Mattress review 2023

Edit: New readers to the topic should know that links to Choice reviews are usually to the most current update. That is not always reflected in the linked summary unless clicked when Discourse (the Community forum software) will update it.

Good news everyone, we’ve updated our mattress review (member content) with the latest test data. We also cover the fundamentals of mattress shopping in our buying guide.

Have a mattress experience, question or issue? Leave a comment below.

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I am concerned that Choice recommend a company that has such poor service. Emma Matresses is a nightmare to deal with as evidenced on their own Facebook pages and other pages disgruntled consumers have made. People are waiting months for refunds on things that aren’t delivered or have been returned, my self included. I have been waiting for months due this to be resolved. They don’t have a phone number to call to try and resolve it, they always send a generic email or nothing at all. So my question is, should Choice continue to promote this dodgy company with so many Australians are having such difficulties with them, which then allows Emma to advertise and promote Choice having named their mattress number 1 to lure more Australians in potentially leading to more australians being taking advantage of ?

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Welcome to the Community @Carter16

As is regularly posted, Choice does laboratory testing of products and is unable to conduct after sales service tests that are generally anecdotal/opinionated vs scientifically/objectively based.

That being written, the prior now closed topic about beds

has a number of posts about Emma. It appears when things go well the product is respected, but when things go badly their lack of service comes to the fore. You can find those posts by using the Community search function in that topic.

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I totally agree with you. I purchased an Emma Mattress only because Choice highly recommends this product. In the Emma Mattress return policy agreement - (if anyone reads it), Says, you have to sleep on the mattress with the plastic covering over it, every time I turned over it made horrific noise, I was not happy for a couple of days and decided to return it. Thank GOD I started the process early. They are a nightmare.
Email responses was slow. Tried to call several times and never had anyone pick up the phone, the answer phone says, “we are busy, call back later”. I Was lucky to find the phone number on one of the emails. But! When you search on online, you will have a hard time finding a phone number. “They really don’t make it easy for you to contact them”. They finally have notified me, that someone will call to pick it up. NOT IMPRESSED. I also found out each mattress has a date when it was packed and sealed. The date on my mattress in which it was made was 17th December 2021 they SOLD me a mattress that was 6 months Old.

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Welcome to the Community @TamTam22

Thanks for adding your experience with Emma. It appears you got ahead of the curve compared to many unhappy customers.

It appears Emma mattresses are manufactured in a few countries and the best I can determine is ours come from Germany so shipping is usually measured in months; regardless of how efficient they are on each end or how quickly their local inventory turns over, 6 months does not seem excessive.

Would you like to elucidate on your concern over that 6 mos?

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I had left a (poor) review of an Art & Science mattress previously back in May(ish). Happily, can report that the issue was fixed with a replacement mattress … of the correct firmness. Turns out A&S made a “mistake” in manufacturing and the assembly line put the wrong innards in it.

The replacement mattress is definitely what we were after. Yay.

Sleeping Giant were helpful when approached, so we didn’t need to make an official complaint.

A couple of things - we made our complaint exactly 30 days after. Just within the customer satisfaction period (30 days) so we had two options offered - return for a refund under the CSG or return under warranty for an exchange (if defect confirmed it would be cost free). Ironically, we would have saved about $150 if we had opted for CSG as they had a great sale price (sigh I’m a hopeless negotiator. We only got about $100 and delivery included in the initial purchase). As it was, under a warranty claim we got a direct replacement and the defect was confirmed so no cost to us.

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Hi All,

I wonder if anyone here knows or ever deal with

De Rucci Beds – DE RUCCI MELBOURNE (derucciliving.com.au)?

or

Wenatex- Orthopaedic Beds & Sleep Accessories | Wenatex Sleep System

Because both of them were not mentioned in the Magazine last year when reviewing mattresses.

Hi,
Was there a reason why the Australian mattress manufacturer Atlantis was not included in that review?
Thanks & Regards.

Welcome to the Community @GeraldB

Choice is funded by subscriptions and donations and buys products to test on the open market so each reflects what a random consumer would ‘take home’.

As a result the selected products need to reflect ‘what consumers are buying’, eg those having representative market share. In some categories it is common for one or two exemplar products (high end low volume) to be included for comparison with the mass market.

The notable exception is when a single product gets a highlight review when products are provided by manufacturers/importers; and the source is clearly mentioned to avoid potential conflicts. ie no test or review is promotional and all are objective.

This page includes what categories are in the testing queue and how to ‘request a test’.

There is also a 'Request a Test’ category on the Community that is monitored by Choice staff.

In truth there are a number of quality manufacturers in many categories that have small volume and don’t get on Choice radar for inclusion, and no matter how good miss out on the exposure testing would provide. If enough consumers ‘request a test’ or their market share increases enough they might get tested in future.

I trust that helps explain it?

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Thanks for your answer, which I understand. Having said that, I would definitely expect that fully Australian-made products would always be part of any reviews and tests. Regards.

I know of many products or businesses which would meet the Aussie-made criteria. The challenge is they may only market selectively, directly or to just one locale. While Choice might review them, of what benefit is it if their product is only accessible to a minority of the population?

By example we have a mattress manufacturer 50km up the road. Their products are only available direct from their site (factory) made to order. They may be the very best, but how useful might that be when few can sample the product, let alone order.

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Has anyone purchased an Emma Comfort Mattress…I am looking for some feedback as I am thinking of purchasing one

Welcome to the Community @Rosebud1954

The Emma Comfort is included in the Choice review (member only content) referenced at the top of this topic.

There are a few posts about Emma in various topics on the community. I moved your query into this one that has a few comments. You can find the others using the Community Search tool.

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Some customer of Emma Mattresses have had some poor customer service experiences. This is outlined here:

and here:

It is worth reading this feedback in the community before locking in your mattress purchase decision.

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I’d really like to see Choice include more information about the trustworthiness of the manufacturer and the duration that the product has been on the market, so that users can more effectively assess risk when making purchase decisions.

Why?

A lot of users buy products based on the “Recommended” badge. This appears to be primarily based on the test scores, however the test score doesn’t give buyers the full picture of the risk they are taking. I really think Choice should only recommend products that perform well in tests and carry a low manufacturer risk.

Example products / manufacturers

  1. The Breeze Mattress was one of the top reviewed mattresses, however there is limited customer feedback about the product or company online. The one review on Choice is 1 star, and the one review on product reviews (for a different product) is also one star. Given they don’t allow returns after the product has been used, ordering online from this company seems very high risk.

  2. The Emma Mattresses have also scored really highly, but there has been a lot of complaints about the after-sales support for this product. Choice has flagged this in the “Bad Points” section, but the “Risk” information should also be shown alongside the “Recommended” row in the table. Additionally, Emma have some shady marketing tactics as they run the top5bestmattress.com.au website which ranks their competitors poorly but doesn’t give any information on how these ranks are determined (see their disclaimer).

What information should be added to reviews?

  1. Manufacturer history: Basic information like how long the manufacturer has been around for, what their brand rating has been in past Choice surveys, are there any known issues with the business at the time the review was written, etc. I’m sure this could be done in an objective way, and messaged so that users know that the information was correct as of when the review was published (so they don’t expect it to be constantly updated).

  2. Returns information: this should be shown under the “Recommended products” section, rather than under “Features”, as this has a huge effect on purchase risk.

  3. Product release date: this gives buyers context for how long the product has been on the market so they can assess whether there should be reviews online, and whether those reviews are likely to have a comprehensive picture of performance.

  4. Test date: I’m really surprised that this isn’t already included; is this an intentional omission, or have I just missed it?

What happens if buyer feedback changes?

In the limited cases where there are major issues with a product or manufacturer some time after the product has been tested, the review could be updated (along with a timestamp) to call out these issues. This should explicitly be called out in the “Recommended” section so it’s easy to find.

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Has anyone bought or had experience with Yinahla mattresses ? I’ve read they are good but noticed they didn’t feature in the last choice review .

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Welcome @Sleepyhead

Your post has been moved into the mattress review topic. Hopefully you will get some feedback on your request about the Yinahla brand.

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I purchased a Sleeping Duck mattress 3 years ago, and while the overall comfort and support have been satisfactory, I’ve encountered an issue worthy of attention—excessive heat retention. This concern has prompted me to investigate and share my experience with potential buyers and the Choice reviewers team.

The mattress, while offering a comfortable sleep surface, tends to accumulate heat during the night. This issue can be noticeable and, at times, affect the overall sleep quality. I believe it’s crucial to address this matter as temperature regulation plays a significant role in ensuring a restful night’s sleep.

I would recommend potential buyers who prioritize a cooler sleep environment to thoroughly evaluate this aspect before making a purchase decision.

I have reached out to Sleeping Duck’s customer support to gather more information and explore possible solutions, but they were unable to provide any solution to significantly enhance the overall satisfaction with an otherwise promising product.

I am in the process of finding a better mattress which is a dissappointing move for me as the Sleeping Duck was a significant investment.

The Sleeping Duck mattress has its merits, but the issue of excessive heat retention is worth investigating for those who prioritize a cooler sleeping experience.

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Welcome to the Community @Pjay

Choice has published a relevant article although the cool mattresses are subscription walled,

and for subscribers, likewise a metric that is displayed in the reviews (from the comparison tables of the user-selected mattresses)

image

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Hi Brendan,
I saw the the latest mattress review and wondered why the top two mattress ratings were not recommended to purchase.