A New Company
WinkBeds, a new company selling its mattress only online, was started, as so many of the others, to bypass the traditional way of making and selling mattresses. The goal was to simplify the process of buying a mattress while cutting the cost. Both goals are achieved by showing and selling the products online and delivering them directly to the consumer. This trend is not as new as many may think, but goes back at least as far as 2006, when BedInABox began selling its mattresses online.
To be fair, the system of manufacturer to retail store arose to meet a real need. It was a way to get products from a large capacity manufacturer to where the customers were. This was before automobiles, paved roads and superhighways were commonplace. It was also before the age of the Internet.
Online Mattresses
The first online only mattresses were specialty sleep (non-coil) beds, mostly memory foam and latex, rolled up in boxes, and at low prices. A few of the companies doing this are BedInABox, Tuft & Needle, Novosbed, Casper, and Yogabed.
In 2010, Saatva began selling luxury coil-on-coil innerspring mattresses only online. The price is not much more than the specialty sleep mattresses. However, they are not compressed and rolled, but delivered to customers and set up by local large-item delivery services, such as deliver mattresses for a local store, with a charge for shipping. This still costs less than buying a luxury innerspring mattress (such as Beautyrest) at a store.
The WinkBed
In January 2015, WinkBeds began marketing their mattress. Like the Saatva models, it is a luxury coil-on-coil innerspring mattress. Also like them, it is not compressed and rolled. The price is higher, but shipping is free, so consider the shipping as rolled into the price. As with most of the new companies, Winkbeds lists its product on the Amazon Marketplace, something Saatva has not done as yet. Not surprisingly, a number of reviewers compare the WinkBed to the Saatva mattresses.
The major difference between the Saatva Mattress and the WinkBed is in the coils. Saatva has pocket coils above Bonnell coils, but WinkBed has microcoils over pocket coils.
Construction
Cover
The cover fabric is Tencel, a cellulosic fiber (regenerated cellulose) made from eucalyptus wood. It is processed in a manner similar to making rayon, but not exact. The profile of the fibers makes them wick moisture and carry it away. Its role is to keep the sleeping surface dry. Like rayon, it is soft, smooth and very breathable.
Euro Top
The topmost layer in the WinkBed is a euro top. This is like a pillow top, but is flush with the edge of the mattress for a squared profile. Filled with hypersoft foam and gel foam, it is 2” high.
Foam-encased Microcoils
The next layer down is 2½” of microcoils. These are individually foam-encased, combining foam and coils. They are narrow enough to get 1,358 of them into a Queen size mattress. WinkBeds calls them “Pocketed Airsprings,” an obvious reference to air being channeled vertically through the coils.
Edge Support
This is not a wall, as in many other mattresses, but is around the perimeter at the top of the mattress. It is a 4” high rail of high-ILD foam. The role is to make the edge more usable. Dr. Swartzburg says that edge support is not needed if the materials are stable enough.
Pocket Coils
Primary support in the WinkBed is an innerspring of 7½” high wrapped pocket coils. There are 858 of these pocketed springs in a queen-size model. Pocket coils have the benefits of conformity and motion isolation. Both benefits come from the coils responding independently from their neighbors. Unlike Bonnell, offset and continuous coils, these coils are not tied to each other. Thus, when one coil is depressed, it does not pull down those next to it. The fabric pockets ensure that they will not intermesh with each other.
Conformity relieves pressure on larger parts of the body while supporting the smaller parts. This is why they were invented 91 years before the first memory foam mattress. Memory foam was invented for the same purpose, and its support has a smoother curve than that of coils. Smoothing out the curve is one reason for the layer of microcoils in the next layer up and the foam in the euro top above that.
Foam Foundation
Since pocketed coils are not attached to each other, they do not naturally hold together as a unit. Even sewing or welding the pockets to each other is not enough. The common solution to this is to give the mattress a “floor” – so to speak. This is a 2” thick foam base layer that WinkBeds labels as a foam foundation, not to be confused with a box base, platform bed or adjustable foundation the mattress may be set on.
Comfort and Comparison
The WinkBed has received positive reviews from several independent reviewers. For example, Sleepopolis rated it A+ (97%), the same grade it gave to the Saatva. But this hybrid innerspring is not everybody’s mattress, since it is available in only one firmness level, medium firm (6/10). On this score, Saatva has the advantage with its three firmnesses. They avoid the extremes as “mushy” at one end and “like concrete” at the other.
Both WinkBed and Saatva are eurotop mattresses with foam in the top section. Neither one claims to have memory foam in that layer, but both have pocket coil conformity, and Saatva has an inch of memory foam atop the pocket coils.
The difference in coils makes a difference in how the two models feel. Saatva’s lower support layer of Bonnell coils are not conforming, and have a high degree of motion transfer. However, this is offset to large extent by the pocket coils above.
Saatva also has lumbar support with a foam layer above the coils in the center of the mattress.
Memory foam has deeper and smoother conformity than pocket coils. While memory foam yields to the larger body sections (hips and shoulders), coils push up, and the more they are depressed the firmer they become. Latex also pushes up, but its conformity is smoother.
Warranty and Trial Period
WinkBeds has a 10-year warranty on their mattress. They also have a 101-night trial period. Meanwhile, Saatva’s sleep trial is only 75 nights, but their warranty is for 15 years.
Conclusion
If you prefer pocket coils to memory foam or latex, then either the WinkBed or the Saatva would be a good choice for buying a mattress online. With Saatva’s charge for shipping, the total cost is still less than WinkBed in the eastern part of the United States as well as on the West Coast.
If you will be satisfied with a medium firm feel, WinkBed is OK. But if you prefer a mattress that is either softer or firmer, then Saatva is a better choice. However, if you don’t want Bonnell coils, that leaves WinkBed.
Also consider the height of the mattress. The WinkBed is 15” high, which requires a low profile foundation for most people. Saatva has not only a choice of firmness, but a choice between 11½” or 14½” in height.
If you have special conditions requiring a special mattress (such as back pain, neck pain, or fibromyalgia), memory foam mattresses and memory foam/latex hybrids would be a better choice. Several of these can be found at Selectabed, TempFlow and Snuggle-Pedic.
