Coiled spring mattresses
A mattress that uses springs or coils is generally described as an innerspring mattress. There are many high quality orthopedic coiled spring mattresses available and they can be very affordable.
These spring based mattresses come in two main formats, both of which remain very popular and cover a range of different qualities.
- The first type (and normally the cheapest) is called an open coil. The open coil mattress does not usually feature in orthopedic beds for reasons that will become more evident below.
- The second type is called a pocket spring. A pocket spring mattress can be a very good orthopedic mattress, either by being firm, or by having good body profiling characteristics resulting from its clever independent spring system.
Open coil
The open coil mattress is still very popular even though it is the simplest of mattress constructions. Open coil mattresses are composed of individual springs of 5 to 6 coils in height that are interconnected at the top and bottom with a thin helical wire.
This connects all of the springs together to literally form a platform of springs. Additional support is provided around the perimeter of the springs by using continuous steel rods that are applied to the top and bottom of the mattress. This results in a firm cage on to which the mattress filling and ticking can be added.
A typical open coil double mattress will have a spring count of about 325, however the spring count can be greater.
The firmness or softness of the mattress is largely determined by a combination of the spring count and the quality of the springs, i.e. thicker wire and a greater number of twists in each coil will result in a higher quality mattress.
A variation on the open coil mattress is the continuous spring mattress. With a continuous spring mattress the entire coil construction is made from a single wire. This type of mattress is usually cheaper and considered to be of a slightly lower quality than a standard open coil. It will normally use thinner wire and have smaller springs that connect vertically.
Continuous spring mattresses tend to be softer than regular open coil mattresses and their life expectancy is normally lower.
Pocket springs
The pocket spring mattress has long been considered the Rolls Royce of mattress constructions. Like the open coil it has springs, however these springs are individually stitched into their own separate pockets which keep them independent from every other spring in the bed.
This gives pocket sprung mattresses the ability to have every single spring work, react, compress and adjust independently. In the case of the open coil mattress every spring is affected by its neighbours, but with a pocket spring mattress each spring is its own boss and work separately.
The most noticeable effect of this is that when you lay on a pocket spring bed there will be a minimal of deflection around you. This makes pocket spring constructions ideal for double and king sized beds that have two people sleeping in them.
A further advantage of the pocket spring construction is in the filling which works far more effectively because of the way that the springs are separated in their own pockets. All of these features result in a bed construction that often leads to a pocket spring mattress being described as an orthopedic mattress.
A basic pocket spring mattress will have a spring count of about 600, however spring counts for these mattresses can exceed 3000 and 1500 to 2000 is typical. Pocket spring mattresses can also be expected to have long life spans and are a greater investment than their open coil counterparts.
Pocket spring mattresses will often have extra touches like hand finishing and the ticking and filling are usually of a much higher quality than that found in an open coil mattress. This will however be reflected in the price.
Composite beds that mix a spring based mattress with contouring foams like visco elastic memory foam or Latex foam will be pocket sprung and not open coil.
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