My husband and I have made 2 poor mattress choices and are now looking at a 3rd mattress and don’t want to make another buying mistake. We are considering an Aireloom Mattress specifically made for Nebraska Furniture Mart at a more “reasonable price” of $1800 - $2300 and are wanting to know if they are worth buying. We have purchased latex which we found too firm and created some circulation and numbness issues along with creating pressure points and then bought a Sealy Optimum Inspiration which initially was good but 6 months into ownership has become too soft and not offering enough spinal support. At this point we are back to looking into inner spring but having a very difficult time determining quality and durability which are also important to us. We stumbled onto a couple of Aireloom products at NFM and are considering the firmer option and applying our own gel/foam topper, but that negates some of the benefits of the quilting and hand tufting. Therefore we are consider the next level up which is a cushion firm. The specs provided for both are below
Comfort 1" high density foam 1" gel 5.0#
1" gel 3.5# 1.75" firm brick foam
1" firm foam Density pad
Quilting 1/2 oz fiber 1 oz fr fiber
1" super soft foam 1 1/8" convoluted memory foam
tricot backing 1" super soft foam
This is all of the information we have so far. We live in Kansas City area and have no small manufacturers that we’ve been able to find and it seems the “S” companies are all that is readily available in our area. The thought of ordering something sight unseen and untested over the internet is hard for us to seriously consider.
Any help that you can provide is greatly appreciated.
The short version is that you would need the density of all the polyfoam layers for me to make any meaningful comments but I would tend to avoid any mattress where there are 2" or more of lower quality or unknown foams.
If I’m reading your specs right the first mattress (left hand side specs) includes (from the top down) …
1" super soft foam
1" high density foam
1" gel 3.5#
1" firm foam
This is 3" of unknown quality polyfoam (most likely lower quality/density) and an inch of memory foam that is in the lower quality range. I would avoid this unless you can confirm that all the polyfoam is high quality in which case I would consider only an inch of lower quality memory foam to be acceptable.
The second mattress (right hand side specs) includes …
1 1/8" convoluted memory foam
1" super soft foam
1" gel 5.0#
1.75" firm brick foam
This is almost 4" of unknown quality/density polyfoam and 1" of good quality memory foam. I would avoid this as well unless once again you can confirm that the polyfoam has no more than an inch or so of low quality materials (which is unlikely).
These are both mattresses I would tend to avoid.
Some of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the Kansas City area are listed in post #2 here.
Sorry about the way the information was reported. I had created a chart but it didn’t transfer well when I submitted the post. We will dig a bit deeper on the Aireloom before further considering.
We did originally purchase our latex mattress from Hawn in Lee’s Summit. It seemed ok at first but after about a year, the mattress seemed to “push back” and create pressure points instead of relieving them. Maybe we should consider it as a good foundation and search for a gel topper. We tried a memory foam topper but just could not tolerate the extra heat. Do you know anything about the quality of the innerspring mattresses at Hawn. They appeared to use poor quality products with low density foams in the models I talked with the sales person about. They are certainly willing to tell us what in it. They use Bonnell and have a pocketed coil units both with coil counts around 500 for a queen. They use polyfoam for nearly all of the comfort layers and I don’t recall any of them having latex or memory foam in those comfort layers.
Glad to have found your forum; we have been looking at mattress and trying to sift through all of the confusion to make a better decision for nearly 3 years now. The mattress we replaced was 18 years old and more comfortable than anything we’ve seen since. I almost regret giving it up now!
It would depend on the specifics of the mattress you were considering since they can use any type or quality of innerspring that they choose as part of their designs. I would always evaluate a mattress based on its construction and materials rather than who manufactures it. The quality of the materials in their mattresses will vary with their price (higher quality and more durable materials tend to be more costly).
Bonnell innersprings can be a very strong and durable choice for a mattress in certain designs and budget ranges and with the right components above them. Some Bonnell coils have more working steel and are more durable than other types of innersprings although they may not have some of the performance properties that some people prefer in an innerspring mattress. In the same way there are low and higher quality /durability versions of polyfoam that can be used in different budget ranges. Some types of polyfoam can be a very high performance and durable material. It all depends on the specifics that are in a mattress. It’s almost always the quality of the materials and components above the innersprings that are the weak link in a mattress.
The overall quality of materials that were generally used in the mainstream industry tended to be higher 18 years ago than they are today. If you follow the steps in the tutorial post one by one though your odds of finding a mattress that is just as suitable in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) and is just as durable will be much higher although of course the cost of that kind of quality and durability have also changed significantly.