Tuft and Needle–Mattress Review

First, I’m not a mattress expert or a traditionally trained sleep specialist.  Although if sleeping were an Olympic sport, I could probably pretty easily make it into the regionals.

I know how to sleep.

We recently ordered a Tuft and Needle Foam Mattress after reading a review on Bestmattress-brand.org and when I posted that via Facebook folks said they wanted to know what if we liked it.

So here goes.

A good mattress should last between 8 and 10 years.  According to the Internet.  Just google it and that’s the answer you’ll find so I’m using that.

We’ve had multiple mattresses during what’s so far is a 26 year marriage.   Admittedly in the beginning we had cheap ones.  We had a water bed when we first got married (Don’t judge me, it was the 80’s).  Then a cheap King mattress set, and at one point we got a new foam mattress from the in-laws who didn’t like it or found it to soft or something.  I can’t remember the details.

But what I do know and can easily recall is our last mattress.     We decided it was time we had a ‘good mattress’ and we bought that in 2008 from the Original Mattress Factory.    They are, or were highly recommended in our area.  At the time we purchased a Orthopedic Luxury Firm Mattress.

Proof:

We probably spend $1000, maybe $1200 I can’t remember exactly.  But it came with box springs and a new frame.

That was 7 years ago.  I bring that up because a good mattress should last between 8-10 years if cared for.  I believe we cared for our mattress.  We flipped it and rotated it often, in fact they sent us reminder emails every 3 months.    The reality is, the mattress had been bad or done for at least 2 years before we replaced it.  Meaning it only lasted maybe 5 years.    It was broken down and had low spots where we slept and it was like rolling up hill in the middle.   Not good.

We finally decided this was the year.  I’d heard about Tuft and Needle while listening to Dave Ramsey Pod casts while I mowed and it was time to check them out.

After reading many reviews I was convinced it was worth trying.  They have a 100 night sleep guarantee.   So if you don’t like it, well you get your money back.   Our mattress as so bad that was worth taking that shot and there were folks who took them up on their offer and didn’t have any issues.

A good number of reviews claimed this mattress was too ‘firm’ for them.  Especially too firm given that it was a foam mattress.   This concerned me a little.  While we had a ‘Luxury Firm’ mattress, I didn’t need anything firmer.

So we ordered it.  It was pretty uneventful.  Their website buying experience is pretty straight forward.  They ship it to you in a box all compressed.  It weighed about 70 lbs.

You pull it out, put it on your bed, open the bag, it expands in about 1 minute.  Then over the next 12 hours.  (Initially we were concerned it wasn’t the right size, as after it had expanded it was about an inch short on all sides but that went away in about 4 hours.

Initially it was ‘soft’ but we got used to that almost instantly.  The first thing Claudine noticed was that I didn’t wake her getting in or out of bed any more.  So that was huge.

We generally stay at a Marriott when we travel and they are known to have pretty good beds.   Certainly better than what we were currently sleeping on.    After Christmas we took an overnighter to Chicago, and compared to the Tuft and Needle Mattress we’d been sleeping on for about two weeks, the Marriott mattress wasn’t as good.

So, your mileage may vary but given that they have a 100 night sleep guarantee, if you’re in the market for a mattress, give them a try.

I guess my biggest take away from all of this is how the Original Mattress Factory advertises that they aren’t the norm.  That they have lower cost, better mattresses than the ‘retail’ chains.   Well I think the mattress industry has been disrupted by internet foam mattresses.   I would never buy an Original Mattress Factory Mattress again.  Not even their foam mattress which retails for 2.5x the price of this Tuft and Needle Mattress.

Before I wrote this I chatted with a Tuft and Needle person and confirmed their mattress has a 10 year warrantee.  If in 5 years I have issues like I had with the Mattress Factory Mattress, I’ll shoot them some photos and they’ll replace it.   I believe that will actually happen.

So to recap, the things that we like about it are.

• The purchase experience, delivery and set up was simple.
• The mattress is super comfy for us, it’s soft, much softer than our “Luxury Firm Mattress”.    Honestly I don’t know what a firm foam based mattress feels like.  If this is it, I like it.
• It has enough edge firmness you can still sit on it.
• It has next to no bounce, I can get in and out of bed without disturbing Claudine.  That’s good, in a Happy Wife Happy Life kind of way.
• I’m a side sleeper and it’s nice and comfy that way, doesn’t bother my bad shoulder that our other firmer mattress did.  I simply couldn’t sleep or lay on my bad side long.
• I really like that it’s flip free, no maintenance.

If things change I’ll update this review.