Anyone who has shopped around for sheets has probably at some point heard about L.L. Bean's cotton percale sheets. If you're looking for something reputable that will last a long time and prefer the percale weave for their crisp, cool feel, chances are you've seen tons of articles online praising L.L. Bean's set. I think even Wirecutter has consistently voted them at the top!

I've always been on the Bean train. I grew up with their sheets. My whole household had them. My mother has a neck injury, so making her queen sized bed was part of my regular chores growing up, and each of our sheet sets were easily 10+ years old, in great condition, and buttery soft.

That said, I'm pretty dang familiar with these sheets, so when I moved out in 2017 I budgeted for my own set. In fact, aside from my mattress, I think my two sheet sets (I rotate each week) were my biggest splurge. But I figured it was an investment and swallowed the $298 + tax cost.

It's pretty typical for cotton percale sheets to take some time (and washings) to "break in" and soften up, so that was expected. What I didn't expect was for the stitching to start fraying and holes to show up on my top sheet early 2020. I reevaluated my washing habits (I follow the instructions on the tag), my laundry detergent, and even tried to mend the damage in a few spots. But the damage started to snowball and spread to everything - my fitted sheets began to spontaneously split, every pillowcase was fraying, and my poor top sheets developed huge rips. Every single piece in both sets had some form of damage.

The damage was getting worse and worse, and there was no way for me to keep up. It didn't matter how delicate I handled them, it was like a runaway train. There are no rambunctious pets in our household hanging out on the bed to cause the damage, our washer and dryer are pretty new and energy efficient, No buttons or snaps or zippers on our pajamas, and no decorations or anything around the bed that could be causing damage.

I tried reaching out directly to L.L. Bean's customer support. "Luckily" for me, the sheets were purchased before February 2018, which is when Bean effectively neutered their lifetime guarantee down to one year. The representative on the phone didn't even bring this up until I mentioned it, and let her know it's still in the fine print on her site. But she insisted the only way they could do anything was to physically bring the sheets into the store. During a pandemic. I'm heavily pregnant and immunocompromised, but she refused to budge on that.

So here I am, my sheets are falling apart more each day, and I'm at a loss. What do I buy now? If I purchase the exact same set again from L.L. Bean, not only would I be taking a gamble this might happen again (and next time around, I wouldn't have any sort of protection beyond one year), but the price has jumped by another $60. I am not comfortable shouldering that risk and paying extra for something that should've lasted many more years.

TL;DR - What are some other quality cotton percale sheets I can invest in that will last longer than 3-4 years?

A few sad highlight photos of my sheets: https://imgur.com/a/VOeSjtp

The quest for the perfect sheets continues! I recently picked up a set of the celebrated 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheets from LL Bean. I've only had them for about a week so this isn't really a durability review, just first impressions.

Price: I got the sheets with a 20% off coupon, which brought the price down to $44 each for the flat and fitted sheets. They also sell pillowcases separately (regular price $38/pair), but I wanted envelope closures so I just purchased an extra flat sheet and will make those myself. So the total for 1 flat, 1 fitted, 4 "nice" pillowcases (with the original hemstitch detail) and 2 "backup" pillowcases was $132 shipped, plus some labor.

Appearance/workmanship: The sheets arrived with no defects in the stitching, and no loose threads appeared after the first wash. They aren't completely wrinkle-free but look neat out of the dryer. My only complaint is that the "cream" color is what my husband describes as "pee yellow," but it's identical to the cream color of Macy's Charter Club Damask Sheets and the Kirkland Signature cream sheets that I have. I really wish more companies made a "soft white" that wasn't so damn yellow. Eventually I'll give them a soak in some diluted bleach water to try and lighten them up.

Performance: The sheets are very smooth and breathable. They don't feel flimsy at all. This is my first set of "low" thread count sheets, and I really don't feel I'm missing out at all--if anything, these are nicer than the 500+ TC sheets that I've owned in the past. I was expecting them to be a little crisper (percale and all), but they are certainly smooth and cool. I don't think sateen lovers would have any trouble adjusting to these--they still have a lot of "slip" and no roughness.

The fitted sheet does have a little "extra" on our 10" deep mattress, and as a result the top isn't perfectly smooth. It's not a huge bother, but if you're bothered by a loose fit, it might be an issue. I assume this would be less of a problem for those with deeper mattresses. The size of the top sheet is good--it's long enough to get a good tuck at the bottom, and generous without being too wide.

The sheets sleep wonderfully. We tend to sleep warm and they don't stick to us or feel sweaty/clammy. My husband likes these a lot and says they are "always cool."

So there you go, first impressions of LL Bean percale sheets. I think these are a very good mid-price value. I'll report back in about 6 months to see how they are holding up.