About dual spring tensions on one mattress

Hi Paul.

Good point.

There is a general confusion between the firmness of a mattress in the comfort layers and the supportiveness of a mattress.

And, this terminology can be mis-represented, mistaken and misunderstood.

To answer your question about which is FIRMER ie: 1500 pocket Springs or 2000 Pocket springs is not easy to answer as there are many factors missing in order to give a precise answer: We need to know:

1.  The gauge of wire used in a particular pocket sprung housing

2. The height of the spring unit.

3. the diameter of the spring unit

4. How many turns on the spring unit

5. Nested or Linear

6. Calico sewn encased housing or Polypropylene (spunbond) glued encased housing.

Many of my comments on this site relate to mass produced pocket spring units where it is unlikely any retailer or indeed many manufacturers could tell you the precise specification of a particular spring in a particular mattress model.

Therefore, all mattress tensions can only be generalised upon with a FIRMNESS rating.

In answer to your question, which is firmer – 1500 or 2000?

There isn’t a right or wrong answer.

If someone just wanted a spring unit (either soft or firm) then that would be easy to provide.

However, it is the mattress as a whole that is required and therefore people should be asking for FIRM support with SOFT upholstery.

Or FIRM support with Firm upholstery.

Coupled into this formula should be the persons bodyweight which also gives the ‘Which is firmer?’ question the anomoly.

A 8st person on a 1000 unit will find it firm, whereas a 18st person on a 1000 unit will find it soft.

In general the more pocket springs used give more individualised support – the less springs – not so much.

This is a sweeping generalisation and of course other factors have to be taken into consideration such as weight, upholstery used on a particular mattress and so forth.

However, there has to be common sense applied as well.

Spink and Edgar’s facination with thousand upon thousand spring counts will not give you thousand upon thousand extra comfort.

Taking our 8st person as an example again – he/she will not require a great deal of support (springs) but will benefit more from increased upholstery levels.

Our 18st person does require support – and the more individualised (spring count) support the better for comfort and support.

In our Origins range of mattresses the springs used are all a medium tension but the 2000 spring version is firmer than the 1500 spring version.

In the Artisan range the springs used are available in different tension soft, medium or firm.

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)

Kind Regards Gary