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Mattress Warranties: What You Should Know → Based on Data From Over 3,000 Mattress Owners
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last updated November 22, 2011
Based on data from owner experiences, we provide the most important points to remember about mattress warranties.
Divide By 2 Rule
Our research strongly suggests that you should not believe that your mattress will last the length of its warranty.
Sleep Like The Dead collected data from over 3,000 owners regarding how long they kept their mattresses and compared this with the length of the warranties.
The result of the analysis suggests that the useful life of a mattress can be determined by dividing the warranty period in half.
For example, a mattress with a 20-year warranty is often kept about 8-12 years; a mattress with a 10-year warranty is often kept about 4-6 years. Owners discard of their mattress for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that the mattress has lost its comfort and or supportiveness through normal wear. (Normal wear, by the way, is not covered under warranty.)
This is only a general rule, however; individual brands or models may do somewhat better or worse, and you may get more or less life relative to the warranty period from your particular mattress.
Of course, this rule implies that there is indeed a correlation between warranty length and the quality / durability / longevity of a mattress. In other words, good mattresses usually have longer warranties, while not-so-good mattresses usually have shorter ones.
Sagging
The main complaint – by far – people have with their mattress is sagging, especially in regard to innerspring beds and to a lesser extent memory foam, latex and air mattresses.
Owner data suggests that even moderate sagging can and often does result in less comfort and support, and may cause pain, especially back pain. (See mattresses and pain for more analysis.)
As a result, as a mattress shopper you should pay special attention to how sagging issues are covered by the warranty. Most warranties will cover sagging only when the problem becomes severe enough, that is, when it reaches a certain depth.
For example, innerspring mattress warranties will often provide coverage for sagging beginning at a depth of 1.5 inches. By contrast, a few memory foam mattress warranties, namely Tempurpedic's, will provide coverage for sagging beginning at a depth of .75 inches. In other words, innerspring bed warranties often require twice the depth of sagging that these memory foam bed warranties require before coverage kicks in.
Warranty Claims by Mattress Type
Innerspring mattresses (because of premature sagging) and air beds (largely because of mechanical breakdowns) have the most warranty claims, according to our collected data.
The chart below shows how mattress types compare on the issue of warranty claims. Keep in mind that this represents what is often, but not always, the case; a particular brand or model may go against these findings.
In addition, our data shows that the more expensive a mattress is the more likely an owner will be to make a warranty claim if a problem arises.
By contrast, the less expensive a mattress is the less likely an owner will be to use the warranty if a problem arises. This helps to explain why waterbeds and futon mattresses (which are often less expensive than the other types) have fewer warranty claims.
It Will Cost You
Making a warranty claim can be expensive to the mattress owner.
There can be a fee to have someone come to your home to inspect the condition of your mattress to determine if it is eligible for a warranty claim. If it is eligible to be replaced / repaired, there will be a fee to take the defective mattress away and to ship a new or repaired mattress to you. Given the heavy weight of many mattresses today, this fee may be substantial.
In addition, depending on the age of the mattress and the warranty terms of proration, you may have to pay a percentage of the replacement or repair costs.
Better Business Bureau Rating
A mattress warranty is only as good as the manufacturer's willingness to honor it. Often a mattress manufacturer's Better Business Bureau rating can be a good indicator of how well the company stands behind its warranty. An "A" or "B" rating generally means that the company honors its warranty; a "C" rating or lower can mean that it doesn't.
For mattress manufacturers' BBB ratings, see the mattress comparison.
Sounds Impressive, But...
Many mattress owners realize too late that their warranty sounds more impressive than it actually is. For example, most airbeds have a 20-year warranty. This causes many owners to wrongly believe that if any manufacturer's defect pops up in the next 20 years, the problem will be covered at little or no cost to them.
The whole story is that non-prorated coverage often ends after just a few years. If something goes wrong after this time, the owner will often need to pay at least 20% of repair costs.
Make sure to read the fine print of a mattress warranty.