What Does the Number of Springs in a Pocket Sprung Mattress Actually Mean?

The first point to establish is the number of springs in a mattress does not always directly give a signal to its level of firmness.  There are a number of factors that can affect this in the engineering of a spring and different manufacturing methods can alter the way higher spring counts can be achieved.

As a standard, the spring count shown on any mattress in the UK is based upon the number of springs present in a standard 5’0 or King Size mattress.  For a double it will be proportionately less, for a super king proportionately more and so on for the other available sizes. 

As a rule of thumb you should make sure the spring count is at least 1000 to ensure you are buying a decent quality pocket sprung mattress.  There are some low quality pocket sprung mattresses available with counts as low as 800 or even 700, these are only achieved by cutting corners in support and if you are making the investment to step up to a pocket sprung mattress, it is worth making sure you start at a 1000 count matt so as you are getting all the benefits from the improved support.

1000 tends to be viewed as a low spring count, 1500-2000 is a high spring count and over 2000 is a very high premium spring count.  However depending on the quality of the manufacturing process this can be achieved in 2 main ways.

The first is by laying two lower count systems of a lower depth on top of each other.  For spring counts between 1500 to 2000, this is the cheaper way of achieving a high spring count on your mattresses label.  These tend to be offset slightly to achieve an improved support from having them laid directly on top of each other, as this would provide no benefit from having half the spring count with a normal depth spring. 

The second is by using a smaller diameter spring – the smaller the spring the more that can fit inside a fixed area.  This is a more supportive and expensive way of engineering a higher spring count.  As a rule of thumb this would be present in pocket sprung mattresses over £500 (double).  The benefit of having a smaller spring is that the spring system is able to move more frequently and accurately to the contours of your spine and give you a superior support.  See Below

For mattresses over a 2000 spring count it is actually a mixture of both of these processes as 2000 springs is the maximum you will fit into one layer even with the smallest diameter spring.

In reference to tension, the number of springs will not always determine how firm or soft it will be as this can be altered by changing the gauge of the spring rather than the number.  However a higher spring count tends to feel slightly firmer than it’s lower spring count counterpart due to it being more supportive by nature. 

All this being said, we would always recommend you do not buy a mattress on specification alone.  The most important feature of any mattress is your ability to find it comfortable and fall into a deep restful nights sleep.  We always recommend you to take the time to try before you buy.

See our bed size guide with information complimented by a bed size chart designed to clear up the confusion caused by the different names that are used to refer to different bed sizes in the UK.

https://www.bedtimesuperstores.co.uk/blog/post/uk-standard-bed-sizes-and-dimensions/

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