Vacuum packed mattress advice & guidance

Hi Jen,

Many thanks for getting in touch with us about vacuum packed and folding boxed mattresses. These are the latest craze in mattress styles but come with a major drawback.

To answer quickly we don't make any folding or vacuum packed mattresses.

The reason for this is that by crushing and rolling a mattress you inevitably start to damage and degrade the materials and springs placed within it. Mattresses are not meant to be reduced to a fraction of their size. If you think about it, a mattress is made to offer support and comfort to a sleeper.

By crushing it entirely you're compromising on this support.

When you see the machines that crush them you would probably wince, watching a mattress gets sandwiched and forced into a bag. All of our models are hand made and we don't entertain crushing them. Especially when we have a 2 man delivery service which negates the need to 'drop and run' when it comes to delivery. If you need to check bed sizes then have a look at our detailed post here with weight, heights and widths of mattresses.

Pocket Spring 'rolled' mattresses:

For boxed and vacuum packed pocket sprung mattresses the damage is quite severe. Pocket springs are made with weight tolerances in mind. They are designed to push back against these weights with an equilibrium effect of compression and extension. If you crush these springs and then vacuum seal the mattress they are in a continuous point of compression which can fracture and damage the spring. Reducing the point of elasticity in the spring damaging it.

In fact, we did some tests a few years back on a FEP's (pocket sprung mattress) mattress. We had it crushed, rolled and vacuum packed. After a month when we opened it up there where noticeable internal tears in the fibres and the springs had a reduced height compared to the same model which hadn't been crushed and boxed.

Memory Foam Rolled Boxed Mattresses:

There's been a big push for new overnight mattress companies to start selling rolled mattresses. This is mainly for delivery convenience rather than focusing in on mattress quality. You'll notice that most of these are entirely made of foam or the dreaded micro springs (you can read why these are a waste of time here).
Some of these new mattress companies include:

• Eve
• Simba
• Casper
• LEESA
• MADE

Again when we tested some foam models we found tears and cracks in the foams once they had been rolled and left for just 4 weeks.

You also have to question why, when mattress comfort layers rely on their loft (height and bounce) would you want a mattress that can be flattened for delivery. You're then relying on it bouncing back to life when you open it, which inevitably it will never fully return to its original position.

Natural latex mattresses are incredibly heavy and whilst in theory they can be crushed this makes them very difficult to lift. Given a quality 10% Natural Latex mattress is in the region of 60kg. That's far too heavy for one person to lift as a box. More often than not the mattress is damaged trying to grapple with it, We have also had plenty of distraught people calling us who when trying to open their rolled mattress with scissors have sliced through the cover damaging their new purchase!

What's the best mattress for restricted access?

The best type of mattress for restricted access is a zip and link model. This means that you're dealing with two smaller mattresses that zip together once in the room. The zips are recessed so sleepers don't feel them. As you've mentioned a quality mattress is going to be at least 25cm deep if not more. This is because a quality 2 sided mattress with a high enough GSM of mattress upholstery fillings and a quality pocket soring system will at its very base level be 25cm deep. Thinner mattresses are either one-sided or start to remove necessary mattress comfort layers.

If you can provide some more detail as to the access issues, sizes of halls, any returns, door heights then our small friendly team can help find you the perfect mattress without having to compromise on poor quality memory foam mattresses.

We offer a two-man delivery service to the room of your choice so why struggle with a boxed mattress being left at your front door?!

We hope that helps and gives you further mattress buying guidance. If you have any more mattress related questions please get back in touch on info@localhost or 0161 437 4419.

Sleep well
John & Ryan