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Richard Renouf
The lockdown effect Complaints about mattresses with mysterious faults are on the up Lockdown seems to have affected people’s beds. When they find it difficult to sleep, it’s always the bed’s fault, and just lately I’ve been fielding a lot of calls and emails about ‘faulty’ mattresses. Usually there’s no information about what the customer thinks the fault actually is. Louise’s email simply said: We are in need of an independent bed technician to come and take a look at our mattress, which we believe is faulty. [The retailer has] already sent its bed technician out to us and he said it was wear and tear. We’ve had it less than a year and it’s barely been slept on, so we’d like someone to take a look at it independently. My response was (I think) tactful but cautious. After all, the cost of inspecting a mattress is usually a significant proportion of the original price. If the mattress is of any age, a replacement would be cheaper. I said: Most bed complaints I deal with are simply ‘settlement’ (or hollows appearing where you lie on them). This is not a fault because natural upholstery materials (eg cotton and wool) will matt down and until the whole surface of the mattress has had even use, there will appear to be a difference between the used and less-used areas. Perhaps you could send me more details and pictures so I can advise you. Louise sent me some pictures and a video. Her ‘proof’ that the bed was faulty was that if you put a ball on it, the ball rolled away, usually settling into one of the dips caused by the tufts. No thought had been given to the natural shaping of the mattress, nor whether or not the bed was level. This is not a method of testing a mattress that I would endorse. But the pictures did give me a lot of useful information, and I offered my comments. Your mattress has a pillow top. There's a very thick top layer of upholstery stuffing
20
Interiors Monthly January 2021
Louise complained her year-old mattress was faulty
which is made to look as if it's a separate duvet-like attachment. In this will be layers of fillings like cotton, polyester and wool which always settle during use. There is no industry standard for this as each type of filling will settle (flatten) at a different rate, but the rule of thumb that I consider to be reasonable is that this should not be more than 40% of the overall thickness of the fillings. That's a lot, and from the look of your mattress you have at least 100mm of upholstery layers so dips of 40mm would still be okay. As the mattress is tufted (buttoned) this would be measured by using a straight edge sitting on the mattress or a cord stretched over it to give a reference line and then measuring the high spots between each of the tufts. When you lie on the mattress you compress the springs and fillings. The only
difference between your mattress now compared to when it was new is that the fillings don't recover their height, but you are getting the same support from the same quantity of fillings when you lie on them. I hope that helps you to understand why I wouldn't recommend you to pursue a complaint.’ Perhaps the stress of lockdown or the limited amount of activity allowable was affecting Louise’s sleep, but I couldn’t suggest this in my email. On a stressful day, I’ve noticed that my driving isn’t as good as normal. Perhaps there’s something wrong with my car… Visit: www.richard-renouf.com Richard Renouf is an independent furnishings consultant