First off, please understand that I totally agree with you on Latex being a MUCH superior choice - don’t forget that I grew up on one (from the '50s) that I slept on for 20 years! I have always used Latex pillows (Leggett & Plat lately) and still have a latex bed in our guest room (Cantwell mattress of San Antonio/Corpus Christi) 40 years old that seems to have gotten a bit firmer over the years so I added a topper! My best friend has slept on this bed when she visits and last year when she needed a new bed I insisted she look at Latex - she ended up buying a Natura and loves it. She lives in Austin and had lots of places to look at various latex beds… lucky her!
I also think Latex is making a much needed comeback (thankfully) and hopefully will pull people away from dangerous off gassing memory foam. The various Simmons that we’ve had in the last 30 years had latex in the comfort levels (I made sure of that) instead of “mystery foams”! I’m a latex fan for sure.
I’m also disturbed that the present choices of the three S’s do not have latex choices in the comfort zones or so little I don’t know why they even include that in the list of foams. Our last round of Simmons (for the 2nd home) do have latex in the upper levels. Yes, they are getting a few dips after four years, but I made the mistake of getting pillow tops. I will say the firm one with the stronger spring gauge on 13.25 is holding up better than the 15.5 gauge plush ones.
Last night, we moved back to the Simmons until we can resolve this mess. I slept really well… back is better this morning and have about decided that we’ve become so used to a “spring” bed that we probably can’t get used to the “latex” feel anymore. We are 69 and 70 - maybe we can’t teach old bodies new tricks! Seriously!
In the last 4 months we’ve been through mattress hell. Started with Mattress Firm, locally, who sold us a Tempurpedic Cloud. The off gassing got me - even three weeks later it was as strong to me as the first day they delivered it) and it felt like sleeping on quicksand. They switched us to a S & F Hybrid - that was more like sleeping on a bowl of jello and the offgassing still got me. They refunded our money, bless their hearts. And we went with the Pure Latex Bliss Nature with the idea of a 2" topper PLB to soften it up. Too hard for me - my fibromyalgia screamed. I bought a 19 ILD to put under the topper… too soft! (Lordy I’m the Princess with the pea). Traded that in for the Beautiful (put the 2" topper on it) which was GREAT for 6 weeks. Then it started breaking down - we tried it without the 2" topper… that put too much pressure on my hips and legs… 2" topper went back on. We rotated it … no help with the sags… we put it 90 degrees across the bed… no better maybe worse. The 2nd Beautiful at 2nd home was way too soft - which puzzled us. ACK!
Off and on during this switcharoo deal, we had to keep returning to the Simmons upstairs in another guest room between mattress changes. And have come to this conclusion - we sleep best on a spring bed!
Our choices are Simmons, Sealy, Tempurpedic (forget it), and Corsicana. Pure Latex Bliss is out for now - unfortunately we are caught in the reorganization and have to make a decision now (for our sanity and backs).
The reason they are suggested the Simmons black line plush (not the pillowtop) is they’ve found it the most durable (yes they admit beds ain’t made like they used to be) - they have the strongest springs of the line and they get the fewest complaints. From all the research I’ve done and compared back to our present (in the guest rooms) Simmons World Class pillow-tops, that seems correct. If it doesn’t last 10 years, at our ages, it may not matter! We can’t outlive a good latex, that’s for sure! or maybe I mean