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over story best & worst home and yard products

INSIde Story Tester Ed Kippel dissected mattresses, such as this Sealy, to evaluate padding and coils.

MattressesWe cut 11 models apart to help you choose

Buying a mattress is one chal-lenge in lie that you should takelying down. Tough salespeoplemight tout a particular design or

technology, the best mattress or you isthe one you nd most comortable andsupportive, and the only way to know orsure is to try some out.

Mattress shopping is urther compli-cated by the pricing games manuactur-ers and retailers play. Markups are sohigh that stores routinely announce“sales” o 50 percent or more of. So i youdon’t time it right, you can end up over-paying by hundreds or even thousands o dollars. Diferent stores might also sellsimilar beds under diferent names tothwart comparison shopping. Tose prac-tices are hardly new; we have criticizedthem or years as a disservice to consum-ers, perhaps the worst or any major house-hold purchase.

o cut through the hype, we cutthrough 11 rm mattresses rom the bigthree brands, Sealy, Serta, and Simmons.We also tested Select Comort (adjustableair) and empur-Pedic (memory oam).Beore we started our dissection, 54 staf-ers participated in blind rest tests o themattresses, assessing each or comort.Te role played by personal preerence, aswell as store-to-store product diferences,make it impossible or us to rate mat-tresses in the same way we do cars, Vs,and kitchen appliances, but we did gleaninormation that can help you make theright choice.

What we found

Within brands, the innerspring mattress-es we dissected were airly similar inside,regardless o price, and they came withthe same oundation, or box spring. Mostinnerspring products bearing the same

brand name incorporated the same coildesign, though we observed diferences inthe ticking, or outer abric; stitching pat-terns and design; and padding. Some pric-ier models had a higher coil count, butthat’s no big deal. All o the mattresses weexamined had more than enough coils to

provide adequate support.In our panelists’ tests, every mattresshad supporters and detractors, regardlesso what we paid. Overall, panelists judgedall o the mattresses at least moderatelycomortable on average. Panelists perceivedthe Sealy Posturepedic Reserve Spring Blos-som Cushion Firm (Sears), approximateretail $1,800, as slightly more comortable,and the empur-Pedic Classic Bed Advan-tage, $2,100, and Sealy Posturepedic Re-serve Loring Park Firm (Macy’s), $1,730, abit less so. But the diferences were slightand ar rom unanimous.

Our panelists were especially dividedon the memory-oam mattresses, whichuse your body’s heat to help conorm theoam to your contours. Forty-eight per-cent o panelists who tried the empur-Pedic liked that eeling, but 36 percentdidn’t. Don’t automatically dismiss mem-ory oam based on your assessment o onebed. Some panelists who were critical othe empur-Pedic didn’t nd the SealyComort Series Blue Lake Firm (Sears,$2,120), another memory-oam mattress,as objectionable.

Te bottom line rom both sets o tests:I you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

How to choose

I your mattress is at least eight years oldand you’re not sleeping as well as you usedto or are waking up with aches and pains,it might be time or a replacement. Butrst be sure that your bed is at ault by rul-ing out other common causes o sleepless-ness, such as anxiety, stress, and habits

I you wake up with a backache or neck

discomort, don’t immediately blame

your mattress. The problem could be

your pillow. Beore you invest in a new

mattress, be sure your pillow holds your

head in the same relation to your

shoulders and spine as i you were

standing straight up. The industry’s

Better Sleep Council recommends a airly

frm pillow or side sleepers, medium-frm

or back sleepers, and sot or people

who sleep on their stomach. For more

pillow talk, see Up Front, page 8.

1 dId you kNow?

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1Q&A

Brand Reader score Would definitely buy again

Tempur-Pedic 83 60%

Original Mattress Factory 81 52

Select Comfort 80 57

Denver Mattress 78 43

Simmons 76 39

Kingsdown 74 34

Serta 74 31

Sealy 73 32

Stearns & Foster 69 33

Spring Air 66 24

ratings mattress brands

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