Anyone got a newer mattress where the top is different from the bottom of the mattress?

[raccoon]

I do. I religiously flip my mattress every quarter. I did it yesterday, and realized
that the bottom didn't look the same as the top.

So all I can do is flip it top-to-bottom. What am I supposed to do?

[csziggy]

1. We can't flip our mattress at all according to the label

It's supposed to have a specific end at the bottom, and only one side up. Since it's getting older, I'm tempted to try it to see if there really is a difference. Or maybe we'll just replace it - but I don't have the money to do it any time soon.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. We can't flip ours either -- it's a pillow top. So we leave it.

[Suich]

3. You used to be able to flip your mattress

and get twice as much use out of them. The mattress people figured out if you could not flip it, you would have to replace it more often. Hence, they could sell more mattresses.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. pillowtop

[HeiressofBickworth]

5. When pondering a change in a product or manufactured good,

always, always, consider WHO profited from the change. And then you will have your answer of WHY the change. My usual observation: it's always about the money.

[tabbycat31]

6. Mine's a pillowtop

So I can't flip it the way I would with a traditional mattress. I do rotate it about twice a year, and I also use an eggcrate on it that I replace about once a year (about $20).

[pinboy3niner]

7. ALERTING!

I'm calling the Phone Cops! (I couldn't find any Mattress Cops in the phone book, so I figure the Phone Cops are close enough).

[DebJ]

8. Ours is a pillow top so it can't be flipped over, BUT it lasted a lot longer

than the older ones that I used to flip, so I can't really complain.

But it is way past time for a new one!

Maybe the next one won't be a pillow top, though, since you can also buy stuff now to put on top of a regular mattress
that gives the same effect.

[PasadenaTrudy]

9. Sounds like a pillowtop

In that case, just rotate it. I rotate mine once a month.

[NightWatcher]

10. you think that's bad, I just tried to flip the water bed in my van

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Is one side for Summer, one for Winter ?

If one side is "open" and breathes well, that's the Summer side. The better-insulated side is for Winter. So you can flip it twice a year.

In between, you can rotate the mattress (swap head and foot).

[Orrex]

12. Manufacturers realized people were essentially getting two mattresses for one

The idea is to prevent you from getting the full service life out of the mattress, in effect wearing it out in half the time.


So much for the theory that there are two sides to everything.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. I was told by a friend who was an Interior Decorator that you're supposed

to change your mattress every "x" number of years. Which meant that we were sleeping on a corpse of a mattress for more years than i care to admit.

[Quiet_Dem_Mom]

14. A short history of no-flip mattresses, courtesy Fresh Air discussion in 2009

I distinctly remember listening to this on the drive home when it originally aired and it still sticks in my craw to this day.

Here's the link to the entire interview and transcript:
http://www.wbur.org/npr/120391729

Mr. KOSMAN: Sure. An easy example is the mattress industry. Private equity firms bought Sealy and Simmons about a decade ago - actually, it's 2009, so let's say 15, 18 years ago - and then they bought and sold them between each other, but buyout firms acquired, or private equity firms - and private equity firms, by the way, I should also note, these are the same guys who were the leveraged buyout kings of the 1980s, the exact same people often, but when leveraged buyouts got a bad name, when Michael Milken went to jail, when movies like "Wall Street" were made, they underwent a marketing change and very cleverly started calling themselves private equity firms, but they're one and the same.

In the mattress industry, private equity firms bought Sealy and Simmons, the number one and number two brands by a mile. They stopped really competing against each other. They cut costs, and they raised the prices of the mattresses. They started focusing only on the top end and stopped even making mattresses really for middle-income people that cost less than $1,000. So basically simplifying this over time, as they bought Simmons and sold it to another PE firm three or four years later, and same with Sealy, the buyers -the sellers would make a lot of money, and the buyers felt, well, we can keep raising prices because there's no competition. We own Sealy, and we own Simmons. It's different firms, but they both have the same aim: to make a short-term profit, not to beat each other up on price. What happened over time was they couldn't raise the prices anymore, and the prices were raised double the price of inflation, double the rate of inflation. They cut the beds in half, so you came up with no-flip mattresses. That cut their manufacturing costs, but it also...

GROSS: Wait, wait, let's explain for a second.
=========
Mr. KOSMAN: That's right. Initially, they made the mattresses thick. They kept putting - creating thicker and thicker mattresses so they had an excuse to keep raising and raising the prices. So they thought, both Sealy and Simmons both had the same thought. The private equity firms that owned them both thought, well, why don't we cut costs significantly and cut the beds in half and introduce these no-flip mattresses.

Simmons did it first, early this decade. Sealy stood back. Sealy even made a statement when Simmons did it, saying we would never offer a no-flip mattress. That's why you should buy our mattresses. Simmons's sales didn't rise, but their earnings went through the roof. The private equity firm that owned Sealy at the time, which was Bain Capital - the same firm that Mitt Romney owned during that period, the Republican presidential candidate - decided okay, well, we'll change tack. You know, even though our market share is growing, their earnings are going through the roof, and that's what we care about. So then they introduced no-flip mattresses, and now and for the last six or seven years, Sealy and Simmons only offer no-flip. There are no two-sided beds anymore.
===

...and that's why you can't flip your mattress. The end.

[raccoon]

15. Thank you! Sticks in my craw too.

What is one to do?