Mattress Types

Mattress Innerspring

Most common mattress type sold is the innerspring or traditional mattress, where the support portion is made from steel coils coming in different shapes and forms. Quality of the innerspring mattress is determined by the support system – amount, type and gauge of coils and by the comfort layers on the top that provide cushioning and pressure relief.

Steel coils, being the essential elements of the innerspring, come in many types. The overall quality of innerspring and its support is determines by shape of the coil, gauge of the coil (thickness of wire - the lower the number, the thicker the coil) and quantity of coils.

Memory Foam

Memory Foam Memory foam, also referred to as visco-elastic foam, is a material known for its superior pressure relieving quality, which helps to reduce tossing and turning. It also provides even support by molding and contouring to the shape of your body, allowing for your spine to rest aligned in its natural position.

Customers generally like the idea of memory foam being supportive, pressure relieving, durable, resistant to bacteria, mold, mildew, and mites. It reduces motion transfer across the mattress and provides the signature molding/melting feel. Some customers find memory foam warmer and difficult to turn around in it and there are numerous complaints about outgassing of the new mattresses.

Latex Foam

Latex mattresses have been around for a long time but lately their popularity earned them a few spots on ever-crowded mattress store showrooms. Obviously they offer some great benefits like excellent support and durability, yet they present a very unique feel, quite different than memory foam or air/dial beds.

Latex mattresses offer consistent, continuous support by contouring to your body and moving with your body weight. Latex mattresses provide much quicker response and recovery time compared to memory foam, which means they have more “bounce”, that makes turning from one side to another easier, and overall they feel more like traditional mattresses.

Hybrid Mattress Construction

Hybrid mattress is a combination of the wrapped coil innerspring support system and innovative materials like Memory Foam memory foam, Latexlatex or Gel Foam and Gel Memory Foam gel foam on top. The union of these two cutting-edge technologies delivers exceptional support of steel coils and superior pressure relief and comfort of high-end foams. It offers impressive quality and unique feel. Compared to all-foam mattresses, hybrids are more resilient and provide more bounce, so they feel more like traditional mattresses.

The overall quality of the hybrid mattress depends on its components. All better hybrid mattress use independently wrapped coils due to their support and reduced motion transfer.

Organic Mattress

In recent years more consumers concerned with their well-being and their environmental impact began to search for all natural, healthier mattress options that are produced sustainably without toxins. Organic mattresses are natural, healthy alternatives to mattresses made with synthetic materials like polyurethane, nylon, polyester, formaldehyde and flame-retardant chemicals including silicone, boric acid, phosphates, melamine and polyvinylidene chloride. Vast majority of mattresses contain at least one component made form these synthetic materials and are not considered Organic. Organic mattress and all its components are made from organic cotton or wool, organic silk, natural latex rubber, wood, shredded coconut shells or horsehair.

Gel mattresses have become extremely popular in the last few years and “gel” is another mattress industry buzzword that is surrounded but much interest but not enough relevant information. Gel is a go to material for many manufacturers because it offers several advantages over memory foam or latex like improved temperature regulation, better resiliency, superior pressure relief and increased durability.

There are 3 types of gel mattresses available today varying in overall construction and the way they incorporate gel into either comfort layers or support core of the mattress – gel infused foam, solid gel layer or solid gel column construction.

AIr bed support construction

If you feel that you need to customize your comfort of the mattress over time, then you need to look at air beds, also referred to as dial beds. Even though air beds have been around for a long time they went through major transformation and components redesign. Today’s air beds look just like innerspring mattress with similar height, shape, padding layers and ticking on top, but instead of innerspring they use air as a means of support.

Air beds use air-filled chamber, or sometimes called air bladder, connected to an electric pump with a remote. By changing the setting on the remote the pump adjust pressure in the air chamber and mattress will either get softer or firmer.

Waterbed Mattress

It has been a long time since waterbeds were on the pedestal of the mattress industry. Once the luxury product popular in 70’s and 80’s lost much of its luster and is quite hard to find in the showroom. It still has its share of devoted follower but they have to stick to online stores for the replacements or spare parts.

The main feature of waterbeds is the use of liquid for support, just like air is used in air/dial mattresses. With advances in technology, along with other mattress types, even waterbeds went through many changes and improvements over time. New models look quite similar like innerspring mattresses with comfort layers and ticking on top.