Hello, TMUers! Let me introduce myself. My husband and I are in need of a new bed in the near future — after an international move, we left our past-date old king mattress behind and need a new one soon after we move out of our Airbnb in a few weeks. Thanks to all who’ve helped make this such a useful place to bring some sense to what’s a pretty challenging process! That broomstick trick was super helpful.
About us: I’m 5’5” and about 195, large hips and narrow shoulders, plagued lately with tight hip muscles that can edge into lower back pain. DH is 5’10” and about 185, and sleeps warm toward the end of the night (though maybe that’s the Airbnb mattress). We’re both combination sleepers - I start on my side and shift, he starts on his back and shifts, we both end up on our stomachs in the wee hours when insomnia gets us. Medium feel suits us best—we like overall med/firm support with some springy cushion on top. And we’re lucky enough that my husband and I like the same things in mattresses! We’re in northern VA, and finding places to start the testing has not been easy. Here’s a rundown of our journey and some questions to help us move to next step.
Foam hybrids: We started out focused on the foam on pocket coil type of hybrid, since we liked our old mattress (IKEA Sultan Hallen, poly foam over pocket coils) for about 12 years. We know we aren’t big fans of lots of memory foam although one limited bit in the comfort layer can work. So we visited a SleePare outlet for some online brands, and of what’s there, the WinkBed Luxury Firm was our preferred foam hybrid after considering comfort and support. The company sent us the following durability stats: Gel-Infused Hypersoft Foam: 17 ILD, 1.8 lb/ft; Premium Gel Foam: 17 ILD, 1.8 lb/ft; SupportCell Foam: 22 ILD, 2.5 lb/ft; Atlas Base Foam: 28 ILD, 1.5 lb/ft; coil gauges 14.5 in the center third for extra lower lumbar support, a 15 where you lay your head and feet, and a 13 around the outer perimeter for the stronger edge support.
Also-ran: Helix Midnight Luxe was a runner up comfort wise but uses some low grade foam in the pillow top. Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe also did well in testing but wasn’t on the floor in medium to test. I also liked the comfort of a Paramount Prestige at a local family run Virginia chain, but the price tag on that is super hefty (and they won’t share specs so I doubt it’s as good as first impressions). I went to Saatva’s DC store, and did not enjoy the Classic (comfort layer did not work). At least in foam hybrids, I seem to prefer a comfort layer of about 4”.
Latex: After some open minded testing, it turns out latex hits our comfort layer sweet spot, and although there are only a handful of models to try here, we ended up really liking the Naturepedic EOS Pillowtop Latex Hybrid with its semi-custom approach in a 270 degree zippered cover. Even though they only do split for king, we both did really well with a firm pocket coil (14.5 gauge), 3” medium Dunlop latex on that, and 3” soft Dunlop latex in the comfort layer/pillowtop compartment. (They did not share ILD of their latex, or source of their springs.) The combo of both springs and latex under the top layer gave us the sweet spot of support/alignment and cushy feel with good pressure relief. Its major downside is that it ends up a 15” mattress (not just new sheets required, but also harder to sit on), and the price!
Others tried: We tried many variations of the Naturepedic 100% latex Trilex, which has good comfort but even in a firm-firm-medium combination didn’t give us enough support (thank you broom handle!), although the firmer support helped reduce the feeling of rolling towards the edges that we felt in the firm-med-soft configuration. I found the Zenhaven nice with the zoning they do but don’t see value in paying for latex on the side we won’t be sleeping on.
As for latex hybrid, the Saatva hybrid was too firm for us overall, while Avocado Green was too soft and jiggly, proving that all latex hybrids are not made the same! Helix’s Birch felt nice to me but too soft to DH and didn’t give either of us quite the right support for our widest spots. Naturepedic’s Serenade in medium on a 15.5 gauge coil was great for pressure relief despite the 2” comfort layer, but must have borrowed from the soft coils and didn’t give either of us a good alignment. The EOS classic is our runner up in “cushion firm”—3” soft Dunlop latex on 14.5 gauge pocket coils that still gave us the right alignment and felt pretty good for pressure relief. I could feel the support wasn’t as robust as the pillow top though and wonder how lasting our satisfaction with it would be. The trade off is whether we can live with “good enough” for the benefits of a much lower price and a more normal thickness.
Where this all brings us is I wonder if a 12-13” thick hybrid with two latex layers on a 6” coil might be the ideal solution. Naturepedic will do this in a $10k mattress but that is well beyond our budget! I’ve been researching some of the TMU trusted partners, particularly Latex Mattress Warehouse, SleepEZ, and My Green Mattress, both to see if we can save money vs Naturepedic and to get something closer to our preferences. But clearly we need a firm enough coil and I don’t know how to tell from non-local sources whether we would get it. The idea of buying something untested is intimidating given differences by manufacturer, not all the refund policies make it simple to deal with any issues with final product, and coils seem least likely to be covered for returns. And I don’t think a true DIY makes sense for us given DH values some peace of mind from warranty and return policy.
So here are a couple questions to help us move forward:
1. Am I missing an obvious TMU option in my short list above? Is there anywhere else that sells a standard/semicustom configuration under warranty made of 2 layers of latex (2” or 3”) on a 6” pocket spring? Do any of these have a zippered cover (I admit this kind of lured me in)?
2. Is there likely to be a significant difference between putting 2 layers of latex inside the mattress vs getting a separate latex topper (not shredded) in its own cover for a second layer of latex? Good news is we both like the same thing so a king size topper is feasible comfort wise.
3. We ultimately concluded the 15.5 gauge coils from Naturepedic seemed a little lightweight for us. This figure is similar to SleepEZ, LMF, who I think are at 15-16, but I also realize there’s more to coils than just gauge and I don’t have perfect comparisons. Does anyone have experience with the 4 companies on my short list to know if going to 6” coils with higher gauge (softer) actually reduces the firmness of the support core, or if anyone has something comparable at all in feel to the Naturepedic 14.5 gauge coils?
4. How do you get over the anxiety of buying remotely and not having tested the specific components before?
Thanks for your help! This should help us get to the next phase of decision making by better isolating tradeoffs across a more accurate range of options that could meet our needs.
