Mattress Warranties

As there are gazillions of different mattress brands and models out there, the warranties with these products greatly vary and come in different terms. Be extremely diligent to learn about the warranty of any given product. Do not mistake warranty provided by a manufacturer covering product defects for comfort guarantee provided by a retailer that will exchange your product if you don’t like it.

Warranties are designed to protect consumer against manufacturer’s defects for certain period of time and do not include wear and tear, foam softening or whether or not you are comfortable or sleep well on the mattress. These defects are usually listed in the warranty terms and include: excessive sagging, edge collapsing, foam bulging, loose seams and stitching, broke foundation/boxspring and even squeaking.

All mattress warranties have an exclusion in terms, stating how deep of an impression on the surface of the mattress with no weight on has to be, to be considered a valid warranty claim. Typically, it is 1.5” for innerspring mattresses and ¾” for some specialty mattresses. If your mpression/indentation/imprint/depression on the surface of the mattress is greater than warranty exclusion you should file a warranty claim. Once you make a claim with manufacturer, you could be asked to send photos of the product and be available for an inspection by a licensed third party assessor.

Warranty claim process could be quite exhausting and could take several weeks or months to complete. Once the warranty conditions are met and approved you are entitled to a replacement or a compensation depending on a type of warranty and its terms. You may be responsible to pack and ship warrantied product back to manufacturer and pay for delivery of the replacement.

There are some retailers (usually big mattress store chains) that act as intermediaries and they facilitate the warranty process of the products they sell. If you bought your mattress through one of these retailers you deal directly with a local store or its customer service department. After your warranty is approved, they will come and exchange the mattress, typically without any cost to you. This is by far the easiest and fastest way to get your defective product replaced.

Keep in mind that most of the time the foam materials soften over time and loose some of their resiliency. You may feel like the mattress is collapsing and you are sleeping in a hole, but the foam will bounce back under no weight and it would be still excluded from the warranty.

Mattress warranty could be either non-prorated (full value) or prorated (limited) or more often combination of both. Most warranties start with a full mattress replacement for an initial period of time, and change to a limited (prorated) warranty as years go by. But the exact information on how long is the non-prorated portion is often times missing. For example, 10 year limited warranty – initial 2 years non-prorated with following 8 years prorated. While comparing mattress warranties, you can find full replacement warranties for as little as 1 years and as high as 10 years, with overall warranty duration up to 25 years.

Non-Prorated Warranty

Non-Prorated or unlimited warranty will cover full replacement value of your mattress or box spring if it is found to be defective.

Prorated Warranty

Prorated or limited warranty will cover only a portion (percentage) of the cost of repair or replacement, based on the amount of time or wear left.