Spring Mattress Buying Guide
This is a very in-depth guide of some 3,000 words. If you’d like to read specific sections, there are links here to jump to an area of interest.
Steel springs have been an integral part of mattress construction since their introduction at the end of the 1800’s. Steel is a remarkable material which is incredibly elastic. When steel wire is wound into a coil, its elasticity increases greatly, allowing the coil to compress and spring back into shape nearly limitless times with little performance degradation. This memory, or spring, is called elasticity, and it supports a coil mattress. Steel springs in mattresses also greatly increase air circulation, which dramatically improves hygiene; drier mattresses stay much cleaner over years of regular use, reducing bacteria and dust mite buildup.
Bonnell springs, which were adapted from carriage seats, were the original spring system used in mattresses. Bonnell springs are very bouncy because steel lacing wires connect the springs at the top and bottom. Bonnell springs are found only in the most basic mattresses today.
British-Canadian James Marshall invented the first coil system developed specifically for mattresses. Called the Marshall spring, the first mattress coil system was—even by today’s standards—very advanced: the coils are individually wrapped in fabric and arranged by hand in a honeycomb nested pattern. This lets the coils move independently and work without gaps in the support system.
Steel springs used in mattresses have evolved over time, with most design changes intended to aid mass production. These innovations make large-scale spring manufacturing easy, yet this method will never rival the quality of a hand-arranged honeycomb nested Marshall coil.
The Elastic Bed Principle
Mattress & Sleep Company curates its line of mattresses based on the ‘elastic bed principle’. Your mattress should be constructed of highly elastic materials for these three very simple reasons:
- Elastic materials conform better to the body's complex shape.
- Elastic materials rebound to their original shape effortlessly, providing proper support from head to toe, not just the heaviest parts of the body.
- Elasticity IS support. It's important to understand that ‘softness’ and ‘firmness’ are separate metrics and only loosely related to support. The elastic, conforming response of a softer spring supports the human body much better than the firm, overly stiff support of the floor.
If you stand with your back against the wall, it should be immediately obvious that only certain areas of your body are touching the wall. Only the parts of your body that contact the wall receive any support.
Appropriate support requires contact with the mattress support layers. When a mattress has an innerspring system that is too rigid or inflexible, it will straighten your spine to a degree. Your spine has a natural curve, and it needs support, not straightening.
In simple terms, your mattress should support your body’s natural standing posture and should not straighten your spine. Do not choose a mattress that is stiff and non-conforming. This reduces support for the lumbar spine while increasing pressure on common pressure points such as the shoulders and hips, which can negatively affect your comfort and potentially your sleep.
The Cairo Mattress is exceptionally elastic
(Higher is Better)
Types of Coils
Open Spring Mattresses
We tend to group coil systems together into two separate categories. Open coils are joined by steel helical lacing wires. Within this category, we find: bonnell, offset and continuous coils. These coils are all shaped differently, and comfort varies from one to the next. However, because the springs are joined at the top and bottom with helical lacing wires, coil movement is restricted.
The comfort of any open-coil mattress relies almost entirely on the upholstery layers, which is a flawed way to design a bed if we understand the importance of the elastic bed principle.
Coils joined by helical lacing wires tend to feel bouncy and unsettled. Generally, open coils are only found in budget mattresses. Some rare exceptions include higher-end offset coils (also called LFK springs). These open-coil designs make up a very small part of the mattress market in North America and are largely inferior to a well-engineered pocket spring.
Mattress & Sleep Company does not offer spring systems with helical lacing wires, as we believe pocketed springs are vastly superior in design and function. They are now widely available at a broad range of prices. To the benefit of nearly everyone in the market.
Pocket coils are also known as Marshall coils or fabric-encased coils. These coils are placed in their own fabric encasement and then either glued or sewn together at the center of the springs to allow independent movement.
Pocket springs are offered in a wide range of qualities and prices. Mattress & Sleep Company has partnered with the world's best brands to supply our range of pocket coil mattresses.
Pocket coils have become commonplace in the mattress industry. Generally, any spring mattress in Canada above $600 in queen size uses pocket coils. Lower-quality mass-market pocket coil systems reduce motion transfer and avoid a bouncy, cheap feel, making these springs a good choice for modest budgets.
Pictured here: The original patent drawings for the Marshall (pocket) coil.
The best way to design a pocket coil is to honeycomb-nest the springs. Honeycomb nesting eliminates the large gaps between springs because each row is offset from the next. We use honeycomb-nested springs as the main spring in our Berkeley Ergonomics mattresses. We source these springs from well-established suppliers in Germany.
Honeycomb nested springs can offer superior conformity to the body's shape and increased stability. Typically, these are used only in the bottom spring unit of modern mattresses that use multiple spring layers. The gold standard in spring technology is still the hand-tied honeycomb spring, which is wrapped only in flexible cotton calico. This art can't be scaled to mass production and is used in the most exclusive luxury mattresses, such as the Harrison Spinks Woodford.
On Point Elasticity
Point elasticity is the ability of a material to conform precisely to the shape of a human body. A more elastic spring system performs better. In these photos, we use the same wooden particle board (3 pounds) and iron weight (5 pounds) to demonstrate the difference in elasticity between different pocket spring systems. The board's curve simulates the natural curves of the human body.
Here we have a standard pocket coil mattress from IKEA: this model is called the ‘Haugesund’. Please note the springs are arranged in straight rows and are ‘parallel’ nested with large gaps between the springs. We give IKEA a lot of credit; their coil count of 594 is a true coil count and would be higher if they didn't foam-encase the perimeter of the springs. The foam density specs are provided, and everything matches what IKEA lists on its website. As of this writing, for $299 in a Queen, this is without doubt a great mattress for $300. Comparable options from standard retailers in Canada would typically be $600 or more.
2026 Update: Inflation is for real! I wrote the paragraph above in 2017. IKEA's ÅNNELAND hybrid mattress is the 2026 equivalent of the disassembled mattress below. As of this update, it costs $799 for a queen mattress. We recommend comparing this to our Spring Air Etta (1-sided) and Cora (2-sided) mattresses.
You can see that, with the wooden board and its weight, there are considerable gaps between the board and the springs. 8 pounds may not sound like much, but when it rests on only 4 springs, that is far more pressure than the average person exerts on a spring system when lying down with their body weight spread out. This is not how James Marshall intended a pocket coil system to behave; in this example, the upholstery is entirely responsible for the minimal comfort provided. Any mattress designed this way is suitable only for temporary use.
Here we have the same board and weight placed on our Berkeley Ergonomics Malmö Hybrid Mattress. We can see that the honeycomb nested design allows for a more flexible, elastic spring system. The coils exert less pressure because the weight is better distributed, and they require far less upholstery material to provide adequate comfort. It's easy to see why this coil system performs better than a typical pocket coil mattress. That is also why genuine performance mattresses don't use foam pillowtops; such thick upholstery layers are unnecessary when the springs provide so much comfort.
On Coil Counts
A typical mainstream queen-size pocket coil mattress contains somewhere around 800 individual coils. On the lower end, you may see a queen-size pocket coil count of around 600. This better reflects spring density, since most mainstream mattresses have a substantial foam perimeter. This foam perimeter removes several rows of springs, reducing both spring count and sleeping area.
However, coil count does not tell us everything about a spring system. Coil design and how the coils are joined matter most; our photos of various pocket springs in action illustrate differences in point elasticity.
Coil count, gauge of wire, and number of turns are not unimportant figures; it is, however, best to understand that these numbers are a direct consequence of the design of the spring system. Most inline nested coils have a spring density of around 800 coils in a queen-size mattress for a reason.
For example, using a honeycomb nested spring in our Berkeley Ergonomics Malmö Hybrid Mattress results in a substantial 1,484 springs in queen size. Honeycomb nested springs allow much higher spring counts, which lets us use thinner wire. This combination of traits maximizes the comfort and elasticity of the spring system. Our Malmo mattress measures only a little over 8" thick with the 2" natural latex upholstery but weighs often 30% more than typical 14" deep mass-produced pillowtop mattresses that also use pocket coils.
Of course, there are upper limits to the number of springs. Generally, coil counts exceeding 1,500 to 2,000 in queen size indicate the mattress has additional spring layers, often categorized as micro springs.
Micro springs are an excellent innovation in recent years. By replacing foam layers with micro springs, the mattress lasts longer and provides better support. Micro springs are a clever solution to increase luxurious comfort without sacrificing performance.
Harrison Spinks is a major innovator in micro spring technology and a leading manufacturer of mattresses and mattress components based in England. They produce their own pocket coil manufacturing machines in-house, the world's fastest. They also produce their own wire to achieve the ultra-fine steel they need to create the highest spring-count micro-spring layers available. Our select Harrison Spinks models use between 3,000 and 30,000 springs total in a queen-size mattress. This is the best way to create a comfortable, elastic, supportive mattress without using any foam.
A clever use of micro coils in one of our most popular mattresses from Berkeley Ergonomics. Progressively more flexible spring layers toward the surface increase comfort while retaining maximum response and elasticity, with a steel spring as close to the sleep surface as possible. The Berkeley Ergonomics Cairo mattress:
Upholstery Matters
Spring mattresses are upholstered with a variety of materials, mainly foam in contemporary offerings. In fact, there is so much foam in a typical spring bed that, really, most of these are just foam beds that happen to have a spring unit somewhere at the bottom of all that foam! It is therefore of significant importance to distinguish the quality of the upholstery itself that is used, not just the design of the springs.
Mattress & Sleep Company approaches this problem uniquely. Our coil mattresses from Berkeley Ergonomics are upholstered only with 100% natural Talalay latex foam, never low-density polyurethane foam. The foam is replaceable at a reasonable cost thanks to the mattresses' open-zipper design. We only wrap these materials in pure stretch-knit cotton and sheep’s wool. This is far more breathable, elastic, and durable than any mainstream mass-produced mattress, and ultimately offers better performance and value for long-term use. The removal latex layer in our Berkeley Ergonomics Berlin:
To go one step further, Harrison Spinks mattresses are upholstered only with 100% natural fibre fillings such as long staple cotton, hemp, flax, British wool, mohair, cashmere, and supremely elastic genuine horsetail. Micro springs on both sides greatly increase comfort compared to other traditional mattress makers that have similarly opted for the zero-foam route. This is the most hygienic, temperature- and humidity-regulating mattress type. A cross-section view of a Harrison Spinks (Somnus is the branding of the same products made for England and Europe) mattress:
Our Harrison Spinks mattresses, such as our best-selling Nesfield, are fully reversible for much longer comfort life than standard mattresses. While natural fillings do compress, as all upholstery does, these mattresses don't rely on the fillings for comfort and support the way mainstream beds depend on polyurethane foam. The fillings here help control temperature and humidity. A more sumptuous surface like this will take the shape of the body with use, but will maintain tremendous performance even when well worn in compared to mattresses that depend on polyurethane foam.
Typical Mainstream Coil Mattresses
This image shows the construction of a typical mattress from a box retailer. The example shown is a Kingsdown mattress, yet it could really be any of the standard brands – they’re all made in a very similar fashion.
The springs in this mass-produced mattress are much firmer than the low-density polyurethane foam on top. Not only does this upholstery break down and soften rapidly, but it is also the only part of the mattress that compresses easily. It may sound counterintuitive, but if the springs in the mattress don't compress with the foam, they aren't working and aren't supporting the body.
Low-density polyurethane foams are much less elastic than steel springs and performance latex foams; they perform poorly when new, and after a few years, softening can cause low back pain, so people replace mattresses more often today.
The average mattress lifespan today is approximately 3-5 years. This means some people keep their mattress for 10 years, while others may get 12 months before experiencing significant wear issues.
These disposable mattresses still make up the overwhelming majority of mattress sales. If your current mattress is worn out or no longer meets your needs, a new showroom mattress will likely feel better, regardless of cost or construction.
Polyurethane foams are made of plastic, which doesn't allow much airflow; polyester fibres used for the fabric do a poor job of reducing your exposure to humidity created by our own bodies, causing the common overheating that plagues modern mattresses, both spring and all-foam alike.
The quality of materials in mainstream mattresses is comparable to the IKEA mattress sample shown above, yet often these mattresses sell for as much as $2,000 or $3,000—even when they’re ‘on sale’ at ‘half price.’
Given that virtually any mainstream mattress is designed either with springs and foam or all foam, there is a high probability that your current mattress is made from these same materials, regardless of price or brand. If you’re curious, the label on your mattress will disclose the materials inside!