I would appreciate any help/pointers that could help me choose a mattress.
Some background info:
Height: 2 meters (6ft 6in)
Weight: 115kg (255lbs)
Sleeping on the back, sides, belly. Restless sleeper.
We’re renting a really nice and spacious apartment. It was furnished - so the original bed and spring mattresses came with the apartment. My guess is, that they are at least 10+ years old. After sleeping on these for the past 2+ years I’m waking up every morning in agony (seriously) and since the owner isn’t going to replace these, I have to.
I was trying out different mattresses in furniture stores - the problem is that every mattress feels heavenly compared to what we have at home.
It was suggested that I get either an innerspring or a latex mattress.
The innerspring which is highly locally regarded and recommended is about 515 EUR (size 100x200cm):
They don’t have an english website - but basically it’s a german innerspring system (Vernestet S300) with 296 springs/m2 density, covered with about 1cm latex-infused-coconut-board and 3 cm (1 inch) synthetic blend latex (20%natural/80%synthetic). Warranty on the mattress is 3 years as a whole and 20 years for the innersprings… I tested it in the store, it was ok, nothing fancy, seemed quite well built.
Since I’m not that eager to get an innerspring mattress… I looked into latex mattresses.
I found this one that claims to be 100% all natural latex:
Postele, matrace, rošty - eShop českého výrobce - Spíme.cz (sorry once again no english site)
Latex core is produced by Artilat:
ADMIN NOTE: Removed 404 page link | Archived Footprint: artilat.be/downloads/MayanGreen_4pag_lr.pdf
I found more certificates for this mattress:
artilat mayan green,
certificate 1
certificate 2
certificate 3
certificate 4
The one I picked has 90kg/m3 density, 18cm height and is multizone (7 zones). The price comes to about 474 EUR for size 100x200cm. I’m testing it out in the store on Friday - but I’m not sure they’ll have this hardest firmness in-store. You can pick between 70/80/90kg/m3. Warranty is 6 years.
I also found a monozone version of this 100% all natural latex:
Same specs: 90kg/m3, but the thickness is only 15cm (3 cm smaller than the multizone version). And it is 400 EUR (vs 474 for the multizone).
Then I looked and saw that they also offer a 20%/80% natural/synthetic blended latex:
Same producer (www.artilat.be), 70kg/m3 density (that’s as high as this one goes), 14cm thick. This blended version is only 227 EUR for size 100x200cm! Warranty is 3 years.
Now let me say, I searched long and hard among the local furniture/mattress sellers… and basically they all use either Artilat.be as their supplier or some unknown suppliers. Their only blended version is 20%natural/80% synthetic. And the 100% all natural “mayan green” version is pretty much the only all natural latex mattress I could find locally. So basically this is what I have to work with. Most of the stores are pushing some visco/memory foam mattresses or some latex/foam mixtures… which I am not interested in. I want to pick either all-latex, or innerspring.
So I have a number of questions:
1…) The most obvious one is - is it really worth paying 474 EUR for 100% all natural latex compared to 227 EUR for the 20%natural/80%synthetic blended latex? I don’t have any more spec data then the densities, 90kg/m3 for the hardest all natural (18cm thickness) vs 70kg/m3 for the blended (14cm thickness). I know that I should want the best for us, but since we have to buy two mattresses - that means the difference is 454 EUR for the cheap blend vs 948 for the all natural. Almost 500 EUR difference. Am I to expect that the all natural will feel twice nicer, or last twice longer?
I haven’t tested them yet - I will do so on Friday. But the sales guy already told me on the phone, that I won’t feel much difference in the store. He was of course pushing the all-natural mattress, claiming that the synthetic blend will start “crumbling” in about 5 years compared to the all-natural, which might last even 10 years. But given the price difference, do I really care if the synthetic blend will last only half the time the all-natural will?
2.) How would a high density (let’s take the 90kg/m3 all natural) latex mattress compare in firmness to an innerspring mattress? My worry is that the all-latex mattress would feel too soft even if I picked a high density one. Or am I completely mistaken?
3.) Given the similar price point (500 EUR) for the innerspring and all-natural latex - which one would people recommend? Once again, I sleep on all sides… often I fall asleep on the right side, then sleep on my back, then turn around and sleep on my belly… I am a very restless sleeper (which is probably also a result of having a terrible mattress at the moment) - the point is I move all around. And I’m a fairly big guy (2 meters, 115kg).
4.) Is there any benefit to getting a multizone latex mattress compared with a monozone mattress? When I sleep on my back, my feet are almost hanging off the bed (bed height is 2m, and my height is 2m)… whenever I see a nice picture of a multizone mattress that tries to explain how it benefits the spine when sleeping on a side - they show a smallish person who nicely fits in those zones… However, will I really fit in those zones?
So basically I’d like to be able to get the best price/comfort/usefulness ratio. The problem is, that I can only try these mattresses out in the store for a few minutes, they don’t allow you to take an in-store mattress home and test it for a few nights. And since I am ordering an atypical size (100x200cm) they don’t let you exchange it if you’re not happy with it - since the typical size is 90x200, which means they have to custom order 100x200 size and they don’t sell too many of these… And since the latex and innerspring are sold by different stores, I can’t even compare them side by side…
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!