Saatva’s memory foam mattress, Loom & Leaf, is better known, but their Classic Luxury Innerspring is still their signature model. It has a coil-on-coil construction, and this is why it is the mattress that the new WinkBed is compared to by reviewers. Along with Saatva, three older manufacturers are named by GoodBed as having top brands of coil-on-coil mattresses: Restonic, Campbell Mattress, and Stearns & Foster. In side-by-side comparisons by Sleep Like the Dead, Saatva has much higher customer satisfaction overall than Restonic and Stearns & Foster (STLD does not cover Campbell Mattress).
Introduced in 2011, the Classic Luxury Innerspring has a Bonnell coil primary support unit. By that time, most new innerspring mattresses had offset coils, pocket coils or continuous coils. The reason Saatva has been successful with this model is the layer of 4” pocket coils above the 7” Bonnell unit. The effect of this configuration appears to work like a pocket coil mattress and a high coil-count box spring, all within one cover. The pocket coils being only 4” high makes them borderline micro-coils (or mini-coils). In this respect, the pocketed coils add conformity to the hourglass shaped Bonnells.
Another reason for Saatva’s success is the choice the customer has for the firmness level: Firm, Luxury Firm, and Plush. Many of the online mattresses have only one firmness available, somewhere in the middle. One firmness does not fit all.
Construction
Bonnell coils have an hourglass shape. They are tied to each other with spiral wires running the length of each row. The outer rows and the ends of the inner rows are tied to upper and lower perimeter rods, which also serve as edge support. This is the oldest kind of coil used in innerspring mattresses. It was adapted from buggy seat springs.
The entire pocket coil unit is wrapped in the foam encasement edge support – all 4 sides, the top, and the bottom. This hold the coils in place, and it also serves as an insulator, separating the pocket coils from the hourglass coils beneath and the memory foam above, as well as smoothing out the feel of the coils.
Right on top of the foam encasement is a 1” layer of memory foam. This is to add more conformity and pressure relief to the wrapped coils. The density of this memory foam is not disclosed, but its thinness is attributed to limiting heat build-up. It is either thicker, denser or both in the middle section for lumbar support.
The Saatva Classic Luxury Innerspring is a eurotop mattress, with the top section sewn to the border right at the edge. The organic cotton cover is filled with hyper-soft cushioning materials, both foam and fiber.
Comparison with other top coil-on-coil mattresses
- The WinkBed has foam-encased microcoils on top of pocketed coils. WinkBed has only one firmness level, but Saatva has three.
- The Black Diamond by Campbell Mattress has two pocket coil units. Though not specified, comparison of the single coil unit White Diamond with the Black Diamond suggests that the upper coils are much narrower than the lower ones and only 3” high, making them microcoils. Campbell mattresses are compressed, rolled and boxed, unlike WinkBed, Saatva, and Stearns & Foster.
- Two of Stearns & Foster’s four collections have layers of microcoils within the comfort layers, two in S&F Reserve and one in S&F Lux Estate.
- The Micro-Coil Box Top ComfortCare Limited by Restonic has a layer of microcoils near the top, under the 2” of foam in the box top, and there are a layer each of graphite-infused latex and gel memory foam between it and the pocket coil support unit, which significantly alters the coil-on-coil configuration.
Evaluation
Although it has its detractors, the Classic Luxury Innerspring by Saatva has a high degree of customer satisfaction. Having Bonnell springs may seem like a throwback to many, but Saatva makes it work by coupling them with wrapped pocket coils in its coil-on-coil construction.
Since the memory foam layer is so thin, it is already beneath another layer of cushioning materials, and it sits above pocket coils, it seems to add only a little to overall conformity and pressure relief. However, with the foam encasement of the pocket coils continuing across their top, the memory foam might restore some conformity lost in the encasement. Its principal benefit is lumbar support.
The cotton fabric cover is breathable, as is the fiber in the euro top. There is no named method of diverting vertical ventilation to the border of the mattress, as it is with the Airflow Transfer System available in Relief-Mart mattresses (Selectabed, Tempflow, and Snuggle-Pedic). The coils have the potential of airflow, but this is apparently blocked by the foam encasement.
Considering its user satisfaction rates and the moderate cost, the Saatva Classic Luxury Innerspring would be a good buy for someone who prefers an innerspring mattress. According to monitored user response, heat build-up is not an issue. But still, innersprings are not for everyone. If a customer wants to use it with an adjustable bed, the Bonnell coils probably rule that out.
If a person does not have to have springs, there are many options, such as latex and memory foam. The primary advantage of memory foam is its memory. When it has conformed to a sleeper’s body shape, it “remembers” that shape. This is really a short-term memory; it is slow to recover. As a result, it does not push up against the sleeper’s joints, maintaining pressure as the more resilient latex does. With multiple layers of memory foam, sometimes with a layer of latex, the feel of the mattress can be tailored for a number of conditions or personal preferences.
