Flip or No-Flip?

Dear Soaring Heart,

I'm confused. I have been looking at mattresses recently and have found two additional categories outside what the mattresses are made of: mattresses you flip and mattresses you don't. What's the difference? Is one better than the other?

Dizzy in Denver

Dear Dizzy in Denver,

Yikes! This is a simple question that's deceptively difficult to answer. The short answer is, there is no difference! Why? Because there is no such thing as a "no-flip mattress" if by that you mean a mattress that doesn't need to be flipped in order to maintain its structural integrity and comfort. There are, however, mattresses that are unable to flip, due to having a sewn-on pillow top on one side. They are marketed as simpler and more convenient, but of course, there's a catch...

There's a reason mattress manufacturers have always told you to flip the mattress: it makes the mattress last longer. A lot longer! These “no-flip “mattresses aren't using some new miracle mattress material that never compresses--they are using the same materials that have always been in mattresses or a variation of the same. Pocketed springs and springs are both springs, folks.

So what happens when you can't flip your mattress,? Your mattress doesn't last very long--and that pillow-top that got you in this mess in the first place is even shorter-lived. When you lie on the same spot every night, night after night, without ever flipping, tossing, or fluffing it, that pillow-top will be dead real quick. Imagine never being able to fluff your actual pillow... how long would it stay comfortable? Get my drift? So, a few short years after the purchase, you're saddled with a mattress that is uncomfortable in some key spots, even though the majority of it is just fine. And that nice big warranty they gave you, well, that doesn't cover the pillow-top. Bummer.

This is why we here at Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company have designed our mattresses to have a disconnected pillow-top, or Mattress Topper. This allows you to flip the heavier bottom section (what we call a Mattress Support) once every three to six months and flip your mattress topper once every two weeks or so. It takes less than a minute and will double--DOUBLE!--the lifespan of your mattress. And what happens when the mattress topper has finally lost its loft five to ten years down the road? You get a new topper and keep your still good, completely comfortable mattress support with the 20 year warranty. In short, you save money. A lot of money.