What Happened To Boxsprings?

Penny for your thoughts?

Like most people I’m not sure I can think of many things that I have given less thought to than the boxspring under my mattress. The truth be told, who really cares anyway, it’s just a boxspring and mine looks just like it did the day I bought it right?  Wrong, the fact is the mattress buying public is unschooled and downright illiterate about everything boxspring and foundation related and the industry as a whole is doing nothing to change this. In fact they actually seem to make it more confusing. The point to be made here is that our core base mattress support system could be devolving from a so-called advanced state of design to something far less durable and second-rate and we can’t see it happening or just how this might affect us or our wallets.

Boxsprings are the best right?

The status quo for over 100 years we relied on them despite their slow evolution and lack of meaningful advancement as suggested in many blogs explaining their so called “benefits”. They were and are in many cases nothing more than rudimentary steel coil springs, big and small, thin and thick that were placed in a basic “foundation”. The pitch is that they were placed under a mattress in a wood slatted box to absorb energy, increase support, comfort, and mattress life. In spite of the hype they’ve received they’re not as advanced as many would like us to believe. Metal springs are not intelligent like a computer, they cannot sense and respond to our unique body weight, body shape, or even body positioning. Worse yet when they age the steel breaks, squeaks, and more notoriously just fatigues.  Exhaustion or fatigue of the steel is the most overlooked problem associated with them and it cannot be seen and even worse NO ONE offers a viable way to measure the wear for you. It is a guess at best as to the box springs actual state of condition leaving many mattress buyers to assume that theirs is “good” simply based on how it looks.

Europeans don’t’ use boxsprings

Many believe that Europeans intermingle the building of our American boxspring and mattress and into one single mattress design. Not true, I’ll even go so far to say that many also believe that the same is being done here in the states for platform bed mattress usage and bunk bed mattresses. Again very little to any truth to this, while they may say on the label that they’re specifically designed for bunk beds or platform beds their construction is basically identical to that used in any other ordinary “mattress set” with the exception of foam and latex mattresses.

Foundations: The customer friendly solution

They are essentially in many cases an inexpensive ridged platform for a mattress to be placed to rest upon. They can give a mattress elevation off the floor and even keep them from falling through a steel bed frame.  Yes a foundation is the simplest base used in a mattress set design. It is well known that USA manufacturers have been force feeding us costly boxsprings for years telling us we have to have them for support, we need it for comfort, and we need it for durability. Really, Europeans seem to have done just fine without them. Memory foam and latex mattresses considered to be among the best beds sold today don’t use “boxsprings”.

Of course manufacturers write the warranty rules and warn us that if we don’t buy their matching boxspring they cannot guarantee or warranty our new mattresses, and to add fuel to the confusion they do offer an exception, that being the use of their mattress on a platform bed. I can only assume this is due to the shift of growing popularity around platform beds here in the states.

Are they realizing that we are becoming wise to their pocket lining ways? Do they care? Foundations are in most cases are a fine substitute and like anything else we get what you pay for. Why do I support their usage?  Easy, their lower cost and the ease for customers to recognize when they are worn and no longer giving good support. The foundation is a simple design that is much easier for the average consumer to understand.

Examples of Foundations STL Beds Offers

• Basic Advantage Foundations- Low cost / durable
• Extended Life Foundations- Built to last / plus size / heavy duty
• Forever Foundations- Last Foundation you will ever need