How to Choose a Mattress Innerspring

You spend a great deal of time on your mattress.

There are many factors to consider when you are choosing a new mattress. You need to decide what size will work best, how soft or firm you want the mattress to be and whether or not you want to add a pillowtop feature. One thing you might forget to consider, however, is the quality of the mattress innerspring. The majority of mattresses available are innerspring mattresses, meaning that they support your weight via a system of coils. Knowing what to look for when you are comparing these coils will help you choose the highest quality innerspring mattress.

Instructions

1. Find out the quality of steel used to make the innersprings. They should have been tempered using either electricity or heat, which improves the quality significantly.

2. Determine the type of coil system that the mattress is composed of. The Marshall system is the least common and is the priciest, due to its high coil count. The Knotted Bonnell and Knotted Offset systems are quite similar, both using technology that keeps the mattress from altering its position over time. The other two options are the continuous system, which offers significant firmness, and the Karr system, which remains soft until pressure is applied to it. Test the different systems to determine which offers you the most support between your knees and your shoulders.

3. Look for coils that have been coated with plastic or enamel. This feature makes them resistant to both general wear and tear, and corrosion.

4. Identify the gauge of wire used to make the coils of the innerspring. They should be at least 13 gauge or lower. The lower the gauge, the thicker and more supportive the coils of the innerspring will be.

5. Pay attention to the range of turns in the coil design of the innerspring. This number will range from about five to eight turns. The higher the number, the more support and durability the mattress will offer.

6. Find out how many coils make up the innerspring of the mattress. For the best quality, make sure it has a minimum of 300 coils for a full mattress, 400 for a queen and 480 for a king.

References

• Utah State University: Selecting an Innerspring Mattress