There are a large number of brands of mattresses in Singapore. From the cheap sponge mattress costing less than $20 to mattresses costing more than $20,000. So one may ask what constitute to the difference and why the huge difference?
Most of the brands have different spring systems, different specs and different materials involves. Thus with all these permutations, there are more than a few hundred or even up to thousands of brands and series.
With all these different mattresses it is not hard to imagine the confusion 1 would encounter when he or she start on the journey of hunting for the best mattress for themselves. It does not help with the fact that every sales person would boast that they have the best system in the market, all these will only add to the confusion.
I always tell my customer, do not take what I say as the gospel truth, but try the mattress yourself, does it feel comfortable?
So what are some of the most common things found in the mattress? In this entry I will just cover the property of the different material, do note that every material will have different “grades”. Just like different grape from different regions will result in different grade of wine?
Foam:
Most of the people would be familiar with how foam look like, from those that we saw we open a new laptop box or a new handphone box, we would see the foam padding which is in the box to protect the phone/laptop from damage in the course of transportation.
Foam is produced in a process similar to cake baking, replacing the flour, baking powder, flavouring etc with all the chemicals. After the chemicals are added, the process is like the cake expanding (what’s the term call?) and eventually you have a big block of foam. After that is the process of cutting it to size.
Quality of foam is determined by the density (weight per cubic vol), which continues to be one of the most misunderstood properties of foams. Some people relate density to the firmness of foams, and that relationship is totally incorrect. Foams with an extremely wide range of hardness can be made at an extremely wide range of densities.
It simply means that a dense mattress may not mean it is firm and it does not mean a firm mattress would be lasting. Cos the firmness is predetermined by the quantity of a chemical A, and density is by the amount of substance B is added. Quality of foam is more about the density and not the firmness. The higher the density would mean that it is less probable to sinking and a permanent depression. A rule of thumb is how fast or how bouncy the foam bounces back upon applying pressure.
Foam basically is the fundamental to most of the mattresses, be it in the usage within mattress or the process of manufacturing, as the process is similar to a certain extent for synthetic latex and memory foam.
Rebonded foam:
It’s basically a by product of foam mattress. After foam is cut to shape and size of the required mattress, there will be excess foam from the edges which are too small for mattress or pillow, which are being crushed to pieces and compressed together to form the rebond mattresses. Thus the quality of rebond mattress tend to vary from mattress to mattress. But they are generally cheaper than similar quality foam mattress.
Latex are produced from the sap of rubber trees, it‘s characteristics are hypoallergic, anti dust mite, and environmental friendly providing natural resistance to dust mites, moulds, and mildew. , The material is processed and then injected into a mould with thousands of small pins, which when withdrawn, will provide ventilation for the mattress. But the size of the holes could also be used to determined the firmness of the mattress, the bigger the more bouncy and less firm. Natural latex comes with various firmness and the good thing about it is that it conforms to the contours of our body better than a normal spring mattress. The good thing is it is not as temperature sensitive as memory foam.
One is synthetic one is natural. “wah piang…I also know..” ok ok more details on this, Synthetic latex posses similar qualities to natural latex, except the fact that chemicals are added to create elastic and conforming properties of latex. The fact that it is manmade, its not as environmental friendly and it loses the natural resistance to dust mites, moulds, and mildew. However this is overcome with the treatment of the fabric of the mattress thus adding the anti dust mite property. But the good thing is it is much cheaper than the cost of natural latex mattress. The difference in price between full natural latex and a full synthetic latex mattress could range from a few hundreds to a few thousand dollars.
Meamory foam a.k.a visco-elastic foam, is initially developed by NASA for space programs in the 1970s, in order to reduce pressure points experienced by astronauts. The G-forces generated during lift off caused uncomfortable sensations for astronauts in their flight chairs, and visco elastic foam was able to furnish this needed orthopaedic support. Basic composition is polyurethane with additional chemicals increasing its viscosity and density
Quality of memory foam is also measure by the density of the foam, a higher density mattress will mean it returns to position more slowly and will be firmer and it reacts to body heat, allowing it to mould to a warm human body in a few minutes; a lower density will feel more like a normal foam mattress and is pressure-sensitive and moulds quickly to the shape of the body. In some formulations, it is firmer when cooler. In general memory foam works by conforming to the natural heat and weight of the body. It adjusts itself to accommodate the various pressure points, such as the shoulder and hips, which are body areas that press hardest into the bed. Depending on which position someone sleeps in, pressure points differ.
A word of caution, for those intending to buy full memory foam mattress, do not leave babies on the mattress unattended, as the baby may have difficulty in tossing and turning around which might lead to the danger of babies suffocating.
This is the most basic and common type of spring system available in singapore. The fundamental structure of all spring mattress is the in-between are springs, the top and bottom layers are the outer layers which could be foam, latex, fibre, memory foam and etc. With regards to the springs, inner-spring mattresses vary by the shape and design of the coils, the total number of coils, the gauge of the wire to construct the coils, and how the coils are connected to each other to insure long-term integrity of the mattress. It is also important to understand the composition of the outer layers, which not only could be of different material and with different permutation and combination, it could generate different effect and comfort level.
Pocketed spring was created to with fabric pockets to house each spring, rather than connecting each coil with wires. As with open-ended coils, the purpose is the have each coil work independently in responding to weight and pressure. With each spring working individually, the spring could react individually and support more points of contacts of the body. The other benefit which in my view is way overhyped, is it will reduce the disturbance caused by the tossing and turning of the partners. If you realise I highlighted “reduced” not eliminate, as there are bound to be some form of disturbance, as the top layer of the fabric wrapping around the mattress is still one piece thus there still some form of pulling when one sits on it or turn, not to forget the outer layer of the mattress.
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