There are many different types of mattresses on the market, but innerspring remains one of the best established and most popular options. They are the oldest type currently available and many people continue to choose them over latex or air just because of familiarity or loyalty. They are available everywhere, and they tend to provide good quality at a relatively low price.
Every kind of mattress has its pros and cons. Here are some of the pluses and minuses of innerspring mattresses:
Advantages
Availability: Because they are so established and popular with consumers, innerspring mattresses are available almost everywhere beds are sold, both online and in retail stores. Showrooms almost always have a wider selection of innerspring mattresses than of any other type. However, we tend to recommend buying mattresses online because you can get far better deals online than at a showroom.
Established Product: Because they have been around for so long, innerspring mattresses tend to be the choice of people who prefer what they know. All over the world spring mattresses have been the standard for a century.
Inexpensive: Spring mattresses usually cost less than similar sized mattresses of other types. Also the price range is particularly broad – from about 150 dollars to more than 10,000 dollars – meaning that there’s something for every budget. Surveys show that 70 percent of buyers chose innerspring mattresses because they were relatively cheap and easy to find.
Different Firmness Levels: As with memory foam or latex, different levels of firmness are available with spring mattresses. The coil gauge number tells you how firm the mattress is, with a low number indicating a firm mattress and a high gauge meaning soft.
Making love: Innerspring mattresses are hands-down the best for having sex because of their bouncy and springy surface, especially with softer models. Making love on a firm bed may be okay for some, but innersprings rate the highest for sex.
Disadvantages
Not as Long-Lasting: Spring mattresses don’t tend to last as long as other kinds of mattresses. An inexpensive to average innerspring mattress will probably last for 5 years, or 6 if it is a higher quality pocket coil model. Memory foam in contrast can last 8 years, and latex lasts the longest of all at about 10 years.
Sagging: The reason spring mattresses need to be replaced is because of sagging in most cases. A depression forms on the mattress surface, creating body impressions or unevenness. This reduces the support and comfort that the mattress provides.
Not Flippable: Older models of innerspring mattresses could be flipped, but this is becoming less common with recent models. This takes away one of your means of avoiding sagging. Beds are now being designed with different layers, such as a layer of latex foam on top of a coil base. If you flip it, the latex makes an unsuitable base and the springs make an uncomfortable top layer.
Noise: The steel springs inside the mattress may start to squeak after several years. It may take a long time to get to this state, but it then becomes a major annoyance for your partner and you. If your mattress is double-sided you can flip it, but with a one-sided mattress your only options are to bear with it or buy a new one.
Motion Isolation: Spring mattresses do not offer as much motion isolation as latex and memory foam, so they’re not the best choice if you or your partner tosses and turns very much. The exception is pocket sprung mattresses, which do a good job of isolating motion with their hundreds of independently acting coils. But generally, innerspring mattresses are not good at this.
We hope that this information makes it a bit easier to understand the pros and cons of this common mattress type.
