Does the number of coils in your mattress make a difference?

Counting Coilscoils

Counting Coils

written by: Cliff Williams – Mattress Pro


If you do a quick Goggle search on coil counts you will find the industry pretty evenly divided between those that will tell you that coil counts matter and those that don’t think it matters one bit. I’m going to attempt to confuse you even more (because that’s fun for me) and show you how both sides are right.

It’s no longer as simple as giving you a number. Obviously, 800 coils are better than 600 coils right? And if that is the case then let’s put 1000 coils in every bed and make it even better.

The problem is that logic will get you into the wrong mattress.  It would be like buying a car based on the cubic inches of the engine without looking at any other factor.

When looking at the coils, here are just a few of the elements you need to think about.

Type of coil:  Bonnell, Verti-coil, Continuous, Marshall (also called wrapped or pocketed), Coil in a coil, Coil on coil.

Gauge of wire: Generally this will run from 12 to 15.

Length of wire/number of twists or turns: A longer wire with more turns should feel much different than a short wire with few turns.

Zoned:  Some sets will have more coils in the middle of the bed. Some sets could have 3, 5 or 7 zones. Some could even change the gauge of the wire in the different zones.

What is the coil made of?  Is it steel and is the steel tempered?  Double tempered? Perhaps it’s made from titanium or some other material.  There are even some mattresses that have coils made out of memory foam.

This is why I tell everyone that if you have a sales person trying to sell you a bed based strictly on coil counts please go to a different store.

Instead of the number of coils, start thinking about how your body feels lying on those coils. The main purpose of coils in any mattress is support. Their job is basically to make sure your spine is in alignment. A good example would be if I was trying to decide between an 800 continuous coil set and a 700 pocketed coils set. The pocketed coil set may conform to my body better, giving me better support than the 800 continuous set.

So how can you tell which is best for you?  There is no substitute for just going into the store and listen to your body more that the salesperson telling you to get the higher coil count.

Sweet Dreams!


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