If you’ve spent any time online, or on Amazon in particular, looking for bedding and mattresses, you’ll definitely know about the Ashley Furniture brand. It’s routinely at the top of the Top Seller list and almost always in every recommended thumbnail on Amazon when it comes to mattresses and bedding.
Not only are these mattresses looking to be a good deal, at least from a review standpoint, but they’re also priced so incredibly low that a lot of our readers have reached out with skepticism.
As we’re sure you’ll agree, when it comes to memory foam and hybrid mattresses, brands can sneakily integrate low-quality materials to get the mattress firmness and density up without adding anything that actually support us as we sleep.
With the Ashely Furniture brand offering ultra-thick mattresses that are up to a massive 12-inches for just $400, this is generally a red flag for us. However, the thousands of positive reviews prompted us to take a closer look.
Not only are the Ashley Mattresses looking like a ‘too good to be true’ situation, but they’re also touting their brand as the leading furniture company in the world — so there’s a big claim to live up to.
All that said, if you’re not sure if Ashely Furniture can be trusted, or whether the brand is fake or not, we have some reviews and tidbits below for you. Of course, the hype is a little overdone, though, you might be surprised at these mattresses.
What We’ll Look At
To save you time, here’s what we’ll be taking a look at in this article. If you’re not seeing what you’re looking for, we will see you another time in our next article!
- A Bit About Ashley Furniture
- Some Specification Information
- How to Use the Beds
- The Comfort and Sleeping Experience
- The Sleeping Types the Beds are Designed for
- Where the Reviews are Coming From
- The Takeaway
- How to Buy an Ashley Mattress
With all of those points out of the way, we’re sure you’ll have a good look into the Ashley Mattress brand and why it might be your top choice mattress this year.
A Bit About Ashley Furniture
Although this brand is relatively new to making waves in Australia, at least according to our team, the brand has been making mattresses and bedding items for over 70 years in the United States. That said, you can and should expect good quality, durable mattresses coming out of the Ashley Furniture warehouses.
The brand has also been awarded with the rare A+ business rating from the States’ Better Business Bureau which hold brands accountable and works to analyse and vet products to ensure customers are getting what they pay for.
That out of the way, and the Ashley brand is looking good already. The brand is long-lasting and also ticks all the boxes with regards to quality and materials.
Inside these mattresses, you’ll find a foam with a rather unique name, which Ashley Furniture has seemingly worked to develop on their own. In most cases, this is good news, in that Ashley will have been able to engineer a foam that works for their return on investment but also the sleeping experience for their customers.
You’ll find this foam inside the Chime Express mattress, and this is the one we’ll be delving into in this review of Ashley Furniture. It’s part of the brand’s Signature Design collection, which is also touted as a rather high-end range — so we’re expecting big things here.
One other thing that Australians might not know, is that this brand does have an array of stores all across the United States, much like Snooze, Forty Winks and other retailers, which means you can rest assured that this is a genuine brand, and not only an online store.
The brand making the move to Amazon just shows us that Ashley Furniture is looking to get in on the digital action, rather than rip customers off with bad products and low-quality bedding like most people suspected from the low cost.
When it comes to the online experience, however, this is where things did get a little murky and worrisome. Like many brick and mortar stores making their way to the online world, they haven’t invested heavily into an online customer support solution.
That said, there have been plenty of mentions of customers and even professional review platforms, like Sleepify, being ignored for months at a time when it came to genuine quality questions.
This may not seem like a big deal to many customers, however, it can be a little frustrating if you’re looking for some information on a mattress or need some direction when it comes to getting a replacement or trading the mattress in for another model.
At Sleepify, customer service and support are integral to a brand being successful in offering a good experience, and Ashley Furniture loses marks for this. Online support is imperative when you buy online.
To end our outline of the brand, we would like to point out that if you do make your purchase through Amazon, the Amazon support staff will be who work with when there are issues — and as we all know, Amazon work around the clock to support their customer queries and keep everyone in the loop when something goes wrong.
In all, Sleepify stands by Ashely Furniture thus far, however, we suggest you buy through Amazon and not the Ashley Furniture brand themselves.
Some Specification Information
When it comes to the actual Ashley Mattress itself, we’re going to take a look inside and let you know whether you’re getting what you pay for, or whether there’s a major quality and durability problem waiting to happen down the line.
As we mentioned above, we’ll be taking a look at the Ashley Furniture Chime Mattress, which comes in a range of thicknesses (already a good sign) from eight, ten and twelve-inch models on offer. There’s also sizes from Twin through to California King, which means you’re getting all standard sizes here.
The interior of the mattress is an all-foam model, with three layers making up the bulk of the mattress. Another suspected good sign, so long as these foams are high density and durable.
The Internal Materials
To start, the mattress is wrapped in a knit cover made of pliable and stretch fabric which allows you to sink into the bed without being restricted.
When it comes to this cover, the reviews online do have images that look a little different to the Ashley Mattress cover, however, this could be down to a material change or an enhancement rather than the brand looking to deceive customers.
The promotional images do look a little old, in our opinion, so it’s more than likely that the materials on the mattress have been updated since then.
When it comes to the internal makeup and layout of the foams, this is where things get interesting — in a good way. The foams are a lot thicker and seemingly come off more dense than a lot of other affordable models on the market, which means you’ll not see the mattress dip or age poorly over time.
In the 8-inch Model
You’ll find a single-inch-thick memory foam top layer here, which acts as a comfort layer and beneath this there is a 1.5-inch transition foam that works to stabilise the mattress should someone move. The base support layer is a 6-inch polyfoam which works to keep the back and spine aligned correctly.
In the 10-inch Model
For this model, you’re getting a little more memory foam here, with a 1.5-inch layer and a second 1.5-inch layer of transition foam below this. That in mind, this model will be a little more comfortable and provide a bit more sinkage, though not too much. There’s also a 7-inch polyfoam base layer for support.
In the 12-inch Model
The thickest model in the range comes with a 12-inch depth and features a 2-inch memory foam comfort layer at the top, a 2-inch transition foam layer and then a far thicker 8-inch support layer for the spinal alignment and pressure relief features.
With that said, you’re able to see that there isn’t a whole lot of memory foam integrated into these mattresses, which might be how Ashley Furniture is keeping the cost of these beds down. However, one through two inches is still enough to offer enough sinkage for the weightlessness feeling, it’s just not super ideal or anything special.
Manufacturing
A second rather murky discovery we made was finding out that there’s little to no information at all on where the mattresses were made.
The brand did reach out to say that they are based and manufactured in the USA — which is a great selling perk. However, on Amazon, this information is omitted entirely, which begs the question, why?
As we’re sure you’ll agree, the brand would want to show off that they’re a homegrown and home-made mattress company to their American customers, however, this might not be the case.
We’re willing to say that these mattresses are made in China. Which is not always a bad thing, though, USA-made and Aussie-made mattresses do support local workers and also come with higher manufacturing standards.
Certifications
When it comes to the quality and comfort accreditation’s, we couldn’t find much information here at all. As we often mention at Sleepify, it’s always good to get your hands on a mattress that has CertiPUR-US materials, or at least some sort of orthopaedic certification to ensure you’re getting a mattress that’s going to support the back and not damage it.
However, Ashley Furniture have failed to outline whether their mattresses come with any sort of certification.
We’re still waiting to hear back from the support team at Ashley Furniture, though we’re, again, willing to bet that there aren’t any official certifications coming into play here.
Shipping, Delivery and Warranty
Arguably one of the biggest features and selling points of a mattress when ordering online is the delivery experience. Aside from comfort that is.
This is where some of the fun comes in!
The mattress is available for Amazon Prime which means you’re able to place an order and have the mattress arrive at your home within just a couple of days. That means you’re able to go with as short of a wait time as possible if you’ve just moved in and need a new mattress.
When it comes to warranty and guarantees, there is almost no information provided at all by Ashley Furniture or Amazon either.
We’re encouraged to say that this is somewhat of a red flag, given that you shouldn’t really invest in a mattress that could fail at any time and you have absolutely no way of returning it or getting your money back — or even a replacement model.
Even though a material failure is unlikely, it’s still possible that it does dip or sink over time and you’re left with nowhere to turn.
Amazon, as you might already know, does offer returns for items within 30-days and you’ll be able to get either a replacement or a refund for the product, which helps to mitigate the fact that there’s no sleep trial here either.
The Amazon website does online that you can ask for this warranty and trial information through them, which will then be passed on to Ashley Furniture. Not ideal, but it’s still good to have access to.
How to Use the Beds
Of course, we know that you know how to use a bed. However, some models do have requirements that you flip, rotate or keep it stationary as you sleep on it.
For this mattress, and the entire range for that matter, you’re expected not to flip it and to keep the mattress facing upward. This is down to the internal layers being optimised for one-way use only.
You’ll notice that the cover is not removable either, and for good reason. Make sure you don’t strip this covering off, as there’s often fibreglass filaments in these beds to prevent them from catching fire. This isn’t a health hazard either, it’s standard in most beds, just be sure not to expose these fibres.
For cleaning these mattresses, you can simply run a vacuum over it with your flat attachment head and you’ll be able to get a good majority of the impurities and small dust particles and things out of the mattress.
However, make sure that you don’t add any liquids or fluids here. They will likely not dry or leave the mattress, and you’ll be stuck with mildew and other build up.
One final thing to note, is that Ashley Furniture does offer up information on durability in that the brand says not to jump or bounce on the bed too often, or at all. Which, to Sleepify, this essentially means ‘Our bed isn’t too durable, so don’t be too rough.’
In all, you shouldn’t take the cover off, don’t add liquids to the bed when cleaning and make sure you’re keeping the kids from jumping on the bed.
The Comfort and Sleeping Experience
As we haven’t been able to get our hands on an Ashley bed, we’ll have to go off all of the reviews online and on Amazon itself, which means you might need to take some of these with a grain of salt.
To start off, the product listing on Amazon has outlined that the mattress is a firm model in the description panel. However, there are mentions of plush and medium here too. This isn’t too much of a big issue as we believe that the three models (8-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch) come in different firmnesses.
To help decipher this, we’d say that the 12-inch is the most plush, with the 8-inch being the more firm model as there’s less foam here to soften the top layer.
With that in mind, we’re confident in saying anyone with back pain and pressure point issues will feel most comfortable on the 12-inch. The sleepers who prefer a firmer and more rigid sleeping surface, or the back sleeping crew, will be most comfortable on the 8-inch model of the mattress.
When it comes to the way the mattress feels, the general consensus is that the beds are quite firm for memory foam, though there is a mild amount of body contouring here that is just enough to take the weight off the joints as you sleep.
Movement isn’t too much of an issue either, as reviews have stated that when their sleeping partners get up and down from the bed, there’s little movement coming into play.
One final thing to note, and this is a big one for the Australian climate zones, is that there aren’t any gel-infused foams in here. And if you know anything about these foams, they’re essential for keeping your mattress cool. In Darwin, Cairns and other tropical cities, this mattress will be a no-go.
We’d suggest that only those who live in cooler cities like Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney consider this mattress as it will have a tendency to absorb and hold heat for a long period of time.
The Sleeping Types the Beds are Designed For
We’ll just take a short look at the ideal sleepers for the Ashley Mattresses as you’ve probably made your choice from the info above.
However, based on the price and sleeping experience, we’d place these mattresses in the not-everyday group. That said, using these beds for a guest house or guest bedroom should be fine, and in a college dorm you’ll be nice and comfortable too. Just don’t expect comfort to last a decade or longer.
The memory foam layers are a little too thin for side sleepers to feel very comfortable either, so back and tummy sleepers win on this mattress. As you’ll agree, a 1 to 2 inch foam layer really isn’t enough to add much comfort at all.
To add, if you don’t weigh a whole lot, your body may not even sink into the mattress very much at all.
To conclude, these are you on-again-off-again mattresses, and shouldn’t be used every single night. There are plenty of other all-foam mattresses out there at a similar price, with a lot more memory foam integrated within them.
Where are the Reviews Coming From
If you’ve been a Sleepify reader for a long time, you’ll know we take reviews really seriously, and something about the Ashley Mattress doesn’t add up at first glance — first glance being the key phrase here.
We did take a little deeper of a look into all of the reviews and noticed that two things stood out that really got people rating the mattress four and five stars. These were; the good firmness levels and the low price.
That said, it seems to be a fan favourite for back sleepers and those who like their firm mattresses, and have a main focus on investing in a lower end, more affordable mattress.
If that sounds like you, then there’s no reason why you won’t have a good experience on this mattress, and we’d certainly encourage you to make a purchase if you’re fond of a firm sleep surface and don’t want to spend a whole lot of money.
The Takeaway
With the Ashley Furniture Mattress review out of the way, we have a few parting words for you.
At Sleepify, we don’t particularly stand by the mattress in its current form simply down to the fact that is a little lacklustre all around. The memory foam layers are so incredibly thin that light sleepers won’t even notice that they’re there.
The bed doesn’t have too many factual tidbits listed that will give you the information that you need to know, and the customer support team behind the brand isn’t too responsive or helpful at all.
It will also be a little too warm for sleepers in hot climates, and that means a lot of Aussies won’t have an option. Adding a little gel-infused foam isn’t too difficult, and Ashley Furniture did forgo doing this.
To end, it is a barely-there mattress, however it’s affordability and firm design make it a winner for some, and with Amazon Prime support, it’s a contender when it comes to a bed that will arrive as soon as possible.
How to Buy an Ashley Mattress
You’ll be able to find an Ashley Mattress on Amazon, or from a local US retailer who may or may not be able to ship the mattress to your address, however, this might be a little costly if there aren’t free or subsidised delivery services.
