Is Auping the best ventilating bed?
Everyone knows Auping. The Dutch family business since 1898 known for the spiral bases that ventilated much better than other bed bases and thus ensured good hygiene. Even now, the spiral base is the most commonly used in Auping beds. But is Auping anno nowadays still the best ventilating bed? Let's put Auping's top model, the Auping Kiruna, next to a premium mattress from Harrison Spinks, a renowned mattress manufacturer from England of the same size. And the company behind the exclusive line of Bröring Natural mattresses. Two companies with very different views should yield fun conclusions!
Conclusion:
Auping and Harrison Spinks are both brands with wonderful reputations "There is no such thing as a standard bed" is a quote from Harrison Spinks, who also values Auping highly. So a good night's sleep requires customization. Both brands succeed in this. Yet the brands interpret it differently. Those who like to sleep on a well-known bed brand (with smart accessories) choose an Auping bed. The time-honored coil base still comes along well even in this day and age and ventilates well. Strange is the use of synthetic materials in the mattresses, some of which negate this effect and make recycling difficult. Harrison Spinks stays true to its principles by using only natural materials. The mattresses also have a different grandeur and feel more refined than Auping beds. Harrison Spinks also does better in terms of recycling, with no synthetic residual waste. Prices and warranties are comparable. And the Auping claim: no bed ventilates better? That one goes to Harrison Spinks (Bröring Natural) in this comparison.
Auping and Harrison Spinks: similarities and differences
Auping
Auping is a renowned brand that is best known for its coil base. An Auping bed could be found in many Dutch bedrooms, often adjustable with the famous ball on the string. But Auping is much more than a coil: the brand says it believes in natural materials and in the importance of recycling old mattresses. And tells that to the world. Auping has thus truly become a consumer brand. Good marketing has given the brand a high profile and good image, which means that many people already walk into the store with an Auping question. For a long time, Auping remained a family business, which is known to always outperform other companies. Smart is also the development of original and personalized accessories, such as a headboard and leg covers in various colors and fabrics, matching bedside tables and dimmable reading covers and light under the bed via a sensor. In short, a brand we Dutch can be proud of.
Harrison Spinks
While Auping is quintessentially Dutch,Harrison Spinks isvery British. The company has a rich, almost stately history dating back to 1840 and has been honored with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise on multiple occasions in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. Incidentally, don’t forget that Queen Wilhelmina also ordered a few beds from Auping just before World War I. What makes Harrison Spinks special is that the company has followed the same philosophy for five generations: using only natural materials and continuing to innovate. They emphasize the natural aspect in a playful way:“Our mattresses don’t start life in a factory, but on a 300-acre farm in North Yorkshire.” This also makes recycling—an important theme today—possible, and the company has already been honored with a sustainability award. Harrison Spinks is still a family-owned business and handles more than 90% of its production in-house. From raising sheep (for wool) and growing hemp and flax crops on their own farm, to harvesting their own timber and designing and manufacturing their own pocket springs. They even weave the ticking themselves. This is absolutely unique and demonstrates their commitment to eliminating any quality risks. I know of no other mattress manufacturer that operates this way. This also results in a seven-year warranty on everything. Harrison Spinks ships worldwide but is by no means known everywhere. In the Netherlands, their products are sold under the name Bröring Natural. It is a brand that focuses on its passion: making the best mattresses with natural materials, innovative pocket springs, and handmade production. Asmasters of their craft. The customers will naturally follow.
Auping Kiruna: top model from Auping
Enough about the companies, let's look at the mattresses. For that, we'll take Auping's top model: the Kiruna. A bed in the price range 7,000 and 15,000 euros (double bed). As standard, the Auping Kiruna bed has a steel support (frame) with spiral base, with a comfort zone at shoulder height. The spiral base (with mattress) thus optimally follows the contours of your body. This ensures comfortable and healthy sleeping. A clever detail is that the bed remembers your best sleeping and sitting position.
Auping and ventilation
The biggest sleep disruptor is the sleep environment (52%), and ventilation plays a key role in this. “No bed ventilates better,” claims Auping, and it certainly seems to have a strong case here. Especially for its top model: the Auping Kiruna. Indeed, the open structure of the slatted base allows plenty of air to pass through. But what about the Auping mattress? Auping offers various types of mattresses, including pocket spring mattresses, in different firmness levels and comfort zones. You can have multiple comfort zones added, tailored to your body. Auping achieves this with latex comfort layers and, in the more expensive mattresses, various combinations of synthetic materials and foam rubber. For the other materials, natural materials (wool or cotton) are chosen as much as possible, but also Tencel and viscose. The plastic pockets around the springs are certainly surprising. Because if you’re fully committed to ventilation and have a highly breathable base, you partially negate that by using synthetic, non-natural materials. Some of those materials do ventilate, but they still fall short of the pleasant properties of natural materials like wool and cotton. Moreover, they are more likely to cause allergic reactions and, partly due to glued layers, are harder to recycle. While it seems that no bed ventilates better, this appears to apply mainly to the box spring and somewhat less to the mattress.
Harrison Spinks: the Bröring Natural Collection
Harrison Spinks delivers in the Netherlands exclusively under the name Bröring Natural, in the price range from 4,000 euros to 10,000 euros (double bed). The lower bed is a solid and beautifully finished box spring with wooden frame, pocket springs and a top layer of micro pocket bears. Only natural materials are used. The mattresses are pocket spring mattresses also composed of refined and completely natural materials. Important because this guarantees good ventilation and allows for complete recycling. Globally unique is their 4K spring technology, with layers of thousands of HD micro-pocket springs made of ultra-thin British steel turned by Harrison Spinks himself, which optimally ventilate and support your body to perfection. The natural filling materials are also homegrown, and the craftsmanship can be felt in the handmade mattresses. The latest development from Harrison Spinks are zoned HD micro-pocket spring mattresses, which provide extra support where it is desired. Truly an innovative development that takes ergonomics to an (even) higher level.
Harrison Spinks and ventilation
Mattresses from Harrison Spinks, or the Bröring Natural, ventilate well. Very well, in fact. The thousands of pocket springs breathe naturally with every movement and are not smothered by synthetic encasings. In these mattresses you will also find no warm comfort layers of Latex, Latex Perfo, Latex Pura or Visco Activ foam but these have been replaced by materials such as cotton, hemp, flax and horsehair. With these, temperature and moisture are much better regulated and the mattress is less likely to become static. Recycling also eliminates the need to separate synthetic materials. A big advantage because these are often difficult to dispose of.
Which bed is right for whom?
Buy an Auping bed – perfect if…
- You are consciously choosing a trusted Dutch brand that is widely available.
- The pocket spring mattress is the foundation of your ideal sleep system.
- The pocket spring mattress is the foundation of your ideal sleep system.
- You want to use smart Auping accessories such as the Connect system.
Bröring Natural – the better choice when…
- You want nothing but 100% natural materials, through and through.
- Maximum ventilation combined with a hypoallergenic sleeping environment is a priority
- You're investing in a handmade mattress with tufting and side stitching that will last for years.
- You're investing in a handmade mattress with tufting and side stitching that will last for years.
Freshbed: the superlative
Sleeping well is above all about an ideal sleeping climate. Those who want to control that completely choose a Freshbed: the first bed in the world with its own climate control. The first Freshbeds can already be found in a number of top international hotels, with rave reviews from guests. It is an extremely comfortable bed in which you perspire less, which never feels clammy and in which mold, fine dust, pollen and house dust mites are kept at bay. Precisely because a Freshbed can handle moisture much better, it also lasts much longer. Read more
Would you like to compare an Auping bed with our Bröring Natural line? Come try them out in our showroom or view our Bröring Natural mattresses online.
Should you buy an Auping bed—or something else? An honest comparison.
People who want to buy an Auping bed often do so because they trust this well-known Dutch brand. That trust is well-founded: Auping has decades of experience and a strong tradition of spring mattresses. But if you compare an Auping bed with alternatives in terms of materials and ventilation, you’ll discover nuances that are rarely discussed in the showroom.
Sustainability: Comparing Auping beds with Harrison Spinks
Anyone comparing Auping beds in terms of sustainability will find a mixed picture. Auping developed the “Evolve”: the world’s first fully circular mattress made exclusively from polyester and steel. An impressive innovation that, unfortunately, did not make the cut but has since been replaced by other circular variants that are less reusable than was initially intended with the Evolve, yet do use materials that offer better comfort and support. Other Auping mattresses contain synthetic materials—such as plastic pockets around the pocket springs—that partially impede ventilation and make recycling more difficult.
The Bröring Natural line (built on Harrison Spinks) consistently uses only natural materials in every layer: cotton, wool, hemp, flax, and horsehair. No synthetic adhesives—or adhesives of any kind—just cotton bags (calico) to encase the feathers. The result: a mattress that is 100% recyclable when replaced, leaving no contaminated waste. A strong argument if you want to compare an Auping bed over the long term.
