5 ms·

Mattress shopping is almost as bad as car shopping. I'll buy a used car to get around the sleazy car sales people, but the wife absolutely won't go for a used

Mattress shopping is almost as bad as car shopping. I'll buy a used car to get around the sleazy car sales people, but the wife absolutely won't go for a used matresss. I'm sure the mattress markup is astronomical, and I'm sure most brands come from the same factories.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
war1025 7y ago
Sort of interesting to think about the fact that used mattresses are a no-go for people, but they'll gladly sleep on hotel beds used by orders of magnitude more people. Don't think I'd buy a used mattress either though...
- seiferteric 7y ago
  I think bedding is actually the thing that makes me most uneasy at hotels, you just don't have a choice. You can expect they wash the sheets with each new guest, but I don't think they do so with the comforter which grosses me out. Then there is the whole bed-bug situation...
- leetcrew 7y ago
  ultimately people prefer not to stop and think about the fact that hotel beds are kinda gross, since there's really no alternative if you want to travel to a place where you don't know anyone. but even if you do acknowledge this, it's not nearly as bad to sleep in a "dirty" bed for a few nights as it would be to own one and use it every night.
  - ska 7y ago
    I once met someone who always traveled with something a bit like a thin cotton (silk?) full body sleeping bag (like a mummy bag). Idea was you never physically touched the hotel bed. It was apparently expensive. The funny thing to me was the she stayed in high end hotels pretty exclusively who I think you can at least be taking a fairly aggressive kill-it-with-bleach approach to laundry. I wondered if there was a wallmart version aimed at people who stay in seedy motels where it would seem to be more practical.
    - ghaff 7y ago
      Sleep sacks can actually be required for hostels. (http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html) I imagine a silk one could be expensive but they're pretty inexpensive for the most part. That said, as someone who travels a lot, when I look at travelers' catalogs like Magellan at a lot of the safety, germ protection, etc. items, part of me thinks that people who buy all that stuff are probably better off just not traveling.
      - ska 7y ago
        Makes sense I guess although I've never run into that requirement. By description the thing she had was much smaller & more form fitting than above link. One of the "selling points" was how small it packed into carry-on, for example.
        ghaff 7y ago
        Probably something more like this: https://www.rei.com/product/850427/cocoon-silk-mummy-liner https://www.rei.com/product/850427/cocoon-silk-mummy-liner The thing with silk is it's pretty fragile but it's probably the thinnest/lightest material that you'd actually want next to your skin.
      - ApolloFortyNine 7y ago
        They're definitely abusing the word 'most' there. I've stayed in easily 20 hostels at this point, and not once has a 'sleep sack' been required. And in all my hostel research, I have never stumbled across someone mentioning they needed one.
        ghaff 7y ago
        I don't think I have on the relatively limited occasions I've stayed in a hostel (or a mountain hut). That said, I'd certainly heard of sleep sacks sometimes being used/required in hostels. So it can't be all that rare--or maybe it used to be more common.
    - 7y ago
tenpies 7y ago
I'm also somewhat suspicious that foam mattresses are quite bad for your health, not necessarily from a sleep mechanics perspective, but from an air quality one. I mean you are literally sleeping on a piece of plastic that is optimized for surface area. You then squish it constantly while using it and inhale those aerosolized plastic particles for about 8 hours per day.
- telchar 7y ago
  I paid a little extra (~$600) for a foam mattress manufactured in California. I figured there is a lower chance of harmful offgassing than the cheaper Chinese mattresses like Zinus. I don't have any way to test that though.
- jamespetercook 7y ago
  Wow I never thought about this
- timw4mail 7y ago
  Kind of makes a used one seem like a better idea...
- allovernow 7y ago
  Ofgassing in the first few weeks or so may expose you to harmful chemicals, but I don't see any reason for foam the to degrade into fine particulate if it isn't exposed to UV, assuming it isn't made of total garbage.
- dubcanada 7y ago
  Everything we touch/eat is plastic/comes in contact with plastic to some degree, your shoes, clothes, bread sits in plastic for days, vegetables for months, etc. I really doubt a bed wrapped in some form of cloth is any worse. Unless you live on mars you are most likely getting ten times more pollution/plastic from other areas then your foam mattress.
- wahern 7y ago
  There are latex foam mattresses. I've purchased two from Sleep on Latex (sleeponlatex.com, or Pure Green on Amazon). That said, whether latex, polyurethane, or whatever, with foam mattresses you're supposed to use a mattress protector to prevent sweat and accidents from soiling the foam. Alternatively or in addition to that, Sleep on Latex uses a wool topper, as I'm sure many other brands do. And then on top of that most people use sheets. I would think all of that covering would trap any particles so they can conveniently be washed out to sea with all the other microplastics from the laundry.
jrockway 7y ago
I was happy with the two IKEA mattresses I bought. I have one super-cheap foam one that I used for many years and keep around for guests; guests say they like it more than their mattress at home, and I think it only cost $30 and has lasted going on 15 years at this point. I also had one of their more expensive latex foam mattresses, and that kind of developed a sunken in spot in the middle where I slept on it after ~5 years. I replaced it with a more botique latex mattress and the same thing happened; so I think that's more of an intrinsic weakness in the material rather than a manufacturing defect. And, you have to expect that something used every day for 8 continuous hours is going to need replacement after a few years anyway. What I like about IKEA is that you just walk in and self-serve yourself a mattress. No sales. No marketing. If you don't like it, at least it was cheap. So I'm giving them a recommend.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  > If you don't like it, at least it was cheap it's actually better than that. you can return it any time in the first year of ownership, provided you kept the receipt.
  - ohazi 7y ago
    Provided you can get it into your car. If it came vacuum rolled, the odds of this being the case are low.
    - leetcrew 7y ago
      this is probably how they get away with such a generous return policy.
- dole 7y ago
  One caveat about IKEA mattresses: being a multi-national company, verify the mattresses and linens you're buying complies to the same sizing in your region of the world; they can differ and there's always stories about how IKEA sheets don't fit standard sizes or fit them well, at least.
mthoms 7y ago
The sleaze of the mattress industry is a major reason the mattress in a box business has done so well. I just love when these kinds of markets get disrupted because the disdain these companies have for their own customers is infuriating (see also taxi industry). There's a great "Adam Ruins Everything" episode about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZOKfCial4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZOKfCial4 FWIW, I absolutely love my mattress in a box and the buying process was painless.
- corporateslave5 7y ago
  Yeah I bought one for 175 bucks, just as a temporary thing. I love it. I’ll never pay 1000 dollars for a mattress again
- throwaway_tech 7y ago
  >The sleaze of the mattress industry is a major reason the mattress in a box business has done so well. Don't be fooled if you thought the traditional mattress buying experience was sleazy (similar to a car buying experience), the mattress in a box online dark patterns take sleaze to a whole other level.
  - mthoms 7y ago
    I'm sure you're right. I have to say my experience was very good in that regard, possibly because I went with the most respected brand in my country (Canada) and the industry is much less crowded/competitive here. Having said that, I bought the mattress over 2 years ago now so maybe things have changed. I hate dark patterns with a fiery passion.
exhilaration 7y ago
Just buy your mattresses from Costco, no sleaze in sight.
- chihuahua 7y ago
  Costco and Ikea (mentioned many times in earlier comments) seem to share a business model based on avoiding dark patterns

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

war1025 7y ago

Sort of interesting to think about the fact that used mattresses are a no-go for people, but they'll gladly sleep on hotel beds used by orders of magnitude more people. Don't think I'd buy a used mattress either though...

seiferteric 7y ago
I think bedding is actually the thing that makes me most uneasy at hotels, you just don't have a choice. You can expect they wash the sheets with each new guest, but I don't think they do so with the comforter which grosses me out. Then there is the whole bed-bug situation...
leetcrew 7y ago
ultimately people prefer not to stop and think about the fact that hotel beds are kinda gross, since there's really no alternative if you want to travel to a place where you don't know anyone. but even if you do acknowledge this, it's not nearly as bad to sleep in a "dirty" bed for a few nights as it would be to own one and use it every night.
- ska 7y ago
  I once met someone who always traveled with something a bit like a thin cotton (silk?) full body sleeping bag (like a mummy bag). Idea was you never physically touched the hotel bed. It was apparently expensive. The funny thing to me was the she stayed in high end hotels pretty exclusively who I think you can at least be taking a fairly aggressive kill-it-with-bleach approach to laundry. I wondered if there was a wallmart version aimed at people who stay in seedy motels where it would seem to be more practical.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Sleep sacks can actually be required for hostels. (http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html) I imagine a silk one could be expensive but they're pretty inexpensive for the most part. That said, as someone who travels a lot, when I look at travelers' catalogs like Magellan at a lot of the safety, germ protection, etc. items, part of me thinks that people who buy all that stuff are probably better off just not traveling.
    - ska 7y ago
      Makes sense I guess although I've never run into that requirement. By description the thing she had was much smaller & more form fitting than above link. One of the "selling points" was how small it packed into carry-on, for example.
      - ghaff 7y ago
        Probably something more like this: https://www.rei.com/product/850427/cocoon-silk-mummy-liner https://www.rei.com/product/850427/cocoon-silk-mummy-liner The thing with silk is it's pretty fragile but it's probably the thinnest/lightest material that you'd actually want next to your skin.
    - ApolloFortyNine 7y ago
      They're definitely abusing the word 'most' there. I've stayed in easily 20 hostels at this point, and not once has a 'sleep sack' been required. And in all my hostel research, I have never stumbled across someone mentioning they needed one.
      - ghaff 7y ago
        I don't think I have on the relatively limited occasions I've stayed in a hostel (or a mountain hut). That said, I'd certainly heard of sleep sacks sometimes being used/required in hostels. So it can't be all that rare--or maybe it used to be more common.
  - 7y ago

tenpies 7y ago

I'm also somewhat suspicious that foam mattresses are quite bad for your health, not necessarily from a sleep mechanics perspective, but from an air quality one. I mean you are literally sleeping on a piece of plastic that is optimized for surface area. You then squish it constantly while using it and inhale those aerosolized plastic particles for about 8 hours per day.

telchar 7y ago
I paid a little extra (~$600) for a foam mattress manufactured in California. I figured there is a lower chance of harmful offgassing than the cheaper Chinese mattresses like Zinus. I don't have any way to test that though.
jamespetercook 7y ago
Wow I never thought about this
timw4mail 7y ago
Kind of makes a used one seem like a better idea...
allovernow 7y ago
Ofgassing in the first few weeks or so may expose you to harmful chemicals, but I don't see any reason for foam the to degrade into fine particulate if it isn't exposed to UV, assuming it isn't made of total garbage.
dubcanada 7y ago
Everything we touch/eat is plastic/comes in contact with plastic to some degree, your shoes, clothes, bread sits in plastic for days, vegetables for months, etc. I really doubt a bed wrapped in some form of cloth is any worse. Unless you live on mars you are most likely getting ten times more pollution/plastic from other areas then your foam mattress.
wahern 7y ago
There are latex foam mattresses. I've purchased two from Sleep on Latex (sleeponlatex.com, or Pure Green on Amazon). That said, whether latex, polyurethane, or whatever, with foam mattresses you're supposed to use a mattress protector to prevent sweat and accidents from soiling the foam. Alternatively or in addition to that, Sleep on Latex uses a wool topper, as I'm sure many other brands do. And then on top of that most people use sheets. I would think all of that covering would trap any particles so they can conveniently be washed out to sea with all the other microplastics from the laundry.

jrockway 7y ago

I was happy with the two IKEA mattresses I bought. I have one super-cheap foam one that I used for many years and keep around for guests; guests say they like it more than their mattress at home, and I think it only cost $30 and has lasted going on 15 years at this point. I also had one of their more expensive latex foam mattresses, and that kind of developed a sunken in spot in the middle where I slept on it after ~5 years. I replaced it with a more botique latex mattress and the same thing happened; so I think that's more of an intrinsic weakness in the material rather than a manufacturing defect. And, you have to expect that something used every day for 8 continuous hours is going to need replacement after a few years anyway. What I like about IKEA is that you just walk in and self-serve yourself a mattress. No sales. No marketing. If you don't like it, at least it was cheap. So I'm giving them a recommend.

leetcrew 7y ago
> If you don't like it, at least it was cheap it's actually better than that. you can return it any time in the first year of ownership, provided you kept the receipt.
- ohazi 7y ago
  Provided you can get it into your car. If it came vacuum rolled, the odds of this being the case are low.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    this is probably how they get away with such a generous return policy.
dole 7y ago
One caveat about IKEA mattresses: being a multi-national company, verify the mattresses and linens you're buying complies to the same sizing in your region of the world; they can differ and there's always stories about how IKEA sheets don't fit standard sizes or fit them well, at least.

mthoms 7y ago

The sleaze of the mattress industry is a major reason the mattress in a box business has done so well. I just love when these kinds of markets get disrupted because the disdain these companies have for their own customers is infuriating (see also taxi industry). There's a great "Adam Ruins Everything" episode about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZOKfCial4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZOKfCial4 FWIW, I absolutely love my mattress in a box and the buying process was painless.

corporateslave5 7y ago
Yeah I bought one for 175 bucks, just as a temporary thing. I love it. I’ll never pay 1000 dollars for a mattress again
throwaway_tech 7y ago
>The sleaze of the mattress industry is a major reason the mattress in a box business has done so well. Don't be fooled if you thought the traditional mattress buying experience was sleazy (similar to a car buying experience), the mattress in a box online dark patterns take sleaze to a whole other level.
- mthoms 7y ago
  I'm sure you're right. I have to say my experience was very good in that regard, possibly because I went with the most respected brand in my country (Canada) and the industry is much less crowded/competitive here. Having said that, I bought the mattress over 2 years ago now so maybe things have changed. I hate dark patterns with a fiery passion.

exhilaration 7y ago

Just buy your mattresses from Costco, no sleaze in sight.

chihuahua 7y ago
Costco and Ikea (mentioned many times in earlier comments) seem to share a business model based on avoiding dark patterns