Firm Extra Firm Stearns & Foster® Luxury Mattresses and Accessories

How to Choose the Right Stearns & Foster Mattress

The distinguishing piece of engineering in a Stearns & Foster® mattress is IntelliCoil®, which puts a smaller coil inside a larger one. That nesting gives the spring two stages instead of one. Light pressure compresses only the outer coil, so the surface yields easily under a shoulder or an elbow. As more weight arrives, the inner coil engages and the spring firms up sharply, which is what stops a heavier hip from sinking through to the base. A single coil must be either soft enough to contour or firm enough to support, and a nested coil sidesteps that trade by changing behaviour partway down. The wire is heat-tempered drawn spring steel, which substantially reduces the height a coil loses under repeated loading without eliminating it; in most beds the comfort layers soften before the springs weaken.

Above the coils, the comfort layer decides the feel, and two very different materials appear. Talalay latex is made by a process that leaves an open, evenly distributed cell structure, and it behaves like a resilient cushion: buoyant, quick to spring back, inclined to lift you rather than let you settle in. Memory foam does the opposite, softening with body heat and yielding slowly so it holds the shape of whatever presses into it. Neither is better, they simply feel unalike, and that choice matters more than the label. You can choose Extra Firm, Firm, Medium and Plush.