Sleeping Duck Mattress

The Sleeping Duck Mattress is the only hybrid mattress (that’s coil support and foam comfort) that I know of that offers customisations to get your perfect fit. Not only can you choose if you want firm or medium, you can even have one half of your mattress firm and the other medium. And change it around for free if you’re not happy after you purchase. This is a pretty great unique feature that sets Sleeping Duck apart from its competitors. But what else do you need to know about it? All will be revealed in this Sleeping Duck Mattress review.

December 2020 Update: Sleeping Duck has undergone a major redesign and now features superior materials and even more customization options. Watch this space for an updated review. 

Here’s what else you’ll find in this Sleeping Duck Mattress review:

• Sleeping Duck Company Overview
• Sleeping Duck Mattress Features
• How Sleeping Duck Works
• Sleeping Duck Mattress Prices
• What Does A Sleeping Duck Mattress Mattress Feel Like To Lie On?
• Is Sleeping Duck The Right Mattress For You?
• Are There Any Problems With Sleeping Duck Mattresses?
• What Are People Saying Who Love Theirs? (Reviews From Real People)
• Final Opinion

Sleeping Duck Company Overview

Sleeping Duck was formed in Melbourne in 2014, by two engineers who figured they could build the best bed on the market. Sleeping Duck’s flagship product is their popular mattress, but they also make bed bases, bedding accessories, and even a dog bed.

Sleeping Duck is Australian owned. The foams inside your Sleeping Duck mattress are made in Australia, but the other components and the mattress assembly is in China.

As with all mattress-in-a-box companies competing for your money, Sleeping Duck have great customer service (a requirement when making such an important purchase online). Sleeping Duck go above and beyond their competitors though: after 40 nights of your mattress purchase, they’ll contact you to see how you’re going with it. This is at just the right time for you to have a really good idea if the mattress is working well for you, or if you need to take advantage of the complimentary firmness adjustments (more on how that works further down the article).

Sleeping Duck Mattress Features

Sleeping Duck is a hybrid mattress, which means it has pocket coils for the support of the mattress, and cleverly engineered foams in the comfort layers. The total height of the mattress is 31 cm, which is quite a lot deeper than many other mattresses in boxes you might be researching. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the Sleeping Duck Mattress components:

Bamboo Cover (1 cm thick)

• Breathable
• Soft to touch
• Naturally antimicrobial

Sleeping Duck is one of the few companies I’ve seen to use bamboo in their cover, and I think it’s a big win. It will feel nicer than the usual polyester blends you’ll find, which don’t have the antimicrobial properties.

Hyper-Adaptive™ Foam (4 cm thick)

• Combines the pressure relieving property of memory foam with the buoyancy of latex.
• Made in Australia

This foam comfort layer is the white one in the image above. It’s designed for maximum pressure relief with a fast response to body weight so you don’t sink too far into the mattress. It sounds like a very similar foam to the Kloudcell foam you’ll find inside a Koala mattress.

Customisable High Density Foam (6 cm thick)

• High density polyurethane foam controls the firmness, you can opt for medium or firm
• GECA seal of approval (this is an environmental certification – basically it means it’s passed tests to show it’s good for the environment and for you. Read more about GECA here.
• In the image above, this foam is purple. Please note that Sleeping Duck have recently made changes to their dyes and the medium is now light grey and the firm is now dark grey.

This is the foam layer that you can swap around or in and out to change the firmness of the mattress. It’s a higher density foam than the Hyper-Adaptive foam above, which means it has a firmer feel. If you leave it in the middle of the mattress (like I show above), it will act like a transition layer between the comfy Hyper-Adaptive foam and the pocket coils below.

5 Zone Pocket Springs (20 cm thick)

• 5 zone support to ensure targeted support for your body
• Pocket coils move independently of each other to minimize partner disturbance and ensure better support
• Reinforced edges

The zoning you’ll find inside the Sleeping Duck is a feature that in-store brands often keep as an up-sell for luxury mattress models, so it’s really good to see it here inside a reasonably priced mattress in a box.

The only thing that appears to be missing that other brands include is a small layer of high density foam at the very bottom of the mattress to act as a base for the coils to sit on. It looks like that inside Sleeping Duck they’re in direct contact with the bottom of the cover.

Sleeping Duck really wanted to make sure they’ve chosen quality materials that are going to stand the test of time. It has been tested to simulate 10 years of sleep for two people, each weighing up to 140 kg. To simulate this, the whole mattress (and the individual components) are put through a series of compression tests using a heavy roller than exerts a massive amount of force to check how the mattress holds up. This is very reassuring for you, as often it’s hard to know how well a mattress will last and sagging of foams is a common concern.

How Sleeping Duck Works

The image above shows you the three most common configurations for how you can set up your Sleeping Duck Mattress, and these are the options you choose from when you order. As mentioned above, please note that the layer with the adjustable firmness no longer comes in purple or white: it’s now light grey for medium and dark grey for firm. Getting the firmness right is basically a 3 step process:

1. Choose between Medium or Firm to start with
2. If the first choice doesn’t work, change your firmness—free of charge in the first 100 nights. Either arrange this at your 40 night check, or jump on the website and fill out a form requesting a firmness change. They’ll send out a new foam layer for you to try
3. If the mattress still doesn’t feel right after adjusting the firmness, Sleeping Duck will collect the mattress and refund your money (as long as you request your refund within the 100 night trial period)

As you can see in the picture, you can have a different feel on different sides of the mattress. This is excellent news for couples where one person wants a firmer mattress than the other, nobody has to compromise

Sleeping Duck Mattress Prices

Sleeping Duck Mattress prices are the same no matter which firmness you choose, or if you choose half and half. I usually tell my readers to make sure they don’t pay full retail for their mattress in a box, because the market is so competitive that there’s always a deal. However, Sleeping Duck don’t offer as many specials as their competitors so you can expect to pay full retail here. They also offer sleep bundles, which include a mattress + accessories, which will give you a discount.

Single $799
King Single $899
Double $1149
Queen $1449
King $1599

If you’ve been doing your research on the various mattress-in-a-box options in Australia, you’ll notice these prices are slightly higher than other brands. I think this is because of the Australian made foams and the ability to customize your mattress, which other brands can’t offer. Also, the reassurance you get from Sleeping Duck’s durability testing. I think you’re getting great value for money here.

What Does A Sleeping Duck Mattress Mattress Feel Like To Lie On?

With its customizable options and zoned coils, Sleeping Duck should feel pretty darn comfortable. Here’s the firmness ratings:

• The “medium” foams come in at a 5.5 out of 10 on the mattress firmness scale, which is a nice touch softer than many other medium mattresses.
• The “firm” foams come in at 8 out of 10, which is one of the firmer ratings I’ve found for Australian mattresses, and definitely quite firm.

There’s a quiz you can take on the Sleeping Duck website to help you decide what is best for you. A big plus of taking this quiz is that you don’t have to hand over your email address to get the answer, you’ll get it straight away without being signed up for any annoying newsletters.

Sleeping Duck should feel cool to sleep on. The cover is breathable bamboo, the two foam layers have been engineered to be breathable, and air naturally flows better around a coil support system than a dense foam core.

Here’s a close-up image of the firm foam inside Sleeping Duck, to give you a better idea of what a breathable, open cell comfort foam actually looks like:

Is Sleeping Duck The Right Mattress For You?

Usually I say that one mattress won’t suit everyone, and I make recommendations for who should buy it and who should not. However, with Sleeping Duck, the customisations mean that you get the firmness options of more than one mattress. I think it will be comfortable for pretty much everyone, if you’re prepared to experiment with the foam layers inside.

Front, back, and side sleepers all give positive reviews of Sleeping Duck, and it’s a particularly good choice for couples who can’t agree on firmness. Sleeping Duck is also a good choice for you if:

• You want to buy Australian owned
• You want Australian made foam inside your mattress
• You want to try out some high tech foams without losing the familiar feel of a coil base
• You want to try out one of the firmest mattresses on the market with the reassurance of making it softer if it’s not right

If you are wanting to buy an Australian owned AND made mattress, your two options are the all foam Hugo or Koala.

Are There Any Problems With Sleeping Duck Mattresses?

After spending time reading all the reviews around the internet, I couldn’t find any real problems. What I did find was that Sleeping Duck are highly responsive to any unhappy customers, and it looks like they do their utmost to resolve any issues.

One small thing to mention is that because you can customize each side of the bed, some customers who ordered a split firmness found there was a lump in the middle when they opened the mattress because the foams had moved a little. No worries, you simply open the cover and shift them back to their correct position.

I see a few negative comments about delivery, but this is really an issue to be directed at the courier company, not Sleeping Duck.

As with all mattresses containing memory foams, there will be some off-gassing as your mattress opens out to its full size. I recommend you open the mattress in a ventilated space to minimise this. The foams are certified non-toxic, so the smell is not going to harm you, but some do find it annoying.

What Are People Saying Who Love Theirs? Reviews From Real People

I always scout around other places than the company website to find reviews and discussions on mattresses, as you can pick up really useful information (both good and bad). Reddit is a common place for people to make comments, often quite negative. However, all I found for Sleeping Duck were glowing reports from long time owners of the mattress who were still loving theirs. This matches up really nicely with Sleeping Duck’s claims about the durability of their mattress.

Sleeping Duck performs extremely well on productreview.com.au, with a very high rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars from more than 2,000 reviewers. Here are some of the comments people have made:

“I used the free segmented firmness change option (which was super easy to use) and it’s now the perfect mattress for my back and shoulders.”

“Enjoying a great nights’ sleep with the half-half design working perfectly.”

“The support, comfort and temperature of Sleeping Duck is everything my old mattress wasn’t.”

“I am a side sleeper so I ordered the medium. It’s working out really well and I’m so happy I purchased this.”

“The mattress has been wonderful so far. I feel no movement when my husband moves about, and the firmness goes right to the edge.”

Final Opinion

I think Sleeping Duck is offering something pretty unique here. Not only are you getting the unmatched firmness customisations, you’re also getting the reassurance of that 10 year sleep simulation testing. I don’t know of any other brand that can offer you these things at this price point.

I don’t actually have any affiliate or commercial relationship with Sleeping Duck. I just genuinely think it’s a great mattress you need to know about.