[newbigland]

Dear fellow side sleepers with chronic lower back pain,

I know it's a personal preference but I'm just finding it extremely difficult to decide on a mattress which I plan to sleep on for at least the next 10 years within minutes of lying on different mattreses with the salesperson and shoppers starring. I've checked out the above brands. Despite the almost-unaffordable prices, I really don't know which one can realistically give me good nights of sleep without waking up in the middle of the night because of back pain. What are your suggestions?

[jgl]

I went through major mattress buying dramas a couple of months back. It's a real pain to shop for mattresses in HK, so you have my sympathy. I ended up with a Simmons, which is why the rest of my post is skewed towards them.

This is what I found via a mixture of online research and personal experience:

General comments

Tempur beds are fantastically expensive and kind of dubious in HK weather as the main shortcoming of memory foam is a tendency to retain heat. I've read too many comments from people who find memory foam to hot to sleep in, and it would be especially problematic in our hot weather. They seem very comfortable in the stores, but are so expensive that they just are not a serious consideration. A better proposition in the States, where they give a 30 day no-questions refund policy. Refund policies don't exist in HK, so buying a mattress is inherently riskier.

Simmons is pretty good for a shared bed as the pocketed coil construction really does eliminate movement. You don't feel your partner tossing and turning at all. King Koil also does pocketed springs.

The other two brands (Serta and Sealy) also make fine mattresses but without the motion separation tendencies of Simmons. IMO, all spring marketed technology such as independent sensory arms, tri-spring designs, etc, is simple marketing bollocks. The one exception would be individually pocketed coils if you are a light sleeper. Most springs are made by a single manufactuer anyway (Legget + Platt) which supplies the major mattress manufacturers.

Mattress companies deliberately make the shopping process as confusing as possible by having multiple names for the same mattresses, and providing almost no technical information so as to make comparison shopping impossible. Less a problem in HK than other places, as the range here is so miniscule to start with.

Normative wisdom states that side sleepers typically require softer mattresses. These are quite hard to find in HK as people here seem to prefer sleeping on bricks.

Shortlist of soft mattresses

My shortlist was based on price, softness, and decent contruction:

Simmons Merriam Eurotop Plush. Fat, expensive and comfortable and very well constructed.
Simmons Libson. Thin, less expensive, softer than the above.
Sealy Tiffany. Fat, far less expensive, a bit harder than the Merriam.

Most other soft mattresses get into really silly price ranges- over 20K for a king!

Where to shop

There is a quiet Simmons store in the Princes Building, where you can tell the salespeople to ignore you. There is a quiet Simmons store in Sha Tin and a small rather crowded one in CWB near Ikea.

Wing On in Sheung Wan has a decent range (Sealy, King Koil, Airland, Slumberland), but has overly attentivesales people.

Sogo in CWB has a decent range (Tempur, Sealy, Simmons, some UK brand), but is a bit crowded.

Oh, one other thing: Mattresses are perpetually discounted in HK, so ignore admonitions that the 'sale' ends soon. And if you really know what you want, ordering from the US and paying for shipping is cheaper than buying locally.

PM me if you need more info.

[KnowItAll]

JGL : that has to be one of the most informative posts I've read .. thanks!

[jgl]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

JGL : that has to be one of the most informative posts I've read .. thanks!

Heh- and I was adding more info when my edit window of 10 minutes expired

I get kind of obsessed with research sometimes!

[Crocodile]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

JGL : that has to be one of the most informative posts I've read .. thanks!

I second that.

.... and I could have used your post 3 months ago!

Cheers.

[automatic]

I have a Tempur here in HK, and I am very happy with it. Haven't really felt that it would be any warmer than other mattresses. The model I have has a 2 cm topsheet of softer Tempur foam on top och the normal tempur material, maybe this makes it more ventilated than the standard model?

[newbigland]

Thank you so much for everyone's comments, suggestions and advice, especially that of jgl. It really IS the most informative post I've ever read here.

I've looked at everything. Well, almost. I went to Sogo, Wing On and Sincere. I also went to the Serta showrooms both in Happy Valley and in Central.

Tempur: Expensive but the reason I didn't buy it was that...there's a 3 month wait. I can't wait.

Sealy: Tiffany is good. Comfortable and fair price. The hotel deluxe one is also good but too expensive and too soft for my back if we talk about long term. Everything is now made in Thailand. Parts and the assemble process.

Simmons: The only brand that carries mattresses made in Japan. Many others are made in USA. The one I like is too expensive, more than Tempur. And somehow I just didn't like the salespeople both in Sogo and Wing On.

Serta: Very helpful and knowledgeable staff. It's the showroom service I guess. Fair prices. Parts from USA but assembled in China and Hong Kong. There are still two models from USA which are in big sizes and thick pillow tops.

So, I got myself a Serta mattress which has a pillow box. The only mattress that has a pillow box which embraces one's body better than pillow tops. They even throw in 2 cutest sheep stuffed toys. Serta does make the best ads. And the mattress was delivered in a week.

[Chicago Girl 28]

I do could have really used this advice about a month ago, because we just moved here as well. My husband is a constant mover in bed...imagine swimming, boxing, and flailing arms and legs all night, we definitely needed a matress with no transfer of movement. Back home we had a king size bed which allowed more room for him to do his nightly aerobics, but here the apartments are much smaller and a king size would have taken up the entire room.

So, anyway, I found a brand called Mometum at Price Rite in Causeway Bay. It's a cheaper version of Tempur. It's very hard and my husband hates it. I think it's okay, maybe it will be better once it's broken in a couple of months, but it does alleviate back pain and there is absolutely NO MOTION TRANSFER. And it's fairly inexpensive.

So, if you're interested, go check it out. I know there is also a Price Rite in Kennedy Town. I believe they are all over, but if you are only here for a couple years, to me it's senseless to buy a very expensive mattress.

Hope this helps....

[MacS]

anyone bought a Tempur pillow recently?

what's the current price for the Classic?

where to buy with the best price?

Thanks!