I asked this question earlier this week regarding Hastens mattresses, but it really does relate to all mattresses with pocketed springs. 

There have been a number of comments on this forum where people say individually pocketed springs are not good support for people with lower back problems.
I'm very interested to know the reason for this, please. Do the springs get out of alignment somehow?    Or???? 
I hope someone can shed some light on this!!

E in Laguna Beach

I wish I knew, but I was one who exchanged my pocketed coils for LuraFlex open offset coils. My mattress guy said that the Marshall coils (individually pocketed) are a very conforming, "softer support". Well, since the latex layers, themselves, are also conforming, I needed something with a bit more rigid support. But, even these LuraFlex coils aren't considered extra firm by any means. He ordered ones with less coils so as to keep it a bit on the medium support level.



ecd90651 wrote:

I am NOT a spring expert. I'm like a spring ignoramus...

Couldn't even pocketed coils be made with heavier gauge wire and made more firm? I can see however why pocketed springs could never be as firm as interlocking springs, because each spring acts alone in supporting whatever weight is right on top of it. Other types of springs get help from all the springs they are connected with.

This next bit is an obscure reference because very few people will be familiar with Intelli-Gel, but one of the characteristics of this material is that each little buckling column, which is a sort of "spring", shares one of it's four column walls with another column. In fact, each column is surrounded by 8 columns. As a column collapses, it's supported by those 8 surrounding columns. If each of those columns were independent, it just wouldn't provide the same support.

The reason that the pocketed coil springs aren't made firmer, is due to troubles keeping them in the pockets.  One way to make an individual coil firmer is to heat temper it.  Simmons, I know is one company that tried to do this to their coils, however, if they tempered it while in the pocket, the pocket burned, and if they did it first, they couldn't get the coil in the pocket. 

One thing that Simmons was able to do, was develop their cable coil (which they now call the "advanced pocketed coil"), which has 3 coils together to make one.  That's probably your best bet, though you have to get a Simmons to get it, which I know a lot of people on here would shoot you for.

I did not realize that most individually pocketed springs might not be tempered. This would certainly affect their durability.
However, I did double check the Hastens springs,and they say their Swedish springs are tempered, and I assume that would mean all of them, not just the box springs.
Their individually pocketed springs are tapered at each end, so maybe that is how they get them into the cotton pockets?
I wonder how they keep the springs from going wonky over time since some space is left for possible lateral movement.

The Hastens saleslady showed us how the sales staff sometimes gets on their knees on the mattresses, and bounces all over them to rejeuvenate them. Wonder if this is because the springs do get slightly out of allignment? Or maybe this process "fluffs" the beds?

Thank you to the Garden Grove CA "neighbor" for reminding me about Custom Comfort, a local mattress company. I am going to visit them today!

Pocketed coils don't provide the rigid support many of us with lower back issues need.  Pocket coils are often said to provide a level of support similar to latex, and as many of us with lumbar back injuries can tell you, we have a lot of problems sleeping on latex as well!

ecd90651 wrote:

There were some complaints about Simmons' coils doing just that over time - poking out through the sides of the mattress due to the design of the pocketed coils. If the Simmons salesman is lurking about though, he'll tell you I'm heading up against a conspiracy against Simmons to further the brand I sell. Oh wait, I don't sell mattresses - I build/repair PCs and code websites. Oh well, there goes that conspiracy theory. :D