Hi Kelly,

Many thanks for your comment on our website about zip and link mattresses for bed frames. We're pleased to hear you find our mattress website so helpful and with a human approach. We write the bed content from our decades of experience and try to relate it in a simple format that non-bed geeks can understand. There's so much misinformation about mattresses and beds on the web that it's really important to us to help educate people. Therefore they can make better bed buying decisions.

Right, zip and link mattress advice!

Zip and link mattresses are a great option as they allow for far easier turning of your mattress, which should be done monthly. They also far reduce transference in bed, ie movements from one partner rippling through the bed and disturbing the other.

Spring Tensions Explained:

One thing to get right before we recommend a mattress is the spring tension. 9 times out of 10 retailers get this completely wrong. They sell a mattress spring tension as the comfort feel of the mattress. So most mattress consumers end up choosing a spring tension in lieu of looking at the comfort layers. Ie you may have picked a 'soft' spring tension which may be totally unsuitable for your bodyweight.

This results in too little support and ultimately a poor night sleep.

Bodyweight	Spring tension
Upto 16 Stone / 50-101kg	Medium (1.4mm)
16 Stone / 101kg Upwards	Firm (1.6mm)
Available in Bespoke Products (Please Call)	Soft (1.2mm)

It is the comfort or upholstery layers placed on top of the pocket spring unit that you need to look at. The spring tension is always preselected by your bodyweight, choosing a softer or firmer spring will only result in a bad nights sleep as the mattress will either be far too supportive or will allow you to sink into an uncomfortable curve shape during the night.

Softer Feel Mattresses:

For a softer feel mattress, you want to look for high loft fibres and fillings that have a forgiving rebound rate. Wool, Bamboo, Cotton and Alpaca are some of the softest natural fibres in a mattress. In an entry-level model mattress polyester is a really robust softer fibre when chosen as a high loft pad vs the denser firmer polyester slabs.

However, it can't all be soft squishy fillings or the mattress will very quickly settle and lose its loft. Meaning super soft mattresses with no bridging layers get lumpy and bumpy. All of our softer models have these bridging layers either horsehair or firmer layers to help address this.  Higher GSM (grams per square meter) of fillings can help give that cloud-like feeling. When used in a two-sided mattress model it means you can turn the mattress each month which greatly reduces natural settlement (which will occur in any mattress) from becoming problematic.

We have a list at the bottom of this answer which ranks all mattress fibres in terms of feel and cost.

Soft Zip & Link Beds:

There are two of our hand made bed models that would be suitable depending on your budget and sleeping requirements.

The Artisan Luxury is our finest soft feel mattress. 100% Natural fibre, fully breathable and finished with exquisite hand detailing. It features calico encased vanadium coated pocket springs.

Artisan Luxury Mattress

1: 1200 GSM BRITISH FLEECE WOOL AND COTTON

2: HAIRPROOF CAMBRIC COVER

3: 1200GSM PURE HORSEHAIR

4: 500GSM PURE WOOL

5: 1200GSM PURE HORSETAIL

6: 500GSM PURE WOOL

7: 1476 CALICO ENCASED POCKET SPRINGS [51MM] [1.42MM]

TOTAL: 4600GSM

DEPTH: 27-30CM

CHEMICAL FREE COVER

 

If you're looking for an entry level mattress at a competitive price then please have a look at our Origins Comfort 1000. With a soft finish, it contains 1250GSM of synthetic fibres and a spunbond 1000 1.4 gauge pocket springs. It's still two sided and hand made but doesn't contain the high end fibres of the Artisan Luxury. It's still one of our best sellers and at the price point can't be beaten compared to models from other online retailers.

Origins Comfort 1000

1: 750GSM VERY SOFT POLYESTER

2: 500GSM POLYESTER PAD

3: ONE INCH FOAM INSULATOR LAYER

4: 1000 SPUN BOND POCKET SPRINGS

TOTAL: 1250GSM

DEPTH 30-33CM

Mattress Upholstery Layers Compared:

Upholstery Layer	Fibre Type	How it will feel?	Price Point
Polyester	Synthetic	Soft	Cheap
White Fibre	Synthetic	Soft/Medium	Cheap
Recycled Fibre / Eco Fibre	Synthetic	Medium	Cheap
Memory Foam	Synthetic	Medium/Firm	Mid Price
Igel / Hybrid Foam	Synthetic	Medium/Firm	Mid Price
Polycotton	Synthetic/Natural Blend	Soft/Medium	Mid Price
Linen	Synthetic/Natural Blend	Medium	Mid Price
Wool (Pure)	Natural	Soft/Medium	High-End
Cotton (Pure)	Natural	Soft	High-End
Silk	Natural	Soft	Expensive
Horsehair	Natural	Medium	High-End
Mohair	Natural	Medium/Firm	High-End
Hemp	Natural	Medium	High-End
Latex (100% Natural)	Natural	Medium/Firm	High-End
Coir	Natural	Firm	High-End
Flax	Natural	Firm	High-End
Coarse Cashmere	Natural	Firm	High-End
Bamboo	Natural	Super Soft	Expensive / Exclusive
Horsetail	Natural	Firm	Expensive / Exclusive
Alpaca	Natural	Soft	Expensive / Exclusive
Cashmere (Pure)	Natural	Soft	Expensive / Exclusive
Vicuna	Natural	Super Soft	Expensive / Exclusive

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