Review: Encased Coil Natural Mattress by Room & Board A Year in Bed

The Encased Coil Mattress arrives in our room at the beginning of March

Bed: Encased Coil Natural Mattress
Manufacturer: Room & Board
Retail Price: $1,799 for Queen mattress only

We're halfway through! This was our March bed, the sixth, in our Year in Bed. Room & Board makes really good home furnishings. They're solid, crafted with quality materials and long lasting value. Their mattress was no exception, but came up short in terms of comfort. Their Encased Coil Natural Mattress was a firm sleep without any of the squishy top layer comfort that we've come to expect from beds this year.

The Encased Coil in the showroom near our house. We missed photographing the bed at home when it was all set up.

Sleep Experience

• Fair

The design of this mattress seems to want to please everyone. It has metal coils like a traditional mattress, but they're encased in natural foam, like the newfangled mattresses, and the foam is covered with cotton and wool so you don't get too close. You don't, however, get the best of all worlds in terms of sleep experience.

While the top layer of cotton and wool allowed for plenty of breathing and temperature control (i.e. it was never hot and sticky), we both found the sleep too firm and lacking in the any of the comforting "give" that we'd come to appreciate in other beds. While the bed advertises "pillow-top comfort," it was not noticeable. We even had our mattress on a box spring instead of a platform frame, which allowed it more depth of cushion than this mattress expects (it's advertised as not needing a box spring).

Unlike some beds that we'd had negative sleep experiences with, the Encased Coil wasn't a problem bed for us, it simply didn't make much of an impression.

Ursula wanted to jump up on the bed to show you that she was there too!

Construction

• Excellent

This mattress is very well made in terms of the attention to quality and a majority of eco-friendly materials, so you can feel good about what you're buying here. There was absolutely no off-gassing odor when installed in our room, and I appreciated the exploded view of the insides both on the website and in the store. Here are the details:

Our natural encased coil mattress offers traditional, pillow-top comfort with layers of organic cotton, pure New Zealand wool and 100% natural latex foam. Individually encased coils contour to your body and reduce partner disturbance.

14 1/2-gauge high-tensile steel coils

natural latex foam cushioning layer

Cutaway view of the Encased Coil Mattress

Price

• Good

At $1,800 for only the well made mattress with a good deal of eco-ingredients, the Encased Coil runs a little on the high side compared to others of similar pedigree, though — to be fair — the sweet spot for these better beds runs from around $1,200 to $2,000. Other companies, however, will sell you the mattress and boxspring within this zone, allowing you to get up and running at minimal additional expense. If you already have a bed frame, then this is not a concern for you, but if not, you will need to factor in the price of the frame here as well ($599 is the starting price at R&B).

Do you sleep on a Room & Board bed? If yes, please let me know in the comments how it's going for you.

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