Consumer Reports Best Rated Mattress -- Why It Doesn't Exist (Yet)

Everyone is looking for Consumer Reports Best Rated Mattress, but unfortunately it doesn't exist. Consumer Reports doesn't rate mattresses, and they are quite clear about why.

It is impossible to compare the same brands and models of mattress when they vary so much between retailers. Not only do the names change, but the biggest and best mattress brands produce different lines of mattresses for different outlets. As an example, Serta makes a Vera Wang mattress exclusively for JC Penney, and there are many other examples of this.

It is impossible to get any sort of meaningful rating system to determine who makes the best mattress if you don't know exactly what you're buying. This is why Consumer Reports best rated mattress remains an unknown at this time.

Consumer Reports Best Rated Mattress Type?

It would be reasonable, given the difficulties of evaluating individual models, to at least expect Consumer Reports to weigh in the best type of mattress or possibly even the best brand of bed?

While they don't go as far as recommending one brand over another, they have conducted extensive in-house tests on various types of mattresses.

They also conducted polls on consumer satisfaction regarding mattresses they have purchased recently.

They also compared three different well-known specialty brands with pricey beds: Duxiana, Tempurpedic and Select Comfort (Sleep Number)

They came upon a number of interesting results.

The comparisons on the high-priced specialty beds all had widely varying opinions among the participants who tested them. Some loved them... and some hated them! This is so typical of mattress reviews. It's nice to know even the best designed test from the leaders in consumer product ratings had this extreme range of reactions.

Consumer satisfaction polls of all mattresses showed a somewhat higher satisfaction rating from buyers of all specialty mattresses -- including all-latex, all-memory foam, luxury innerspring and adjustable air bed -- over the plain ordinary innerspring mattresses.

Their in-house tests revealed the same pattern. Some employees were given mattresses to try out in their own homes... some loved certain models and types, while others had completely different responses to the same ones.

As long as the mattress was not the cheapest model, comfort and durability was attained at fairly reasonable prices. Higher prices did not necessarily result in higher satisfaction ratings.

Mattress retailers can be deceptive (no big surprise there!). CR discovered that a bed that one store claimed was the same as a model sold in a different store--was NOT the same inside.

And finally -- they discovered that mattress preference is very personal, and there is no one best type/model/brand for everyone. Another reason why the Consumer Reports best rated mattress just hasn't been in the radar. It's your own ratings that count the most.