Is Lovesac good quality?
Is it worth the very high price?
I’m thinking of buying a new Lovesac sofa with the embedded speaker system (about $5440 after tax and discounts).
But the Lovesac price makes me hesitate.
I understand the benefits of the Lovesac that makes it higher priced, and especially that the Lovesac has speakers, but I just don’t know if it’s ultimately worth the money. So difficult to decide.
Answer:
LoveSac is an ingenious design, with lots of bells and whistles.
But the furniture is not high quality despite the price.
From a purely price perspective, Lovesac definitely fits the “high end” furniture definition.
In my review article, 65 Bad, Better & Best Sofa Brand Reviews for 2023, the high-end (Best) category is defined as including brands whose sofas are $3000 or higher (in fabric.)
A basic Lovesac 3 seat sofa (without electronics) is priced around $4000 ($3550 on sale.)
In my Best category, I review 20 different brands. Each gets numerical scores for quality and value.
Most of the high end brands reviewed have scores of 7 or 8 for both quality and value. A minority of the brands score 9 or 10 for superior quality or value.
I rated Lovesac at 4 in quality and 2 in value.
These are the lowest scores out of the 20 high end brands.
Lovesac is inferior quality and a poor value compared with other brands selling at similar prices.
Basically, Lovesac will not last as long as other brands in the same price range and is less comfortable
It is not built for long-term durability, and is not particularly comfortable after just a few years of use. (Larger size individuals or kids who like to jump on furniture will wear it out even faster.)
The vast majority of brands listed in the high-end section of my article will last 15+ years.
Achieving a 15+ year sofa lifespan requires high-quality cushions made with 2.5 density foam, Spring Down, or equivalent. Most of the high-end brands have optional cushion upgrades.
Lovesac’s frame and foundation should hold up for 10 years, but the cushions won’t come close.
Lovesac offers a 3 year warranty on its cushions. If you have above average size individuals in your family or active kids who like to jump on cushions, you may get less than 3 years comfortable use from the cushions.
Replacement cushions are available, but they are extremely expensive.
LoveSac is especially strong at Marketing. They make a very determined effort to secure positive reviews from customers who have recently received their furniture and have not yet experienced problems.
If you look at reviews from customers who have owned their LoveSacs for more than a year, the complaints overwhelm the compliments.
LoveSac salespeople make a very big deal about the “Lifetime Warranty.”
Furniture warranties are legal documents designed to protect furniture companies, not consumers. Very little is actually covered for a “lifetime.” Broad exclusion terms nullify nearly everything that most people think is covered.
The Lifetime Guarantee protects against “manufacturer defects.” But the warranty does not apply to “failures stemming from use, abuse, or excessive wear.”
Unless the damage occurs during shipping, and is noticed immediately, almost 100% of future complaints will arise from one of those exceptions.
This includes worn out or uncomfortable cushions, fabric defects, frame failures and more.
When checking for customer reviews, you should ignore those on the Lovesac website.
Lovesac has complete control over reviews on its website and can edit or delete reviews without notice.
More accurate reviews can be found on independent customer review sites. These include:
Lovesac is included in the high-end (Best) category based on its price.
There are several brands in the lower priced “Better” category that are far better in quality and should last at least twice as long.
For example, Mantle Furniture makes a 3 seat sofa with 8 way hand tied construction and 2.5 density cushions that should last 15+ years. The price is $1500 less than an equivalent Lovesac.
Other brands priced $500 – $1000 less than Lovesac (for a 3 seat sofa), that should last at least twice as long include: Medley Home, Maiden Home, Simplicity Sofas, Kincaid, King Hickory, and Omnia.
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I asked Lovesac for more information about their build quality and wanted to share my results. I asked THREE times for the frame’s actual thickness (in inches), only for a customer representative to finally admit “that information isn’t available to us. I have looked through all the resources available to us and it isn’t listed anywhere.” I asked at least twice as to the frame type (e.g., solid wood, plywood, laminate with wood plys, etc.) before receiving an answer.
This is what I was told regarding the Lovesac Sactional construction:
• The frame is about 3 inches from from the edge to where the springs and webbing start
• Wood screw fasteners for stronger construction
• Hardwood Frame made of Birch Plywood reinforced Poplar wood frame support pieces
• No particleboard
• 11 gauge Sinuous Steel Springs with Italian Webbing
• High-Density MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) rub plates
• Velcro on the bottom to hold cover in place
• Hardwood corner braces frame for increased structural strength
By the way, what exactly is a rub plate in furniture construction? Thanks again!
Lovesac’s frames are fine. They should last 15+ years with no problems.
The cushions are a bigger concern. The standard cushions are uncomfortably hard.
Sactional’s standard cushions have two 4 inch thick layers of 1.8 density foam with a weird 3rd layer in the middle that is basically a bump that is supposed to give the cushion surface a “crown.” (Cushions look better when the middle of the cushion top is higher than the edges.)
Usually the crown is created with a layer of polyester fiber combined with making the cushion cover slightly smaller than the foam core. The polyester fiber also helps “fill in” uneven spaces where the foam core isn’t perfectly inserted into the cushion covers.
The polyester fiber wrap also helps “soften” the feel of the foam. That’s particularly important here because 8 inches of foam feels noticeably “harder” (not firmer) than normal 5 inch thick foam cores.
But Lovesac’s standard cushions don’t have any polyester fiber.
That’s very strange! Polyester fiber is extremely cheap. Almost all foam cushions in all price ranges, including the very cheapest cushions, normally include a polyester fiber wrap.
$2 worth of polyester fiber wrap makes cushions look and feel better.
Lovesac’s upgraded Lovesoft cushion option does include the polyester fiber. It looks slightly better than the standard cushions and feels much more comfortable.
This is confirmed in Lovesac reviews. There are many complaints about the comfort of the standard cushions and almost none about the upgraded Lovesoft cushions.
Lovesac even uses a more expensive type of polyester fiber than you’ll find in most cushions. It costs twice as much as the regular polyester (about $5 per cushion.)
I would definitely recommend the Lovesoft upgrade – except for one thing.
Lovesac’s price for the upgrade to the Lovesoft cushions is $200 per seat cushion ($175 when Lovesac goes on sale at 25% off.)
(I’ve checked this price nearly a dozen times. I have trouble convincing myself that I didn’t make a mathematical error and they aren’t really charging that much.)
In addition to the extra $5 worth of polyester fiber in the Lovesoft cushion, there is another $1 worth of glue and the cost of 1 minute of labor to attach the fiber to the foam.
That’s what you’re getting for your extra $200 per seat
I don’t care how much more comfortable the Lovesoft cushions are. Charging $200 for cushions that cost less than $10 in additional materials and labor is unconscionable.
So is charging $175 when the Sactional is on Sale at 25% off.
You also asked what a “rub plate” is in furniture construction. “Rub plate” is not a furniture terminology.
It’s what Lovesac uses to describe the wooden templates that are placed on the floor so that the Sactional legs can be properly aligned for changing shapes.
Which reminds me of another thought. A big part of Lovesac’s marketing pitch is that the modular seats can be moved around to create different configurations.
One of the modifications that is constantly cited is showing that the rectangular seats can be positioned so that either the long or short sides can be utilized in different configurations.
That’s absolutely true, but for me, positioning the seats so that you’re sitting on the cushion the “long way” (your feet have more room and the width of the seat is less), is so uncomfortable I can’t imagine anyone sitting on the furniture that way for more than a couple of minutes.
Hello Jeff,
I asked Lovesac about the foam density of their Standard Fill cushion (for a 4 Standard Seats + 5 Standard Sides Sectional).
A customer representative told me that the Standard is is 50% 7 Denier Fiber and 50% 15 Denier Fiber, so they failed to address my question.
Do you know how to measure the density of denier fiber so consumers can make an apples-to-apples comparison to foam?
Many thanks!
There is no way to compare foam to fiber. They are two completely different materials.
Foam has density and resilience (the ability to bounce back after being compressed.)
Fiber has no measurable density or resilience.
Although fiber is used as a wrapper around foam or in a sealed bag (often with feathers and a little bit of down) as a topper to soften the feel of the foam. Nobody would make a seat cushion using only fiber.
One of the biggest problems with soft “cloud type” cushions, is that they have more fiber (and less foam) than other types of seat cushions.
That causes them to collapse sooner than cushions with more foam.
That’s great Jeff, thank you. I probed customer service for a more detailed answer and I received three pixelated photos of the cushion tags. There is foam inside all three, but Lovesac did not disclose any foam densities. I’ve reproduced the information on the tags below.
STANDARD CUSHION
Bottom Chamber 84%: Polyurethane Foam…98%; Polyester Fiber Batting…2%
Top Chamber 16%: Polyester Fiber…100%
Made in Vietnam
LOVESOFT CUSHION
Bottom Chamber 84%: Polyurethane Foam…98%; Polyester Fiber Batting…2%
Top Chamber 16%: Polyester Fiber…100%
Made in China
DOWN CUSHION
Bottom Chamber 84%: Polyurethane Foam…98%; Polyester Fiber Batting…2%
Top Chamber 16%: Polyester Fiber…50%; Feathers and Down…50% (80% Duck Feathers, 20% Duck Down), Contents Sterilized
Made in China
Normally, when generic Asian foam is specified without a number, and without saying it’s “high resiliency” or “high density”, it will be 1.8 density foam (although the quality may not be as good as U.S. made 1.8 density foams.)
The good news is that it doesn’t say “Sponge,” which would indicate a density of 1.5 or less.
If you go through Lovesac reviews, there are a bunch complaining that the standard cushions and down cushions are not comfortable for many people. People seem to prefer the middle Lovesoft cushion.
If you look at the specifications for the Lovesoft and Standard cushions they appear to be identical. Actually, they’re using two different types of polyester fiber. The lovesoft has a more expensive type that is supposed to provide more “loft.”
From a manufacturer’s perspective, the added cost of materials and labor to make these upgraded cushions is less than $10 per seat.
Lovesac’s website charges an extra $150 per cushion. If you bought your Lovesac on sale at 25% off, there is no 25% discount for the cushion upgrades.
Upcharges like this on optional items are extremely profitable for Lovesac.