All news Home & garden Technology Money Baby & child Cars Travel Consumer Rights Coronavirus
This cheap Lidl Meradiso mattress launches in stores on Sunday
The Lidl Meradiso 7-Zone Mattress is available from Sunday 2 February. But should you ever buy a super-cheap mattress?
By Jon Barrow
On Sunday 2 February, the super-cheap Lidl Meradiso mattress will be available to buy in the 'middle of Lidl' as part of the discounter's bedroom essentials week.
With prices starting at just £49 for a single (it's £74 for a double and £99 for a king size), the Meradiso 7-Zone is one of the cheapest mattresses we've ever seen.
And while we've tested 10 double mattresses costing less than£200, the most expensive mattress we've tested costs an eye-watering £1,865. For that amount, you could buy 25 Lidl Meradiso double mattresses and still have £15 left over for the rest of your groceries.
The Meradiso's price may look too good to be true, but time and again our testing has proven that you don't always need to spend a fortune to get excellent and long-lasting support for your spine.
We haven't tested the Meradiso 7-Zone mattress in our lab, but we've assessed its specs below – read on to find out more.
If you'd rather stick with a cheap mattress that you know has excelled in our testing, head to our list of the top five cheap mattresses for 2020.
Lidl Meradiso 7-Zone Mattress: should you buy one?
The Lidl Meradiso is little more than a block of foam with a polyester cover, so if it's luxury materials such as silk and cashmere that you're after, it's probably not for you.
But we've been impressed by basic foam mattresses in the past, and if you're just looking for a cheap-and-cheerful mattress it might be just the thing.
When it comes to firmness, Lidl says the mattress is medium in feel and that it has seven individual contouring zones to provide 'targeted support for your whole body'. But it's important to be aware that firmness is subjective and that manufacturers and retailers can describe the firmness of their mattresses in a range of different ways.
That's why we don't use terms such as soft and firm in our reviews – instead, we objectively test firmness on a scale of one to 10, so you can easily compare all the mattresses we've reviewed.
The Lidl Meradiso mattress should be fairly easy to look after. Lidl hasn't said how heavy it is, but it's made of foam and is only 15cm deep, so we would expect it to be light and easy to manoeuvre, helped in part by the four handles on the sides. The cover is also removable, which should prove handy when it comes to cleaning your mattress.
Because we haven't tested the Meridiso, we can't comment on its support and durability.
If you're looking for a cheap-and-cheerful foam mattress, you may want to read our review of the Ikea Malfors, £100, or one of our other mattress reviews, instead.
What type of mattress should you buy?
Most traditional mattresses have a pocket-sprung core. Each metal spring is enclosed in its own fabric pocket, so they act independently, which should give tailored support to each part of your body and consistent firmness across the whole mattress. They are also generally cooler than memory foam mattresses.
The Lidl Meradiso, however, is a foam mattress, which means that it's made with a synthetic sponge-like material. Foam is more affordable than most other mattress materials and, as a result, most foam mattresses are relatively cheap. But, when constructed correctly, they can still give good spine support, and we've even seen several foam Best Buy mattresses.
Memory foam mattresses are more expensive than foam mattresses. These contour to your shape, something manufacturers claim helps relieve painful joints. Sleeping on a memory foam mattress feels different to lying on a more traditional one – it can be more difficult to move around, for example – and can feel cold when you first get into bed, so they're not for everyone.
Latex tends to be cooler and more breathable than memory foam. It still contours to your body shape and offers joint support, but its elasticity means that it will bounce back quickly. 100% latex mattresses are fairly rare and very expensive – the handful that we've tested, all from latex mattress specialist Dunlopillo, each cost more than £1,000.
Get more buying advice in our guide to choosing the best type of mattress.
How Which? tests mattresses
While most other review sites accept free samples from manufacturers and then assess them according to the individual preferences of the writer, we take a more rigorous approach.
So as well as using multiple testers in a lab-based scenario, the Which? overall test score is calculated purely on the measurements and ratings recorded by our experts. And because we buy all the mattresses that we test, manufacturers and PR companies can't influence what we say.
That's why we feel confident in saying that no one else tests mattresses like us. Each one that we review is put through a battery of different assessments so you can be certain that our Best Buys are really top of the pile. For example, we measure the shape of a person's body at 36 different points and then check that the mattress keeps your spine in the same shape when you're lying on it.
And to make sure that your mattress won't get harder or softer over time, we simulate 10 years of use by rolling heavy barrels over each mattress 30,000 times.
Discover what else we do to uncover the very best you can buy in our how we test mattresses guide.
Categories: Bedroom, Home & garden
Tagged as: Lidl
Best Buy mattresses
Choosing a bed
Best mattress topper brands
Is the climatarian diet the solution to eating more sustainably?
Shopping, food & drink
Seven mistakes you could be making when freezing food
Energy price rises and supplier failures: your questions answered
Heating & energy
All Home & garden news