Hello,
Sorry if I have posted something similar to this before, but with different bed options coming on the market all the time I thought I would ask my question again.
I am wanting to purchase a new mattress in a king size soon. We are coming from a traditional spring mattress that we’ve had for 10 years. My wife absolutely hates it, as she grew up on a wavy, water bed. She very much enjoys beds that make her feel like she’s on a cloud. A bed that will wrap/hug/conform to her. We’ve laid on Tempurpedic beds in the showrooms, and she likes the Cloud Luxe feeling. I usually like the Cloud Supremes. But I just cannot bring myself to paying Tempurpedic prices for their beds. Her favorite bed she’s tried is one of the Serta iComfort memory foam beds. It was their softest model. But I have read some troubling things with the quality/longevity of their beds, not to mention they are expensive too.
She keeps bringing up Select Comfort beds, but I just can’t fathom paying that kind of money for essentially a glorified air mattress. Also, I seem to read mixed reviews about Select Comfort and their quality as well.
Now that brings me to buying beds online…I’m really curious about the Brooklyn Bedding Best Mattress Ever. I’m very skeptical of buying a bed online without getting to try it first. I have never been on a latex bed to know how it feels compared to say memory foam. Brooklyn Bedding makes it seem like the majority of people go for the Medium firm…but knowing how my wife enjoys they ultra plush/soft feeling, I’m not sure if a medium will be good for us. We are higher weight people though, so I’m not sure how that plays into the equation. I am at 285, and she at 265. We also tend to sleep hot, even on our spring mattress at times. Can you provide more information about the BB BME and if a soft would be good for us, or if we will even possibly like the feel based on the kind of beds my wife likes? If there are other beds that we should maybe consider too I am open to suggestions. I just don’t want to pay $3-5k for a bed! Thanks.
Regardless of which models are available on the market at any particular point in time … the process of choosing a mattress would be the same. The first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
The first place to start your research is always the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help with how to make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
While I can’t speak to how a mattress will feel or how different mattresses will compare in terms of comfort and PPP for someone else … outside of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) the most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is durability which is all about how long you will sleep well on a mattress. This is the part of your research that you can’t “feel” and assessing the durability and useful life of a mattress depends on knowing the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label (or how a mattress feels in a showroom or when it is relatively new) so I would always make sure that you find out the information listed here so you can compare the materials and components to the quality/durability guidelines here to confirm that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress relative to your body type that would be a cause for concern before making any purchase.
All the major brands (such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta) tend to use lower quality materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors that will tend to soften or break down prematurely relative to the price you pay and I would avoid all of them completely along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see the guidelines here along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here).
Post #3 here and the posts it links to have some guidelines that will be helpful for those that are in higher weight ranges but in higher weight ranges I would be particularly cautious about any mattress that was too soft or that used materials that were suitable for lower weight ranges but won’t hold up as well for higher weight ranges.
You can see my thoughts about airbeds in general this article. While any mattress can be a good match for a specific person because each person’s needs and preferences or the criteria that are most important to them can be very different … in general terms I would tend to avoid them unless there is a very compelling reason that an airbed would be a better choice for you in “real life” (outside of the many “marketing stories” that you will hear about them) than the many other options or types of mattresses that are available to you.
Latex and memory foam are very different materials that feel and perform very differently from each other. There is more about how they compare in post #2 here but the best way to know which type of materials or which type of mattresses you tend to prefer will be based on your own local testing on different types of materials and mattresses.
There is more information about the BestMattressEver along with some of the other simplified choice mattresses in post #2 here in the simplified choice topic. It certainly uses high quality materials and there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the mattress relative to your body weights. A forum search on BestMattressEver or an exact phrase site search on Best Mattress Ever (you can just click the links) will also bring up hundreds of forum posts and comments that mention it as well.
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Like the other simplified choice mattresses they have a great trial period so you can test them in your bedroom instead of a showroom with little risk outside of the time you spend trying it (or returning/donating it if it doesn’t work out as well as you hoped) but the “bottom line” is that the only way to know whether any mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP or how it compares to another mattress for you (regardless of whether someone else would have a different opinion about how two mattresses compare) will be based on your own personal comparisons and/or experience.