Mattress Innerspring Coil Units

The Innerspring unit is the core of your mattress. It allows for the even distribution of our body mass as we lay down. The innerspring, often called the coil, will hold its strength for many years, and support your body overall all at a macro level. Each Manufacturer will usually produce three to four different innerspring coil units, with each one having a different amount of coils, usually giving you more coils as you go up in price. Stearns and Foster does not do this, they use the same coil thru out their entire line.

Coils can come in all different sizes and the steel used to make them can also come in many sizes, or what we call gauge of the wire. Of all the major brands for sale, Stearns and Foster has the fewest number of tempured coils, however they also use the thickest gauged wire. Even with less coils, the Stearns and Fosters coil unit has more working steel in it than any other national mattress line. The Stearns and Foster coil unit also weights more than Sealy's best coil unit. So use caution if you are shopping by coil count, consider wire gauge and the design of the coil etc.

Realistically, there are just too many variables in coil design, function, and durability for consumers to really understand what they are getting.  I don't think anyone wants to spend days on coil research; most people just want a good mattress at a good price. We can however take a brief look back in time to help understand why coil count confusion exists today.

                                     Why so many different coils?
By the mid 70's the innerspring industry was over 100 years old, and most manufactures had figured out the right combination of coils and the coil gauge that would work the best.  Most every manufacturer used the same coil, year after year, with very few changes ever. But back about 25 years ago we saw numerous changes beginning to happen to the innerspring unit. Many manufacturers started putting more coils in there innerspring coil unit, in hopes of increased sales marketing success.

One of the big mattress manufacturers decided to increase the coil count in their mattress. The intention was to out market the competition by telling the American consumer that more coils are better. When this manufacturer increased the coil count of there mattress they also increased the cost because they added more coils. So to offset the cost increases, they simply made each coil smaller and with thinner wire.  Sales did go up and soon other manufacturers got wind of this effective marketing ploy, they soon all joined in and got gerbil gay with each other. What I call, Coil Count Leap Frog. As soon as one company had a Inner spring coil unit with more coils than the rest, another company would then come along and make a innerspring that had even more coils. And so on and so on. This new way to market a mattress forced the manufacturers to change years old designs in hopes of greater distribution and sales. Today about every year to 18 months each of the manufacturers will come out with a different coil count innerspring, as they attempt to outwit the competition. Stearns and Foster does not do this, they use the same innerspring every year through out the entire line.   

        Below is a chart showing the different Coil upgrades for Sealy, 
                     Simmons, Serta, Stearns and Foster & Bassett

The fact of the matter is that the coil is not as important as it use to be. The coil count (how many of them) and gauge (thickness of the wire coil) are all strategically made to market one brand against the rest. If you do look at the chart you will see similar coil counts between different manufactures. For example, Serta and Simmons both make a 704 coil and Sealy and Simmons both make a 660 coil. This is obviously more than coincidence. I could go on and explain the differences between each coil, for example how Sealy heat tempers their coil but Simmons does not. Or how the Serta coil only has three turns in it and Sealy's has five. However, this usually confuses everything even more. The fact of the matter is, I think that every premium coil made by the top 4 name brand manufactures is a good coil. But by playing this coil count/gauge game the manufactures are doing nothing more than confusing the public more. I think it is important to credit Stearns and Foster because they do not do this.

If every manufacture used the same coil we could simply go through and find out who is giving us the most/best padding and the best foundation at the best price. So this is what I recommend that you do.

Let's assume that all the premium line mattresses we sell all have a good innerspring unit in them, which I believe is so, and let's forget about coil count/gauge. However, coil support is very important, and I do not wish to down play how important the support we get from it is. I do really believe that the 4 big brands all make a great support innerspring. Some innersprings may be better than others, but the price you pay for each set will usually be proportionate with how much better the coil is.

Strengths and weakness of each manufacturers coil unit:

Stearns and Foster

Strength - The most supportive coil in the industry.

Weakness - Too costly to use in mid priced mattresses. Luxury market only

Sealy Posturepedic

Strength - Great Mid price value and durability

Weakness - too costly to use on lower priced mattresses. Mid market only

Serta Perfect Sleeper

Strength - efficient use of steel with great durability

Weakness - Perimeter Edge guard system

Simmons Beautyrest

Strength - Pocketed coil has the best motion separation.

Weakness - The coil is not heat tempered, lowering durability.

Bassett Dream Maker
Strength - Great price for a pocketed coil and a box spring. 
Weakness -

 

These are just my opinions, with no data to support it. But I think there realistic.Because the coil is no longer the main cost of today's mattress set, let's take a look at where our dollars are going.  20 years ago the average mattress height was 9 inches thick. Today the average mattress height is 14 inches thick. Why? The coil unit itself hasn't gotten much taller, hovering somewhere between 4 ½ and 5 ½ inches thick. But what has made that mattress thicker today are the upholstery layers, commonly referred to as the padding. These layers of material are the most expensive component of each mattress today. They consist of real cottons, polyester blends, natural fibers and man made fibers. This is what most of your money is really going towards. Looking at these three major components, the padding cost alone will be more than the innerspring and foundation unit combined.

Click to learn about padding

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