About 5 years ago my doctor recommended I purchase a new mattress to help with my arthritis. I did a lot of research and came across the Satbed mattress. It had memory foam and special air chambers that adjust when you change positions. In addition , it was being used by a very good hospital in New York City. I had a 90 day trial period, but within 30 days I called to return it. The sales represenative explained it took 8-10 weeks to get truly comfortable’ so I agreed. I sleep near the edge since it makes it easier for me to get out of the bed and I could feel it sagging and the foam even had a drop at the edge, but I foolishly agreed. My mom got very sick at the same time so when I called to return the mattress I was a few days past the trial period and stuck with a mattress over $2000.00. I sent pictures about the damage and after 2 years I received new chambers but not what I bought. It did not help the edge and within 1 year their chamber broke. I was told that was my fault and needed to pay $500. to repair it. I have never had a good nights sleep and although I cannot afford anything expensive, it is better than what I have. I have researched memory foam and was advised I need 3" of high density 5.3 foam and a total of 11". It should be medium firm. I worked with Chuck from Dreamfoam, and although he tried we did not find one. Christli had one very close but their no refund policy and 20% restock fee is too costly to take another chance. I came across two companies that had mattresses that might be perfect, Amerisleep and MemoryFoamUSA, but I cannot find anything about them. Can you please help. I cannot afford to get it wrong again. I have already lost over $2000.00. Any information you can give me about those or any other company that you feel may have what I am looking for I would be more than happy to look into. You site has really helped me and I am so looking forward to a good nights sleep.
Hi cinn,
I’m sorry to hear about your experience with your Satbed but I appreciate you taking the time to share it.
Some manufacturers aren’t quite so “rigid” about their trial period and are more willing to make exceptions if it’s just a matter of a few days but it’s unfortunate that they weren’t one of them.
I’m not sure who advised you of this but there is much more to choosing a mattress that is suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) than just the thickness and density of the layers. You may find that one mattress that uses 3" of 5 lb memory foam with a 7" polyfoam base layer may work very well for you and another that seems to have the same or very similar “quality” specs may not be suitable for you at all. Density and thickness are just two of many factors that are part of the design of a mattress that makes it suitable for a specific person to sleep on and I would tend to avoid using specs to decide which mattress is best for you (although knowing the “quality specs” of a mattress is an important part of identifying any weak links in a mattress and making meaningful comparisons).
The first place I would start your research is the tutorial post here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that you will need to make the best possible and most suitable choices … and know how to avoid the worst ones. It also includes links to some of the better online manufacturers and retailers I’m aware of.
I would keep in mind that generic firmness ratings like “medium firm” are highly subjective and relative to each person’s perceptions and can also vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. They really have no specific meaning.
I would be cautious about Amerisleep (and their sister companies Astrabeds, Simply Rest, and eSleepmasters). You can read more about them in post #2 here and the posts it links to and a forum search on Amerisleep (you can just click this) will bring up more information about them as well. They have a lot of websites that “seem” to be independent rating sites but they all lead back to the same place and are all about marketing more than anything else.
The Memoryfoamusa mattresses are made by Silverrest/Springfield and you can read more about them in post #4 here and the posts it links to. I would avoid any memory foam manufacturer that sources their foam in China and isn’t CertiPur certified and they certainly wouldn’t be my first choice either when you have so many better options available to you.
Phoenix