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Why is Choice Magazine the most credible Review Company in Australia?

Why is Choice Magazine the most credible Review Company in Australia?

 
How Choice Tests Mattresses (Choice Magazine)

“Despite the obvious assumption, Choice doesn’t test mattresses by taking naps on the job. Choice experts examine spring, foam, latex, and hybrid mattresses from traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers and online-only bed-in-a-box manufacturers to help you find a bed that best suits your needs.”

On this page:

 
How Choice Chooses What They Test

Their priority is to test what you’ll find in shops. This means that sometimes Choice might not cover a brand with one mattress that’s sold 100 products in Australia. Instead, Choice checks current market figures to see what’s selling well and focus on the big brand models that sell in their thousands. Choice also includes models that you’ve requested – if a lot of members want it, they’re going to test it.

Retailer mattresses: Choice selects mattresses from major brands like Sealy, SleepMaker, and A.H. Beard based on feedback from member surveys. They also select one exclusive model from third-party retailers such as Snooze, Forty Winks, and Ikea, so you can consider alternatives to the big names.

Mattress-in-a-box: Choice buys these (also known as bed-in-a-box) from popular manufacturers, and compares them to a traditional store-bought innerspring mattress. Though mostly made of memory foam and latex, you can find some innerspring bed-in-a-box brands.

Choice tests firm mattresses where available. Most bed-in-a-box manufacturers sell one or two mattresses with one firmness configuration, typically medium or medium-firm. If the mattress is adjustable, such as the Sleeping Duck Mach II, Choice orders and tests it in the firm configuration. Their decision to focus on firm models was also directed by member feedback from their CHOICE Community forum.

When Choice knows what you want, their buyers go out and purchase the products from a variety of retailers, both in person and online. This means they get what you’d get, so they can be sure the results are what you’ll find.

Re-testing Existing Products

It’s not uncommon for mattress manufacturers to update their products over time while selling them under the same name. Choice will re-test a mattress if the materials and/or structural design has changed, as they consider this to be a different product. When this happens, they put the year of release next to the model name, e.g. “Koala Mattress (2021 model)”.

Choice contacts manufacturers prior to each test to find out whether changes have been made to previously tested mattresses that are still being sold. If this information isn’t supplied, Choice checks the specifications for significant differences in thickness and weight, as these usually indicate changes to the design and materials.

 
How Choice Tests Mattresses

Opinions on mattresses are subjective. What one person might consider comfortable, another might find punishing. That’s why manufacturers make mattresses with varying degrees of firmness. A good mattress will retain its properties over a lifetime, not getting any less or more firm over eight years of use.

Choice aims to identify if the mattress will change in firmness over time or whether you can rely on it to deliver the same standard of comfort that convinced you to buy it in the first place. Retail and mattress-in-a-box models were tested under the same conditions, using the same methodology in partnership with independent labs in Europe.

Comfort and comfort retention is based on results at each 5th percentile end of the bell curve. Up until recently, Choice conducted these tests on people chosen to comply with the 5th percentile (female 1.55m/54kg) and the 95th percentile (male 1.91m/104kg). Choice has since switched to dummies that comply to female (1.55m/55kg) and male (1.9m/100kg) heights and weights. This range covers 90% of the general population and is similar enough to allow their current results to be comparable with previous tests.

The Mattress Testing Standard

Australia does not have an enforceable standard for adult mattresses. This more or less means that manufacturers can set their own guidelines when it comes to making claims about the functional characteristics of their mattresses, specifically firmness and durability. Because of this, Choice results are based on the European Standard CSN EN 1957. Even though this standard isn’t mandatory in Australia, local manufacturers are aware of it and it’s adhered to in numerous countries.

 
What Their Tests Cover

Usage wear/damage: Choice rolls a cask-shaped roller over each mattress for 30,000 cycles to simulate around eight years of use. Visible damage such as cracking, broken springs, or pilling contributes to the usage wear/damage score. A higher score here means less damage to the mattress.

Firmness: This is determined by applying a specific pressure to the centre of the mattress, then recording the impression created at three points. These results are interpreted into a hardness value.

Comfort (unused): Before the usage wear/damage test, Choice conducts a comfort assessment when the mattress is brand new, taking into account body support in dorsal and lateral positions.

Dorsal (on back): Choice uses 36 measuring points to register the test subject’s body sinking into the surface of the mattress.

Lateral (on side): Choice marks five aligned spots on the spine of a standing test dummy. They take photos of the test subject lying on the mattress to analyse the distance and angles between the spots. Results for both positions are compared to an index of optimum support examples. These are tested with dummies equivalent to a small woman and large man.


Comfort retention after eight years: Choice runs the comfort test a second time under the same conditions, using male and female dummies, after the usage wear/damage test. Then they measure the differences and score. Higher-scoring mattresses show less change to their original comfort score over time. The overall score in this test is not an average of the separate male and female tests; instead it’s a separate test conducted with a male and female on the mattress at the same time.

Stabilisation: Using an oscilloscope, Choice measures the movement of the mattress after a standard impact (17.5kg), simulating the turning body of a sleeping person. They also count the number of bounces up and down before the mattress is calm again. They run two tests: one to simulate bounces for a single sleeper, and a second to simulate the impact of movement on a second sleeper. Higher-scoring mattresses exhibited fewer bounces and less movement during standard impact.

Sagging: Choice measures height and firmness when the mattress is brand new, then again after the usage wear/damage test. After that, they calculate the difference and score accordingly.

Sweat repellent (technical): Choice performs this test in a climate chamber at 37°C for five hours. They place a measuring vessel around the mattress so that moisture added escapes through to it. The vessel is weighed before and after testing to determine permeability and water intake of the mattress.

Insulation (mattress warmth): Choice places a copper plate on each mattress and heats it to 37°C, then measures the amount of energy it takes to keep the plate at that temperature on the mattress over the course of eight hours. This is recorded in kilowatt hours (kWh). Then they use a relative scale to classify the energy used in everyday language – if lots of energy is required, then that means the mattress is ‘cool’, as it efficiently moves the heat away from your body through the mattress. If less energy is required, it’s classified as warm.

Test Criteria Explained

The CHOICE Expert Rating, their overall score that determines which products they recommend, is made up of:

Weightings are in brackets.

 
Environmental Impact Score

Their environmental impact score focuses on the carbon footprint of manufacturing the mattress materials, recyclability, and build quality. A well-made mattress doesn’t need to be replaced as often, which reduces the number of mattresses that need to be manufactured and cuts down on landfill.

The environmental impact score is made up of:

Washability scores are published where covers are removable but don’t contribute to the environmental impact score. The environmental impact score does not contribute to the CHOICE Expert Rating, as not all covers can be removed for cleaning.

Carbon Footprint

This refers to the amount of carbon dioxide produced during the manufacturing of each mattress, such as the carbon impact of producing one kilogram of cotton. This doesn’t factor in transporting the materials or mattresses as these figures vary depending on location.

Recyclability

This score is made up of:

We cut each mattress open to identify the materials, the amount used and how the layers were put together. This includes cutting the corner off each mattress for cross-sectional photographs, which you can view in our test.

Build quality

We also check the workmanship of the mattress. We look for the distance of stitches (mm) on the surface and zipper, loose threads, tension, rippled zipper, discharge of polyester wadding and skewed seams. Poorly constructed mattresses need to be replaced more frequently, which has a negative impact on the environment.

 
Cover washability and durability

Can the cover be removed, washed and easily refitted? A washable cover can extend the lifespan of the mattress, as it’s the main point of contact between the mattress and your body.

Removable covers are washed in accordance to the given instructions. If no instructions, the cover is washed at 60°C. If the care instructions indicate a washing temperature lower than 60°C, then the cover is washed at this temperature, and then again at 60°C.

We look for any signs of wear or damage after washing is complete, such as stretching or shrinking. To do this, we mark the cover before washing (usually 180cm x 80cm), then measure the distance between the markings after the wash cycle is done. We also conduct a visual inspection for fading.

 
How we score mattresses

We recommend mattresses with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 75%. This increased from 70% in May 2021 and has been retroactively applied to all previously tested mattresses. Mattresses that score between 70% and 75% are still worth considering.

The unused comfort score shows how comfortable and supportive the mattress is when it’s brand new. Mattresses with a higher score here are more comfortable.

Comfort retention after eight years is a bit different. Here, the score indicates how similar the mattress feels to the way it felt out of the box after eight years of use. For example, if a mattress earned an out-of-the-box comfort score of 75%, then 95% after the eight years of use test, it will feel very similar after eight years and the comfort level would still be considered good.

A mattress with a sagging score of 95% is excellent, which indicates limited sagging, whereas a score of 60% is OK, which indicates substantial sagging

Conversely, a mattress with an out-of-the-box comfort score of 30% and a score after eight years of use of 95% will still feel poor after eight years. The feel of a mattress with an out-of-the-box score of 80% will be noticeably different if the eight-year use score is around 70%.

Comfort retention after eight years only relates to the unused comfort score – it doesn’t mean that the mattress comfort became ‘excellent’ after eight years. We include this score as mattress comfort is subjective, so we like to highlight mattresses that show little signs of change over their lifetime.

Our sagging score is the same. It doesn’t show how much the mattress has sagged over eight years, but rather how it performed. A mattress with a sagging score of 95% is excellent, which indicates limited sagging, whereas a score of 60% is OK, which indicates substantial sagging.

The usage wear/damage score also takes this approach. A score of 95% indicates limited damage over time. Sweat repellent score, meanwhile, shows how poor, good, or excellent the mattress is at expelling fluid and skin.