The only way to know for certain which types of mattress or materials you tend to prefer in general will be based on your own local testing or your own personal experience.
While many of the online choices have a great trial period so you can test them in your bedroom instead of a showroom with little risk outside of the time you spend trying it (or returning/donating it if it doesn’t work out as well as you hoped) … this will only tell you whether a mattress is “good enough” in terms of PPP and not specifically how it compares to other mattresses that you could have purchased that you haven’t tried in person that may have been even better or that you may have preferred. When you test mattresses at a local store you can test many different mattresses in a shorter period of time and there may be more than one that would make a suitable choice but your testing can give you a good idea of which of them you would prefer and would likely be the “best choice”. You would need to purchase quite a number of online mattresses (and then return the ones you didn’t like as much as your “final choice”) if you wanted to find out which of them was the “best choice” relative to the other options that are available to you.
Having said that … the Alexander is certainly a good quality/value choice … and congratulations on your new mattress
I’m looking forward to finding out how you like it once you’ve received it and have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.
If you are referring to the Amex offer as far as I know it is yes (one of the members used it yesterday) but you can check with Amex or Tuft & Needle to make sure.
The discount for the forum members here is ongoing and is still valid.
I hope you also have the chance to share your comments and feedback about how you like it once you’ve received it and have had the chance to try it out.
There is more information about the materials in the Tuft & Needle mattress in post #2 here in the simplified choice mattress topic and in posts #2 and #6 here.
It’s a more resilient material than memory foam (which has little to no resilience or “bounce” at all).
I would also keep in mind that the resilience of a material has little to do with how “supportive” a mattress will be or how how well a mattress will “match” your specific needs and preferences in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or it’s firmness and is more connected to the “feel” of a mattress.
There are no “standard” definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer.
Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and whether a specific mattress may be a good “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Like the other simplified choice mattresses they have a great trial period so you can test them in your bedroom instead of a showroom with little risk outside of the time you spend trying it (or returning/donating it if it doesn’t work out as well as you hoped) but the “bottom line” is that the only way to know how firm a mattress feels for you (regardless of how firm it may feel for anyone else) or whether it is “firm enough” or “supportive enough” for you will be based on your own personal experience.
Our last two purchases were high end “S” mattress sets. The pillow top lasted about three years before the ruts made it nearly impossible to turn over. We weigh 180 and 250. The next “S” mattress ended up being too firm so we topped it right away with a 3" mattresses.net latex topper. BTW, We highly recommend mattresses.net, we’ve also purchased pillows from them. The ruts in our firm four year old “S” bed are now causing hip and shoulder pain (even with the topper). We intended to eventually replace it with a mattresses.net latex bed, but recently learned about T&N and noticed the AmEx offer. With the cost savings, reviews and warranty, we are now considering the T&N over latex. If we could even get close to ten “rutless” years from the T&N we would be happy to save the money over latex. Will you please give us your opinion on “ruts”? Thank you very much for this website and all your work!
As you may know from your reading here your experience is all too common because of the lower quality/density materials that the major brands tend to use in the upper layers of their mattress … and it’s especially common with pillowtop mattresses that use even thicker layers of lower quality/density materials that will tend to soften or break down prematurely.
There is more about the 3 most important parts of “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price or course and the options you have available after a purchase).
Unfortunately there is no way to quantify how long any mattress will last for a specific person or predict exactly when you will decide to replace it because it is no longer suitable or comfortable for you (because this is the only real measure of durability or the useful life of a mattress that really matters) because there are too many unknowns and variables involved that are unique to each person but if a mattress is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and isn’t close to the edge of being too soft when it is new (see post #2 here) and meets the minimum quality/durability specs that are suggested in the guidelines here then it would be reasonable to expect a useful lifetime in the range of 7 - 10 years and with materials that are higher quality and more durable than the minimum guidelines such as latex or higher density polyfoam or memory foam (in the upper 3" - 6" of the mattress especially) it would likely be in the higher end of the range or even longer (what I call "bonus time).
While for most people the deeper support core wouldn’t be the weakest link in a mattress … for someone that is in a higher weight range such as the mid 200’s then they will compress the deeper layers more than someone that is lighter so the deeper layers will play a larger role in the durability and useful life of the mattress than they would for someone in a lighter weight range. The high performance 2.9 lb polyfoam in the top 3" of the mattress would certainly be suitable for higher weight ranges but the 1.8 lb density base layer is slightly lower density than the 2 lb or higher density that I would normally suggest in higher weight ranges and may reduce the useful life of the mattress slightly.
Latex in general is a more durable material than polyfoam and one of the additional advantages of a component mattress with individual layers and a zip cover though is that if the softer comfort layers soften or break down before the deeper layers in a mattress (which is most likely) and if the softening is affecting how well you sleep or if your needs and preferences change down the road you can replace individual layers instead of having to replace the complete mattress. Of course the tradeoff is that latex is a more costly material than polyfoam.
While a warranty is important to guard against manufacturing defects in the materials or components inside a mattress … I would keep in mind that mattress warranties only cover manufacturing defects and they don’t cover the gradual (or more rapid in the case of lower quality comfort layers) loss of comfort and support that comes from foam softening that is the main reason that most people will need to replace their mattress. In other words warranties have little to do with the durability or useful life of a mattress or how long it may be until you need to buy a new mattress. If there is an actual defect in the materials it will usually show up early in the life of the mattress but knowing the quality and durability of the materials in your mattress is always a much more reliable way to assess the useful life of a mattress than the length of a warranty. There is more about mattress warranties in post #174 here.
I’ll be ordering a mattress from Tuft and Needle today based off what I’ve read from this thread and forum. Currently sleeping on a 11 year old mattress and suffering from some back issues. Keeping my fingers cross the Tuft and Needle works for me; I’m somewhat hesitant ordering something without being able to test it out first. Lots of good reviews on here it seems like…so here goes nothing. I’ll post a review once I have a chance to test it out for a few weeks.
I am also following in your footsteps after struggling every night on a 10 year old inexpensive innerspring with a horrible sag. The information I have read here has helped me make my decision on T&N. Excited!
Very glad we found this website. It helped us decide it was ok to jump on the T&N bandwagon (in addition to the AMEX deal.). Pretty excited & hopeful that getting rid of our old sagging mattress will help our backs. Also crossing my fingers that it somehow keeps toddlers in their own rooms & beds at night :).
You certainly made a good quality/value choice but I would make sure that you read post #1 here just in case the TMU discount was an important part of your purchase decision (although there may be a short period of time where they will honor the discount for those that weren’t aware that they are no longer a member here).
Just ordered a King size T&N with my AMEX and immediately got the email notifying me I’d used the offer… Thanks for all of the help and resources here on this site!
