A mattress is something one can use for years, and typically, good ones, can last for over ten years, maybe longer.
My parents bought a spring mattress when I was born, and I know they still use that same mattress until today, making it over 30 years in age.
Anyway, like most items sold in this world, good mattresses come at a price, and it isn’t a surprise to find them fetching over RM10K.
My wife and I decided that there’s a need to change our mattress, and add in an additional one as the bed is now getting pretty crowded, with my girl take up space.
That said, I did some research, and here, I’m going to share about my ‘simple research’ on mattresses, and how my wife and I, ended buying a certain type of mattress.
MATTRESS SALES IN KUCHING
I am not sure if you noticed it, but furniture shop sales, which include mattresses seem to be happening on a weekly or monthly basis in Kuching.
It is so frequent that I personally feel there’s no genuine ones anymore. Discounts go as high as 70%, and some come with free gifts like pillows, bed covers and bolsters. Others offer you buy one free one options, with mattress prices on Lazada going even cheaper and hence making me wonder, what’s the real cost price of these mattresses.
In fact, I went to a few furniture shops over the week and none of them could tell me when their so called ‘special mattress sale’ would end.
One seller tried to rush us to a purchase from her store, while others were more relaxed, like it wasn’t a huge deal if we didn’t buy from them.
Anyway, despite everything, some mattress sellers do try to offload older models at crush prices, so you’d want to look out for that. We found this brand called Fibre Star going as low as RM899 (for a queen size, pocket spring mattress), when the label was RM1700-ish. The deal however was not exclusive to that brand as others, like Dreammaster, Goodnight, Therapedic and more, are also having such offer.
Anyway, since sales for mattresses aren’t that ‘exclusive‘, there’s really no reason to rush to buy a mattress during a so called ‘sale’ because they do happen too frequently especially in Kuching, and you are not missing out, regardless of what the sales person say.
THE FIVE TYPE OF MATTRESSES
Generally, there’s five type of mattresses in the market, namely the spring mattress, the foam mattress, latex mattress and the hybrid mattresses.
SPRING MATTRESSES
Spring mattresses are the oldest and one of the most popular of modern mattress designs made by combining springs connected into a single unit or individually wrapped pocketed coils, to construct these durable mattresses. Pocket springs are more expensive than the standard spring mattress, as they create less disturbance when there is movement on bed. Spring mattresses are comfortable, but for real comfort, be prepared to pay more. The ones I liked when testing cost over RM2K, way too much over my budget.
MEMORY FOAM MATTRESSES
Memory foam, known as Visco Elastic foam, has the unique ability to conform to the body while dispersing weight evenly throughout the bed, making it ideal for achy joints, morning pains and restless sleepers. Memory foam mattresses tend to be warmer than traditional spring mattresses, but they are also resistant to mold, bacteria, bed bugs, dust mites and many types of allergens. Based on the mattresses I tried, memory foam mattresses are very comfortable and they hardly move when the little one jumps on it.
FOAM MATTRESSES
Foam mattresses are a cheap alternative to more sophisticated mattress options. They are designed to give support to the very edge of the bed and facilitate support and comfort from corner to corner – a real advantage for restless sleepers who tend to wander all over the mattress during the night. With the foam-type mattress, buyers can find a number of options for the material, such as memory foam, gel foam, and latex or solid foam. It’s not easy to differentiate between memory foam and foam mattress as manufacturers tend to mix and match nowadays.
LATEX MATTRESSES
Latex mattresses have two big advantages; durability, and its ability to supports sleepers without placing excess pressure on hips, shoulders and other area while supporting proper alignment. They are however extremely expensive, heavy, and can smell after years of use though modern technology may have helped with the later. I had a latex mattress when I was a teenager, and it was really great to sleep on. This time around, I didn’t bother to try any of them because they were just too highly priced.
HYBRID MATTRESSES
Hybrid mattresses combine spring and foam, and usually cost a bomb, though several websites do suggest they would cost cheaper than memory foam mattresses. The use of multiple sleep technologies, such as combining pocket springs and latex, plus memory foam to create a bed that’s so nice, you wouldn’t want to wake up from bad. Those I tried when going around town were expensive.
HOW TO BUY A MATTRESS AND SAVE
First and foremost, set a budget because this will give you an indication of what type of mattress you would want to go for. Personally, I would spend RM1.7K for a queen bed mattress because I noticed that most decent and good mattresses come at that price.
Secondly, do some research about what type of mattress you’d prefer. Know the difference between latex mattresses, different type of spring mattresses, hybrid mattresses, foam mattresses, and memory foam mattresses.
I bet however, you’ve already known about these five types of mattresses from reading above. See, it pays reading my blog! ?
Thirdly, go check out mattress showrooms, preferably the ones that allow you to lie down on them without any plastic sheets covering the mattress. Normally, huge furniture shops with dedicated bedding sections offer such facilities.
This is a very important step because you’d be sleeping on that mattress for years, so you must be sure the mattress is what you want. Kalau salah beli, sendiri menyesal oi!
When trying out the mattresses, roll on them, snuggle on them, and try lying down the way you tend to sleep. Again, remember, it’s a long time investment, so you must make sure you made the right purchase. Malu letak tepi lah… remember, it’s an investment!
Once you’ve found a winner, you can already go around town to any furniture shop to seek the same mattress you like. Just remember, not all shops carry the brand you have tested, so there’s a likelihood that another brand is making one similar mattress at a lower price. – I would however highly recommend that you stick to the mattress brand and model you’ve tested because despite the similarities, the material, way of construction etc will differ slightly.
Also, make sure it is not too far off from your budget, and always negotiate to get a better price despite sellers saying it’s their best price (or if it’s on offer)!
Once the price is agreed, always remember to take a photo of the mattress, even if they don’t allow you to.
You need these photos to make sure you are sent the right one during delivery. There’s so many different type of mattress models out there, so the delivery man can easily be confused. – FYI, this had happened to us before.
THE MATTRESS WE BOUGHT
Alright, so I’ve shared what I know about buying a mattress, and it now goes down to this; What mattress did we buy?
We went around scouting for mattresses, and I even checked mattresses online at Lazada (which had competitive prices).
However, after a lot of rolling around on different type of mattresses, we decided to buy a memory foam, anti-static Honey Gamma mattress because it felt just right when we were trying it out. It also had both the sizes we wanted in stock, which is the queen size, and the super single size.
In terms of price, it cost us RM2,590 but considering it had a 10 year warranty, I’d expect the mattress to last for a long time, giving me a good night sleep daily.
You say it’s expensive huh?
Well, think about it this way; I work so hard every day trying to earn a living, so the least I could do to reward my tired body, is to have a nice bed to sleep in, kan?
p/s: The research on each type of mattress is basic, and may be slightly inaccurate, so don’t blame me if the info is wrong. I’d admit, when it comes to foam vs memory foam vs hybrid, I am slightly confused.