Choosing Your Mattress Type: Part 2

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

27 Sep 2007 07:31 AM

In Choosing Your Mattress Type: Part 1, I introduced the four different types of modern mattresses. They are:

• Traditional Inner Spring Mattress
• Air Mattress
• Foam Mattress
• Waterbed

In the previous article, we tackled the first two types. Now it is on to the remaining two types of mattresses; that is, foam mattresses and waterbed mattresses.

Foam Mattress

A foam mattress operates differently from either an inner spring mattress or an air mattress is that it generally forms one solid surface instead of having an inner support system. There are two type of foam used, regular latex foam or memory foam that responds to your body heat. The foam mattresses can vary tremendously in quality, so shop carefully. One of the benefits of foam is that recent studies have found that it carries less dust mights, bacteria and other allergens than other mattresses. One word of caution with memory foam: in warm climates, the foam may get so soft that it doesn't offer a lot of support.

Waterbed

Water beds are probably the least popular mattresses to buy in the current times. There are two types of waterbed mattresses, those that are hard sided and those that are soft sided. Both types are incased in a vinyl casing. Hard sided waterbed mattresses consist of a water-filled mattress that is set in a hard wooden frame. In a soft sided waterbed mattress, there is a rectangular frame of foam that forms the sides of the mattress, giving it the look of a traditional bed.

Inexpensive waterbed mattresses generally have one chamber and are known as free-flow mattresses, because a disturbance on one end of the mattress will create that "wave effect" that waterbeds are known for having. Most modern, higher end waterbed mattresses incorporate some sort of wave-reducing system, usually consisting of a combination of water chambers and air chambers, and fiber batting.

Water beds are generally heated, which can raise your energy costs.

Would you like to learn some more about mattresses?

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Choosing Your Mattress Type: Part 1

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Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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