Brentwood Home Oceano Mattress Review

Michael Magnuson

Founder of GoodBed, Leading Mattress Expert

Summary: Is the Brentwood Home Oceano a Good Mattress?

The Brentwood Home company has an interesting story as an American manufacturer that still makes its own products in its Los Angeles factory. (Many other mattress brands use other companies to make their bedding, then slap on their label.) Its Oceano mattress is one of its most popular models, and we were excited to test it.

While the company calls this a "medium" mattress in terms of softness, we found it to be more of a Medium Firm on our scale. Under a quilted cover made with plant-based fiber and wool, 2" of gel memory foam adds softness and a little of that slow-melting memory foam feel. Under that is a layer of 2.5" tall micro-coils -- miniature pocket springs that are also part of the comfort layer of this bed. The main support core of the mattress is a 7.5" pocket spring unit with zoned support (heavier coils in the central third of the bed), along with firmer coils around the perimeter of the mattress for edge support.

While not a natural mattress (its foam is petroleum based), the bed does have a number of safety certifications that ensure low use of chemicals and off-gassing. Natural wool is used in the quilt layer to help regulate heat, and the cover fabric is tencel, a plant-based fiber. While most mattresses are held together by glue, Brentwood Home uses functional tufting to hold the Oceano together; these are long yarns that travel through the mattress at intervals, anchored by fabric buttons. If you are concerned about chemicals and off-gassing in your bed, but don't want to break the bank on a 100% or organic mattress, the Oceano does offer a lot of value.

Another plus is Brentwood Home's 1-year trial period with full refund should you decide the Oceano isn't for you. That's much longer than the 100 or 120-night trial periods we have seen with other online mattress brands. Unfortunately, the generous return policy is balanced by a company warranty that in our view isn't as competitive. The 25-year warranty is pro-rated after 10 years, meaning that if your mattress required warranty service during year 11, you'll have to pay part of the replacement cost. During the entire warranty period, you are responsible for all shipping costs (which for 100-pound mattress could be significant). Lastly, the company's warranty against body impressions fall below the industry average; any permanent impressions would need to be greater than 2" deep for the warranty to apply.

In our performance testing, we judged the Oceano mattress to be a good choice for almost all back and stomach sleepers in a wide variety of weight ranges. For heavier side sleepers who like memory foam, we thought the Oceano would also be a good choice, though persons under 200 lbs. might find it too firm for side sleeping.

Other review highlights: Edge support was very good overall, as was motion isolation (important if you are easily disturbed by  partner's movements).

From a value standpoint, we thought the Brentwood Home Oceano mattress offered a lot of features for the money: Excellent materials and construction, good all around performance for a variety of sleepers, and a long trial period.

Read on for our detailed report, and be sure to check out the video to see the Brentwood Home Oceano mattress in action as we put it through our tests.

Bottom Line: Who Is the Best Match for the Brentwood Home Oceano Mattress?

BEST if you:            

• Are primarily a back or stomach sleeper
• Enjoy a buoyant feeling of floating on top of the mattress
• Sleep or sit right on the edge of the bed
• Need good pressure relief
• Are easily disturbed by a partner's movements

NOT IDEAL if you:

• Prefer a slow, melting into the bed feeling
• Like a deeply cushioned bed
• Are a lighter (<200 lbs.) side sleeper
• Prefer a bouncy mattress

If you’d prefer to watch rather than read, check out our full Brentwood Home Oceano mattress video review.  (Note: The video covers the Oceano and Cedar mattresses. The Cedar has since been discontinued by the manufacturer, but the Oceano is still a current model.)

Comfort and Feel

The “feel” characteristics of a mattress cannot be universally better or worse. They can only be more or less desirable to you, based on your personal preferences. For this reason, we call these “preference-based” attributes. Our ratings here are based on objective measurements that we apply to a consistent scale for products from all brands.

Softness ( what’s this )

Keep in mind that what mattress companies call “firm” or “soft” is a purely a preference. All mattresses should be supportive and promote healthy spinal alignment. Whether a mattress is fluffy and squishy (what mattress companies call soft or plush), or less so (what companies call firm), is purely down to your personal needs and preferences.

While Brentwood Home called the Oceano mattress a "medium" we found it to be more of a Medium-Firm on our scale, perhaps a bit to the softer side of medium firm.

Not sure what softness is best for you? Take our Mattress Match Quiz and find out.

Cushioning Depth ( what’s this )

This refers to how deeply you sink into the mattress or feel cradled or hugged, versus a feeling of floating on top of the bed. The Brentwood Home Oceano mattress is a bit more to the "floating on top" side of this spectrum, though the quilted top gives it surface softness and conformity, so on the whole we would call cushioning depth to be medium, or about average.

Responsiveness ( what’s this )

'Responsiveness' refers to how quickly a mattress recovers its shape after being compressed. When you press your hand into the mattress, for instance, then remove it, does it take several seconds for the mattress to return to flat, or does it recover immediately? Beds that respond slowly usually contain memory foam, so we include our assessment of a mattress's memory feel -- that slow, melting sensation you get from a slow-responding bed.

The Oceano bed has a 2" layer of memory foam, and it is a slow-responding foam you would normally associate with a "melting into the bed" sensation. However, it's just 2", and it sits under a deeply cushioned quilted cover which negates the memory foam feel. We did still get a bit of that memory foam sensation.

We also took a look at bounce, which we expected to be more significant given the bed's two layers of coils. When our tester dropped his body on the bed, he experienced some slight bounce, but not as much as you might expect from a mattress with more than 2,000 springs.

Back Support

The key to good back support is for the mattress to support your spine in a “neutral” position while you sleep, meaning that the shape of your spine is roughly the same as when you're standing. The ability of any given mattress to do this will vary by sleeper, depending on its “fit” for your weight, body shape, and preferred sleep position(s).

We found the Brentwood Home Oceano mattress to be excellent in this respect when in back and stomach sleeping positions, and we felt that regardless of body weight, most people would have the same support and spinal alignment when back sleeping and stomach sleeping.

We questioned the Oceano mattress for certain side sleepers, however. The same firm support that's perfect for back and stomach sleeping may be too firm for lighter individuals who sleep predominantly on their sides.

Spinal Alignment

The key to good back support is maintaining proper spinal alignment while you sleep. This means that the mattress should hold your spine in roughly the same position it's in when you're standing. The ability of a given mattress to do this will generally depend on your weight, sleep position, and body shape.

Here is how we break down the spinal alignment of the Brentwood Home Oceano mattress:

Back Sleepers:

Our 200-pound tester felt this mattress to be exceptional while on his back, with excellent spinal alignment. And we felt that most people would have the same experience and excellent spinal alignment in this position, including those significantly heavier than our tester.

Side Sleepers:

Spinal alignment for our tester while side sleeping was also good, and we felt that especially those heavier than our tester would be well served by the memory foam and layer of micro-coils in this bed. We did wonder about those lighter than our tester, who might simply find this bed too firm for side sleeping, with their shoulders unable to sink into the mattress enough.

Stomach Sleepers:

Achieving good spinal alignment for stomach sleepers can often be trickier as the hips can tend to sink down too far with some mattresses, but our tester felt very well supported in this position. Further, we felt that most stomach sleepers, regardless of body weight, would have a similar good experience on the Oceano. For heavier stomach sleepers that really like memory foam, we felt that the Oceano is about as good as it gets. There's a chance that those much heavier than our tester might find a little too much softness in the hip area, but the two layers of micro-coils should offer enough firmness.

Pressure Relief

Inadequate pressure relief from your mattress results in “pressure points,” which can be a source of pain, soreness, loss of circulation, restlessness, and other problems. Pressure relief requirements will vary be sleeper, with side sleepers needing the most. Likewise, the amount of pressure relief that a given mattress provides will also vary by sleeper, depending on its “fit” for your weight and body shape.

Performance Features

With the “features” of a mattress, performance will tend to be consistent across all sleepers – without regards to your body type or preferences. However, these attributes have differing levels of importance to each sleeper, which is why we consider them “priority-based” characteristics.

Motion Isolation ( what’s this )

With a bowling pin standing upright on the Oceano bed, we tested motion isolation by dropping a 16-lb. bowling ball on it, as well as the whole weight of our 200-lb. tester. In both drop tests, the bowling pin wiggled but did not fall.

We thought the Oceano mattress would be a good choice for those who might be easily disturbed by a partner's movements on the bed, or by pets or kids jumping in and out of bed.

Temperature ( what’s this )

For those who tend to sleep hot, or for those that experience hot flashes, temperature is a concern. The Brentwood Home Oceano mattress has a number of features that we think promote heat dissipation and air flow. First, this is a relatively firm mattress, which means your body doesn't sink deeply into it. That means more of your body is exposed to the air. Second, the majority of this bed is springs, and air can travel freely around springs, allowing hot air to move away, and cool air to replace it.

Although it does have some memory foam, gel flecks are added to help draw heat from the body, and above the memory foam is a layer of wool stitched into the Tencel mattress cover. Wool has natural moisture and heat-wicking capabilities. It can help keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Taken altogether, we think that the Oceano mattress will not feel hot to most people.

Edge Support ( what’s this

If you tend to sleep right on the edge of your bed--or you tend to get pushed there by kids or pets, then edge support will be important. A mattress with good edge support means more usable area for sleeping and sitting.

Edge support was very good on the Oceano. Note that there's some crowning to the cover, meaning that it domes up higher than the sides. Our tester did note a slight tilting feeling because of this, but he never felt unstable.

Ease of Repositioning ( what’s this )

Another highlight in our testing was very good ease of movement on the Oceano mattress. Changing from position to position was not an issue for our tester. It does have a very heavily quilted cover, which could possible hinder movement for a small subset of people that have a serious mobility issue, but for most, we do not think changing positions will be a challenge.

Green Features ( what’s this )

For mattress shoppers concerned with the use of natural materials, sustainable manufacturing practices or the like, we offer our subjective evaluation of any efforts taken by the company to make the mattress more green, healthy, or safe. 

While the Oceano mattress isn't natural (it's foams and memory foam are petroleum based), the mattress does have some eco-friendly features and safety certifications. The mattress cover, made of plant-based fiber and natural New Zealand wool, is certified to the OEKO-Tex standard, meaning it's been tested for hundreds of harmful chemicals.

Steel coils, while not natural, do not off-gas, so should not be a concern for those with chemical sensitivities. And at least theoretically, steel is recyclable. Instead of chemical glues, Brentwood Home uses functional tufting to hold the mattress together. And the entire mattress has been certified to the Greenguard Gold standard, meaning it's been deemed safe for the more sensitive environments, such as hospitals and schools.

So while the Oceano is not a natural or organic mattress, we were impressed with the care that's been taken to ensure a lower degree of chemicals and off-gassing. The Brentwood Home website has more details on its safety certifications.

Adjustable Base Compatibility ( what’s this )

If you plan to use your mattress atop an adjustable base, the manufacturer says that the Oceano mattress should work perfectly well. Since we were sent a twin-size bed to test, it would not fit on our adjustable base. However, based on its construction, we do expect the Oceano to work well on an adjustable base. The manufacturer says that it is perfectly safe, and heavier mattresses like this one typically conform quite well. We might expect some bunching of the top quilt/cover when the bed is fully articulated (bent) but would not expect this to be very bothersome.

Altogether, we expect adjustable base compatibility to be very good.

Materials & Construction

What's in a Brentwood Home Oceano Mattress?

Overall, we classify the Oceano  mattress as a "Memory Foam over Pocket Spring" construction type.

The Brentwood Home Oceano mattress is a 14″ thick mattress comprised of 6 total layers (listed below from top to bottom):

• 100% New Zealand wool quilted into Tencel cover
• 2" gel memory foam, 4 lb. density
• 2.5" pocketed micro-coils
• 1" polyurethane transition foam, 1.8 lb. density
• 7.5" zoned pocket spring support layer
• 1" polyurethane foam, 1.8 lb. density

The 7.5" support layer of the mattress is comprised of encased coils. The coils across the central third of the mattress are firmer to give greater support under the heaviest part of your body (hips and midsection). Firmer coils are also used around the perimeter of the bed as edge support.

Holding the layers of the mattress together is functional tufting ( what's this ); these are organic cotton yarns that travel through the mattress at intervals to hold the layers in place, and are secured on the top and bottom by soft fabric anchors.

Durability, Warranty & Value

The “value” of any mattress is both subjective and personal – reflecting how well it meets that person’s unique sleep needs and preferences, relative to their budget. As a result, our ratings in this area are focused on more objective factors like quality and longevity.

How Much Does the Brentwood Home Oceano Cost?

Prices shown are list prices for the Oceano mattress and optional box foundation. Remember that GoodBed keeps our site current with the best available discounts on all online mattresses, many of which are exclusive discounts for our readers.

Other Factors to Consider

Delivery

• Free delivery to door or curb
• Optional $199 white-glove service

Brentwood Home includes free delivery to your door. A white-glove option is available for $199; this includes delivery to the room of your choice, setup of the bed, removal of all packaging and removal of your old bedding if you choose. For an additional $75 on top of that, the company will remove your old bed as well.

Returns

• 365-day trial period
• Full refund, including free pickup within trial period

Brentwood Home offers a full one-year trial period, with full refund should you return the mattress.