Hi Ozbargainers,
I always love this forum because the people here are nice and don't mind sharing. - thank you -
I have a question that I'd like to ask in case some people here can offer me a bit of advice.
I'm planning to buy a Sleeping Duck Mattress in King Size; however, I'm having a bit of an issue finding a suitable bed frame that complies with the 10-year Warranty requirements, which specify two supported beams with four legs.
Based on my research, unless I spend at least 2k for the bed frame from SD, I'm not sure where to find a suitable bed frame for this. I don't want to forfeit the warranty.
If you have had a similar experience, could you share where I can buy a suitable bed frame (two supported beams with four legs)? My budget is around $500-700 for the bed frame.
Side note: You may ask why I paid so much for a mattress, as SD is very expensive. I believe good and comfortable sleep is important, as we spend around 8 hours sleeping in bed :) I had SD Queen previously and I love it.
Thank you for your assistance.
I have a mattress factory and am setting up my first bed frame production line due to the horrible quality of bed bases on the Australian market.
I can offer some help.
The Sleeping Ducks warranty, in my opinion, confirms how terrible most bed frames are. They won't honour a warranty unless the bed base is properly supported because putting your mattress on a bad foundation will wreck the mattress and your back. It can make the mattress "hammock" into the bed slats.
So they have these rules for slat gaps, supporting beams and amount of legs.
To me the answer is pretty simple, get an ensemble bed base, it's cheap, solid, a king ensemble meets all of those requirements.
It will be more solid than any assembled bed frame as it's prefabricated in one piece, (or two pieces for a king)
I sell a king ensemble base for 680, I'm not trying to say buy from me, I'm saying ring around and ask for around that price, If I can do that price others can too. Probably more independent places will have these prices. Harvey norman style places are you going to be upwards of $1000 last time I checked.
Any bed frame in a box that you assemble (in your price range) will not meet that criteria. Any bed frame with any flexible slats at all should not be used at all ever. It's a major contributing factor to probably 70% of peoples mattress problems I encounter, and I literally do exactly this all day everyday for 13 years.
This is probably a good time to educate people a bit deeper about the number one thing to avoid when buying a bed base, seems like the right spot for it.
Every time a customer rings me and tells me that my mattress is dipping, I ask them to move the mattress over and send me a photo of the slats. It's always these flexible slats.
I had a lady ring me the other day, and she was quite upset. she said, I bought your mattress 3 years ago, and now it's sagged and there is a firm spot going down the centre of the mattress. I have to sleep on the centre of the bed where it's comfy, and my husband has to sleep on the lounge".
Immediately I knew what the problem was.
Then she said "I'm really upset, your mattress is dipping, I can't sleep, why can't I buy any mattress that lasts more than 3 years."
She was quite upset. I said to her, "I can answer our question about why the mattress is dipping on the sides, and the middle is firm if you like."
She agreed, so I said
"move the mattress of your base, now, pick a bed slat, move your hand 25% of the way along the slat from the outside of the bed frames side rail, and push down, now, is it flexing down?"
she said
"yes it's flexing down"
Then I said
"Move your hand 50% along the slat, to the middle of the mattress, and push down, is it flexing down?"
She said,
"no, it's not moving, there's no flex"
I said
"Can you see why the mattress is firm in the middle and soft where you lay now?"
she agreed that it makes sense.
I said, "If you put your mattress on the floor, you will have even support, and you and your husband can at least sleep properly tonight while you figure out how to get a proper foundation."
I see the flexible bed slat problem play out in many ways, but it's always the same problem. The source of the issue is companies importing bed frames from overseas. They may be a large importer of bed frames, and some larger importers may order 40-foot containers of slats. The thinner the slat, the more you can get in a container. If you make them flexible you can fit waaaayyy more in a container. It's a profit thing. And honestly I see this problem getting worse over the years.
The best option is rigid pine slats and hardwood siderails, head and foot. Quokka do excellant bed frames, I'm going to use them for my inspiration for building my bed frames. In my opinion they have the best price to value ratio of any bed frames in Australia. I don't know these people but I gotta give credit where it's due. They cost alot more than $600, but if you want a long term, sturdy bed frame that you don't ever need to worry about again, that would be the one I would get.
If you are reading this and thinking, I wonder if my bed frame has fleixble slats, then I think you know what you need to do. You only find out when it's too late, get ahead of this problem.
You can put some 4mm hardwood ply along the middle third under hte hips, this is a good solution until a proper support can be found. We carry these in our delivery vehicles. We install them for free when we see these flexible slats, then we tell people that we have slowed down the damage that is going to occur, but hey do need to buy a new base with solid slats.
That was a bit more info than I expected to write, but I think it's helpful info