Don't fall asleep before reading this.
Written: Feb 18 '01 (Updated Feb 18 '01)
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Pros: Exceptionally comfortable. Superior construction and materials.
Cons: The price. The height. Very difficult to get out of bed in the morning!!
The Bottom Line: You deserve a good nights sleep. Our S&F has finally given exactly that to us.
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| watchdr_2000's Full Review: Stearns & Foster Exeter Ltd. Mattress |
The joy of mattress shopping. Ahhh, about as much fun as root canal. Both the sellers and the makers conspire to make it this way for you, the consumer. How do they do this? Simple, by confusing you. Each mattress firm allows each seller to pick different names for the mattresses, thereby making comparison shopping virtually impossible. As a result virtually all of the sellers boast that they guarantee the lowest prices for their products. Since there is virtually no way for you to make sure that you're comparing apples and apples versus apples and oranges, they can get away with it. Keep in mind that virtually all the different brands of mattresses are made by only 2 or 3 manufacturers.
Well, I arrived at this unpleasant situation due to my 10 year old Simmons Maxipedic mattress having died on me. My wife and I are NOT heavy people. I'm 160 lbs and she's "whisper" only 120 lbs. After only two years our body impressions were very distinct. This, even although we followed the manufacturers recommendation of turning the mattress every other week. When we complained about this to the place where we bought our mattress, they sent someone to check out our claim. Sorry, he said. Your body impressions are not deep enough. Really? He could have fooled us as they were deep enough to interfere with our having a good nights sleep. At the time things were not great financially so we had to make do with what we had. It also helped somewhat by turning the mattress more frequently.
So here we are, 10 years later and a nice bonus check in hand looking to replace our mattress. Having spent a lot of money on a Sealy that fell apart and a Simmons that sank, I wanted to make sure that we got it right this time. My wife, bless her soul, wanted no part of this and mumbled something about trusting my judgment.
Shopping:
In a case like this, the first thing that I do is go to my favorite search engine, Meta Crawler (www.go2net.com). I punched in Stearns & Foster because I had heard good things about this line and wanted to find out more. There I checked out the sites of a few different sellers which were not really helpful, but fortunately Meta Crawler pulled up one which was exceptionally helpful. This was a review of the Cardiff mattress by cutie_pi on Epinions. Thanks Natasha, I owe you one. Intrigued by her enthusiasm for the product I Emailed her and asked her a couple of questions. The fact that she was still happy with it quite a few months after the purchase was also very encouraging.
The Search:
It was at this point that I REALLY discovered the joys of mattress shopping. I quickly noticed that no two shops had like named mattress. Each shop put their own name on the different models so it was virtually impossible to do any meaningful price comparisons. Yes, I could compare one model against another in the same shop, but how was I to do price comparisons to know if what they were offering was a good deal or not? Fortunately, being the observant fellow that I am, I noticed something that was a dead giveaway to their name games. Examining pictures of the different models on the web, and then going into the shops to check them out, I noticed that all the firm (as in hardness) models in the same price range (plus or minus $100 to $200) had identical quilting patterns. The same for all the plush and pillow top models too. Aha!! Stearns & Foster make it even easier for the buyer. Although the mattresses might have different names in the various stores, the first letter is always the same. So what might be called an Exeter in one shop is called an Edinburgh in another, and the prices, as I mentioned above, are very close too. The confirmation that it is the identical model is the quilting pattern and the outer material. When I thought about it, it makes sense. As it's no big deal for the manufacturer to put on different labels for the different stores. But it WOULD be VERY expensive to have to change the material and quilting pattern on the same model for every customer. Now this may be true for this brand, I didn't check out this theory for other brands.
The Find:
We like a very firm mattress. I checked out the Cardiff recommended by Natasha and found it very comfortable, but not firm enough. Once I lay down on the Edinburgh (identical to the Exeter), I knew that this was the one. My only concern was that it might be a little too firm for my wife. As most shops offer a 60 day exchange policy, this didn't concern me too much as I knew I could exchange it for a less firm one if this proved to be the case. On another opinion site, one woman recommended to a writer to check out the Sealy Crown Jewel as it was a much newer design than the S&F and had over 200 more coils than the latter too. Not wanting to spend this kind of money without checking out others in the same price range, I followed her advice and did exactly that. I couldn't believe it. Even lying down on a Sealy Crown Jewel that was much more expensive than the S&F, but similar to it in firmness brought about the same disbelief in me. It felt like I was lying on a cheapo mattress. It just had way too much give and virtually zero support when compared to the latter. Having had a bad experience with Simmons and Sealy, and being very disappointed in Sealy's latest offering with it's newest design technology, I didn't check out any other brands. I have to admit that S&F also influenced me by the quality of the materials, the larger gauge coils and the very firm edge. The advantage of the latter being that it greatly increases the available sleep area.
The Purchase:
Be warned, this is a VERY firm mattress. The next step up in firmness to this one, is a concrete slab wrapped in a thin blanket. We only bought the mattress as we intended to purchase one of those bases that has the drawers in them, for storage space. In the meantime we would use our old base, which had a large wooden plank on it to firm up our dead Simmons. Bad idea. This was way too firm. After removing the wooden plank we put the mattress on the old base, which fortunately is in better shape than the old mattress. So, there goes our idea of the storage space. If you do intend to go this route, I would recommend going down one step in firmness. Our intention is to eventually get the recommended base as they really are designed to work in tandem. For now, the old one seems to be okay. I bought the mattress from Sit 'n Sleep. After I had shopped around and found the lowest price I gave that to the sales person there, and he beat that price by another $25. Delivery and set up was free, as was removal of our old mattress.
The Sleep:
As I don't suffer from back pain, thank G-d, I can't say that now I wake up without any, as some people do when they purchase a new mattress. What I do notice is that I tend to move a lot less in my sleep and that it seems to be a much deeper sleep too. I wake up feeling both a lot more refreshed and relaxed. My concerns about it being too firm for my wife were unfounded and she loves it just as much as I do. As I usually fall asleep on my tummy with my head turned to one side, I wouldn't mind if there was a touch more plushness to it. Still, I don't find it that firm to want to exchange it for a more plush or less firm one. In fact, I have such a relaxing sleep, that now I find it very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Oh well, I can easily live with that!!
Final Thoughts:
I haven't gone into detail about the materials and construction, as cutie_pi/Natasha did such an excellent job of that in her review of the S&F Cardiff. This is a very high (about 12 inches) and very heavy mattress. I recommend getting the low profile box spring, four and a half inches, a no cost option, so that you don't feel like you're ascending mount Everest getting into bed. Due to the height you'll probably need deep pocket sheets. The mattress is guaranteed for 10 years, and although you're advised to flip it every two weeks, not doing so will NOT void your warranty. Yawn, time to go to sleep. Gary.
Recommended:
Yes
Mattress Size: Queen
Mattress Firmness: Extremely firm
Amount Paid (US$): 750.00
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Epinions.com ID:
watchdr_2000
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Member: Gary C.
Location: Los Angeles
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 38 members
About Me:
Dad - Both the best job and hobby a guy could ever ask for!
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