What is the feel rating?

If you’ve spent some time on our website, you may have noticed our feel rating feature on each of our mattress products. What is this tool, and how should it be used during your mattress buying journey?

The feel or comfort of a mattress is difficult to communicate. Everyone will perceive how a mattress feels a little bit differently. This scale is meant to provide some guidance about how firm or soft a mattress is in relation to the other products we offer. It is not meant to compare our mattresses to other brands.

The feel rating is on a 100-point scale with the higher the number, the harder the mattress’ feel.

How did we calculate this rating?

We have a test center in our Cleveland, Ohio factory. This is where we develop new products, evaluate new materials, and test out competitor products, all to ensure we’re making the best mattresses we can for you. We have three different machines that can provide valuable data on the feel, support, and durability of a mattress. We can use these machines to simulate 10 years of use in just a matter of days.

One of those machines is the Cornell Tester. We often use this machine to test out how a mattress will hold up to the impact of a person repeatedly sitting on one spot on the mattress for years at a time.

With the feel rating, however, we set it to press down to a three-inch depth and measure how much pressure it takes to do so. On a soft, fluffy mattress, it won’t take as much pressure to push down to three inches as it would on a very firm mattress.

We converted the measurements from this test to a 100-point scale by taking the ratio of each firmness rating to that of the highest reading. Using this method, we defined our hardest product, the Orthopedic Ultra Firm, as a 100. All other scores were calculated on a relative basis. Our softest mattress, the Regency Sapphire Hybrid, is rated at a 30.

How should you use it?

Research is a vital part of your mattress shopping experience. The feel rating is simply meant to be used as a guide for navigating the products we offer at The Original Mattress Factory. It should be just one of the tools you use during your research.

Ultimately, comfort preferences are unique to everyone. What feels way too hard to you may feel just right to many other people. The only way to know for sure if a mattress is the right feel for you is to test it out for yourself. Whenever possible, we recommend stopping by a store and testing out a mattress for at least 15 minutes in your natural sleeping position before making your final selection.

Check out Mattress Shopping 101. 

Ready to start your mattress buying journey? Come to The Original Mattress Factory first. No one knows more than our team about what makes a great mattress great. Whether you buy from us or not, you’ll be better prepared to make a smart mattress buying decision. Find a store near you.