as Kingsize or Superking sizes. It is obvious that you are only sleeping in an area the width of your body and therefore the central and perimeter areas will be under utilised. After a few weeks it may look like the sleeping areas are wearing quicker than the rest of the mattress but constant turning and rotating will in time equal out this pattern.
Quirkly, cheaper end mattresses with minimal layers of wadding tend not to show body indents as there is so little wadding to indent you tend not to notice it more readily. You are primarily sleeping directly on the spring unit
So what can be done? Firstly not many people realise that the underlying layers used in the mattress will have an effect on how they settle. Foams as bridging layers are extremely resilient to this and in many of the high end mattresses I sell I always try to add an inch layer of Reflex foam above the spring unit as the resilient bridge between the springs and the primary comfort layers . If this was not there then when you are compressing the comfort layers you will be doing so directly on the springs with absolutely nothing taking the strain.
Absolute high end mattresses with natural fibres [rather than polyester] as the primary layers utilise components such as horse hair, coir, coarse cashmere and so forth as the bridge between the spring unit and upper layers doing just the same job as as a suspension between soft [primary] and hard [springs].
A valid argument is that having a foam layer above the spring unit (pocket sprung) detracts from the individualised mechanics of the springs themselves. Possibly true – but I would argue that the foam is acting like a dampener for your bodyweight and distributing the load over a greater area rather than being directly over the springs themselves.
Final layers of wool or soft polyester are included entirely for softness and comfort but has absolutely no support or resilience. Therefore the layer directly below must be a component that offers a degree of support to prevent you sinking right in to the spring unit. As I mention in another post, manufacturers will include Cashmere, wool, silk etc often just for marketing purposes – these luxurious layers (often minimal and at times utterly useless) offer nothing for support and everything for comfort. Unless they are backed up with some kind of resilient layer then you will find the mattress will be more prone to body indents a lot quicker than necessary.
Firmness levels are also something to consider to minimise settlement. A mattress that has been traditionally hand tufted will compress the fillings so that there is very little room for movement and thus creating the firm mattress. Conversely, the fillings in a soft mattress will be loose and so settlement and indents will show more readily. And there you have your dilemma !! So what can you do?
Protecting your mattress is key. So by adding an additional layer such as a soft blanket, basic topper or even a basic duvet beneath the top sheet to suit your own personal comfort level will in the long run have an enormous impact on the life of the mattress and potential settlement. Support for your own bodyweight should always take preference over the comfort level as it is easier to manipulate comfort than it is to alter the support.
Never put your bottom sheet directly on top of your mattress, there really has to be something beneath to protect your mattress from the copius amount of moisture you perspire each and every night. In time, you will be so glad you did.
Jean,
You’ve got you maths wrong! 3% of 35,000 is not 1150 or 4 a day.
It’s 1050 which is less then 3 a day if they work 365 days a year.
Hi Dave. Thanks for the correction. In any event it is very small fry. What is oiutstanding is the fact they readily admit things can and do go wrong – many companies are adamant that everything they produce is nothing short of perfect. In Jean’s case Vi-Spring did make amends to satisfy her concern and I am sure that there are many people who have purchased a mattress from lesser established companies who do not receive a similar level of customer after care that Vi-Spring offers.
Ryan and I readily admit that at times we too fall short of the mark. Although annoying and frustrating, our customers are never left to foot the bill. It’s how it is put right that becomes the issue. John and Ryan.
I thought folks might just be interested in knowing about our third Vispring mattress. It is a firm and as I said, we are using a double chamber topper. The bed is a little too firm for me without the topper, but after 3 months, there is no indentation or sag in the mattress. In fact, it pretty much looks like it did when it arrived. So we are satisfied at present and it looks like it will remain a good bed. However, I am interested to note that I am not alone with the problems with this company, but quite sorry as their reputation is almost second to none.
We’re most grateful for this site.
Re Jean; we’ve had same problem with our (2xmedium) Herald Supreme Z & L. After a month first bed sagged in middle (ie at sides of each mattress) & was replaced; second has develped same problem after 10 months & inspection due shortly.
Please tell us what happened after your last mail of 21 Jan. Many thanks & we hope it worked out well for you. If not did you get a refund?
Hi Iain, I have already sent Jean an email informing her of this post. Please feel free to add further findings here where I am able to add a direct response rather than broadly speculate. John and Ryan.
Dear Sirs,
I wonder if you could pass my email address onto Jean as I am also having the same problem with a Vi Spring mattress as she is. Thank you.
Regards, C Shea.
Will do. Please let me know what problems you are experiencing. John
HI All
I’m a different Jon. This thread has been great reading and with all honesty its great to see what you guys are doing here. I’m a retail manager for Feather & Black & we deal with high end bespoke mattresses & I am forever having these conversations with customers, trying to explain that supportiveness & firmness are DIFFERENT things entirely. I totally agree with the chaps here, comfort is 2nd to correct levels of support when purchasing as the comfort can be adjusted to suit, if you fail to have the correct level of support for both partners you will find the comfort impossible to attain. Always follow the Goldilocks System when choosing a bed & when ever in doubt always go one additional tension firmer rather than softer to ensure you body is supported fully. Once again John/Ryan great job in looking after these folks & long may service levels stay at the top of our business objectives especially in this sensitive product type. Jon
Hi Jon, Thanks for your comment. You will be aware that perceived firmness levels from a high end mattress that uses calico [tied] pocketed springs rather than mass produced polypropylene [glued] pocketed springs offer an entirely different level of support and comfort. Even though all pocketed springs use the same principle of individualised support it is how they are encased and utilised with the components contained that can produce a mattress of vastly differing firmness and comfort levels. At Feather and Black for example, you will be more than familiar with the comfort and support levels of most Vi-Spring / Spinks matts that use Calico springs as the support. What Vi-Spring tend to describe as firm [based on a 1.52mm six turn spring] has a completely different tension and level of comfort to a mattress that uses the aforementioned mass produced springs of similar gauge and count but also described as ‘firm’.
This brings me to the Soft, Medium or Firm anomoly that most people tend to use when selecting a mattress. It is not posible to try out a [firm] Vi-Spring mattress and then look for a simlar [firm] tension from say a Sealy or whatever because the difference in support between the two will be so vast a direct comparison cannot posibly be made. Mattresses should initilaly be selected based on the customers weight and weight differences. Their budget will dictate the expected quality of the internal components and then everything else should fall into place.
Thanks Jon for taking the time to comment, particulary as you are in such a prestigious environment, it is very much appreciated. John and Ryan.
John/Ryan, one thing still totally confuses me. Why did our first Vi-spring mattress not suffer from these problems. Bought in 1988, lasted over 20 years, was comfortable from day one and never had indentations. What are they doing differently?
Hi Jean, Without seeing or knowing what was inside your old mattress we cannot say for cerrtain. This would be a good question to ask Vi-Spring. Keep in touch. John and Ryan.
Hi there,
We have had exactly the same problem with a Somnus 6000 count mattress, Harrison Spinks has been out once replaced it from a regular tension to a firm but still after 5 months we can not sleep on it due to the indentations. Bum just sinks has no support, if you turn its like sleeping on a hill or in a hole. How are you meant to turn these mattresses with a bad back as they weigh a ton. Just waiting to hear whar Barker & Stonehouse say, we just want our money back now, ridiculous for a £1500 mattress!
Simon.
Hi Simon, sorry to hear this and unfortunately it is a recurring theme hence the reason why I started this particular post.
The main reason settlement is accentuated – as well as accelerated, is the fact that the primary layers are ‘soft and comforting’ with little or no underlying support except for the spring unit. When the soft layers are tirelessly compressed against the spring unit night after night it wont take too long for them to lose their inherant ‘bounce’ and refuse to spring back into the original loftiness. You then find yourself sleeping directly on the spring unit albeit for a flattened (no longer soft) layer of wool or whatever.
What’s missing are underlying layers of progressively supportive complimentary waddings so the wool (or whatever) has a soft bridging buffer to repel against instead of being forced against a spring unit. However, adding additional layers will make the mattress relatively firmer, and firmer still when the primary layers become greater – each being able to compliment the ones above, as well as below to aid longevity and of course minimise premature settlement.
Another thing to bear in mind is that high end mattress manufacturers stow great store in the actual spring technology utilised in their mattresses. If there was umpteen layers of wadding in the mattress then how would you benefit from the spring unit which in most cases is the only thing that differentiates the manufacturers of equal standing.
There is no easy answer Simon, Ryan and I advocate the theory that your mattress should be tweaked by use of a topper to suit your persoanl comfort level and the mattress should be supportive enough for your individual bodyweight. Your comfort preference will undoubtedly change over the years and exchanging the topper to suit will be a lot easier (and economical) than changing / replacing the mattress. The wear pattern will also be on the topper keeping your mattress as new for many, many years.
For all readers, I am aware that this response has so many conflicting arguments [for and against] that it seems to me rather inadequate. In order for me to address this particular concern with more clarification please add your individual comments and questions. John.
John, I would like to thank you for your amazing information especially as I am not a customer. We are amazed that they sent a third mattress – good customer service – although the lady who called me by phone with a problem from the same company didn’t have the same experience. Yes, the topper makes all the difference, to both of us and hopefully this bed will last us nearly as long as our first from this company (20 years) but by then, we will both be too old to care – many thanks. Jean
OK, new bed (firm) has been delivered. My husband loves it. For me, it is a little hard, but a feather topper makes all the difference. Only had it a week, but seems a lot better.
Hi Jean, glad to hear all turned out well. As these comments are placed in date order new readers will find the full story by reading from the bottom upwards!
One significant point to note is that even on a mattress from a premier manufacturer (Vi-Spring) you have had to adjust the comfort level with a topper. This is no bad thing and should be considered acceptable on all mattresses. All mattresses ‘settle’ over time and will get softer as they are broken in – the overall tension on a new mattress does not stay the same. Ryan and I always advocate that you should select a relatively firmer mattress than you would have normally chosen and tweak it to your desired comfort level by use of a good quality topper. In years to come your mattress should still be like new and the expense of a new topper now and again is far less than the expense of a new mattress. Mattress tensions are gained by only two methods
1)The spring itself (thicker wire = Firmer – Thinner wire = Softer)
2) The tufting strands (The shorter the strand = Firmer – The longer the strand = Softer)
Comfort layers themselves cannot really be made softer or firmer – the more they are compressed through tufting means they will have less room for movement (and thus the less chance of those horrible indents appearing ). Conversely, the softer tension on a mattress means that the fillings have been kept loose and you sink into said mattress and so indents will appear more readily. .. So how do you compromise? Do exactly what Jean has done and use a topper to tweak the comfort level for an initial period of a year or so. You will be getting the right support and the right comfort from day one and in the coming years your mattress will be breaking in slowly and naturally.
It has to be said that this short reponse is not the ultimate in answers to inhibit settlement and indents but does go a long way in explaining why and how it happens. Please add further comments or arguments if you want to discuss further. John and Ryan.
Could it not be a cover for a badly made mattress?
I’ve had 2 Sleepeezee 6’0 ft mattress (Vancouver & Vermont) from Furniture Village. The last one having ‘settled’ so much that I can no longer sleep on it.
The first one they just replaced without sending anyone out, the second one started to sag after 4 months so they sent a technician from FIRA who said the bed had been damaged around the edge but that hadn’t caused the sagging. He then told me that the settlement in the ‘most weighted areas’ was ‘natural’ and that 22mm in 4 months is normal! If a mattress is guaranteed for 5-6 years then 22mm every 4 months makes for a very uncomfortable mattress!
If someone had told me when I bought the mattress that it would start to sag then I would not have continued with the purchase. I suffer from back pain and this mattress has made it worse. We had a cheap Ikea mattress that lasted 8 years and just became less supportive, it certainly never felt like I was sleeping in a hole!
I’ve written to FV telling them that the mattress is not fit for purpose but they will not refund me as the technician’s report (of which they kindly sent me a copy!) says the settlement is natural… it’s got cop-out written all over it as far as I can see!
Not giving up yet though! Will let you know how I get on. Claire.
Hi Claire, thanks for sharing this. Ryan and I have absolute empathy with your situation and unfortunately there is no simple remedy. What is most appalling about this is the fact that ‘customer service’ seems to have stopped as soon as you paid your money. Another galling aspect of this is recognising that a retailer of this standing is not prepared to take ‘direct issue’ on your behalf with the manufacturer to identify why this has happened – twice!!
It isn’t as if FV is an insignificant retailer and I assume they are considered a major account to many manufacturers, so they should be insisting / demanding with absolute vigour that the quality of the products they sell meets their standards – and ultimately – their customer’ standards.
The [Memory Foam] products you chose were not cheap (average about £800) although in our opinion they should have been. This being the case every effort by the retailer and manufacturer should have been made to ABSOLUTELY ENSURE the quality of the product is in relation to the retail price and obviously this has not been done.
Ryan and I give a guarantee to all our customers that we will collect and refund in full if they are not happy with any of our products thay have bought. We are not a big company – just the two of us, but ethically and morally we believe it is the right way to carry out our business and ensure our customers keep coming back to us. There should be no need whatsoever for any mattress retailer to involve third parties, if our customers say there is something wrong or they are not happy, then that is good enough for us and it becomes absolute priority that amends are made – at our expense and not our customers. In order for us to do this we have to ensure as best as posible that the products we sell will not develop faults months down the line – hence one of many reasons why we do not sell Memory Foam mattresses – or indeed numerous other models that we ourselves do not have faith in. If the big companies did this and spent more time on researching and detailing the quality of products rather than patronising advertising then incidents such as yours would become relatively rare.
So what can be done? Until consumers start to question what is actually INSIDE the mattress by weight and quality then unfortunately complaints such as yours will continue. In your case, do you actually know the depth and density of memory foam (the main component) used as the top layer? I doubt it, and you should be questioning why on earth don’t you know? After all, it was on this component that most of your money went. And so, because of this simple lack of vital information you (and I) cannot say with any degree of certainty why the problem occurred. If it was one centimeter of Memory Foam, then sure it would quickly degrade, if it was an acceptable 2″, then something else could have caused the dipping.
Sorry for the extended reply on this comment. My blood boils because indirectly Ryan and I will be tarred with the same brush. We too will not be giving up either. Keep in touch. John.
OK, so we have received a letter from Furniture Village, saying that a new mattress will be delivered in the next 4-6 weeks. We telephoned to ask what the Ecomaster person said, but they don’t know. Next we spoke to the Vispring technician who we saw when we visited the factory and he said they make 35,000 beds a year and 3% are duff. So that means that 1150 mattresses a year are rubbish? Now it’s strange that we have had 2, but we have worked out that out of 104 a day, 4 are rubbish, so kind of puts it into perspective.
We are going to visit a shop that has a firm mattress available to view, although personally I doubt you can tell anything about a mattress by spending 10 minutes on it!
Our first Vispring (lasted 20 years) was firm one side and medium the other. So we are no wiser as to what was wrong with it, the only thing the factory tell us is that they are changing the wool they were using to something different.
OK, so the guy from Ecomaster came today, seemed to know what he was talking about and seemed to agree that the bed was not what it should be. As Vi-Spring are only down the road, we have told him to ask one of them from the company to come and take a look because I don’t want a third bed that is going to do this. Will keep you posted.
Thanks Jean. This will be interesting to see how it pans out. John.
John, if the other person also has a Vispring, please give them my e-mail address and tell them to contact me. The Vispring factory is only about 10 miles from here and we intend to visit again once the independent person has been.
Hi Jean, It was also a Vi-Spring. I will pass your details on. John.
John, thank you for your response. The first mattress was a Regal Supreme, and the guys who came to take it away could not believe that it would not even stand up against the wall, it just sagged down to the floor. So on visiting the Vispring factory, and being told that in general the Regal was softer, they suggested a Herald, which is what we had before. My husband, who likes a firmer bed in general, was convinced by the technicians that at our weight, we did not need a firm construction, only a medium. So it was decided that the replacement would be a herald Supreme Medium. We have turned it regularly both end for end and right over. Both sides show that the ticking is wrinkled and there are big indents where our bodies have been. Sorry, I should also add that even after 6 hours out of the bed, if you go back and take the linen off, the ticking is still wrinkled and the body shapes are still there.
We have a person from Ecomaster visiting next week – probably the same guy who came last time and we will see what he says. I will come back when I know. Jean.
Hi Jean, since your last comment we have heard of a similar experience from another reader. Please let us know how this pans out and we will be able to put you in touch with each other. John.
We are on our second Vispring mattress. The first one we only had for 2 months, the settlement was so bad, we were sleeping in a hollow with a big lump down the middle. It was very uncomfortable. they exchanged it and now this one is no better even after 18 months. We had our previous Vispring for 20 years before it needed replacing. I can’t believe this settlement is normal. I should have mentioned which mattress we have currently, it is a Herald Supreme Kingsize medium and we are 11st and 10st 7lbs respectively. We are so disappointed with the mattress and don’t know what to do.
Hi Jean, for the benefit of other readers it will be important to point out that Vi-Spring are deemed to be the premier mattress manufacturer in this country. They also lay claim to manufacturing the most expensive bed at £52.000 ish! They are also the only major manufacturer who will detail the components used in their mattresses by weight. That said, they also have a moral duty to stand by their reputation and in all cases of customer dissatisfaction have an obligation to do the right thing. After all, you purchased this mattress based on the performance of your 20 previous years of Vi-Spring luxury – so what has happened?
The mattress you have concerns with has a retail price of around £2000 (Prestige Range) and even though this is no small amount of money it can only buy you a Vi-Spring mattress from just above their bottom of range. However, you have also bought a mattress based on Vi-Springs reputation for quality. Looking at the fillings used for the primary and supportive layers [primarily wool and cotton] they [will] compress over time. I personally would have thought that measures would have been taken to reduce the ocurrance bearing in mind that it is manufactured by a company of worth and generations of experience.
And this is what makes me think that it was probably your choice of comfort level [medium] that could be a candidate for your complaint. Taking into account the length of spring, mattress depth and fillings weight as best I can, the tensioning of the tufts would have been less taut than say on the firmer option. In contrast, making the tuft strand shorter the fillings will be compressed further [thereby creating a firmer tension because there is little room left for any movement whatsoever] and so settlement would only start to occur slowly and naturally with time and age. Finally, bear in mind that this mattress has a lifetime guarantee. It really is unlikely that the components have failed and so the only other conclusion would be a manufacture fault – either through design or assembly. Please let me know how you get on and what the reasons for the indents actually were. John