Phoenix,
I am lucky to be retired because I have spent more than a week on your site! (I’m a slow reader and overly analytical). I have read all your articles under “The Industry”, “Mattresses” and “Our Articles”. I have looked up all your members who looked like they have products similar to what I’m benchmarking (latex foam or latex hybrid mattresses). And I have read a lot of forum articles (though obviously there are many more). The amount of information is overwhelming, and there is quite a bit of redundancy which makes it take longer to read it all, but it doesn’t really hurt to get the key messages pounded in repeatedly. Overall, it is a well organized resource with lots of very helpful information. Thanks for doing this!
One thing I have not yet found are good resources (suppliers) for obtaining raw materials for building your own mattress. I’m not referring to the so-called DIY mattresses where you work with a manufacturer and specify particular layers and they build it for you (FloBeds and the like). I’m referring to getting a zippered cover and stuffing it with whatever you want, on your own.
Mattresses.net has a DIY page that does have several items, including one type of pocketcoil and some latex and polyfoam. But the selection is limited in the number of grades available. There are also no microcoil or gel column products offered. Mattresses | Latex | Poly | Memory Foam Beds | Mattress Toppers offers polyfoam, memory foam and latex foam, but again, with a limited number of choices and no coil options.
What I’d like is a list of suppliers who offer (at attractive prices, of course) retail customers the opportunity to purchase a full range of foam products, coil spring products, and gel column products (such as the full line of Leggett & Platt products including Somnigel, microcoils, various pocket coils, etc.). I searched the forum but didn’t come up with anything besides the above. I didn’t notice any members besides Mattresses.net either.
Thoughts/recommendations from you or other readers would be appreciated!
P.S.–for whatever it’s worth, the Preview button doesn’t work for me when posting in the forum. I’m using Windows 10 with the Microsoft Edge browser. If I click Preview, it just displays an empty grey text box under this message.
If you are attracted to the idea of designing and building your own DIY mattress out of separate components and a separate cover then the first place I would start is by reading option 3 in post #15 here and the posts it links to (and option #1 and #2 as well) so that you have more realistic expectations and that you are comfortable with the learning curve, uncertainty, trial and error, or in some cases the higher costs that may be involved in the DIY process. While it can certainly be a rewarding project … the best approach to a DIY mattress is a “spirit of adventure” where what you learn and the satisfaction that comes from the process itself is more important than any cost savings you may realize (which may or may not happen).
Post #4 here includes a list of the better online sources for DIY materials and components that I’m aware of.
There is also more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel” that may be useful as well.
For those who decide to take on the challenge then I would either use the specs (if they are available) of a mattress that you have tested and confirmed is a good match for you in terms of PPP as a reference point or blueprint and try and “match” every layer and component in your reference mattress as closely as possible or use a “bottom up” approach (see post #2 here).
Phoenix
PS: [quote]If I click Preview, it just displays an empty grey text box under this message. [/quote]
I believe that this is the result of some conflict between the forum software and the site template. I’m aware of it and I’m hopeful that it will be corrected in a future update. Thanks for mentioning it.
Thank-you very much. It will take awhile to read up on all those suppliers in Post #4, but that is exactly the kind of list I was looking for and hadn’t found when I searched for it (I searched “DIY mattress”). May I suggest that you add a category on your members list of DIY material suppliers and put these in there? I doubt I’m the only one who will benefit from a consolidated list like that.
[quote]
Thank-you very much. It will take awhile to read up on all those suppliers in Post #4, but that is exactly the kind of list I was looking for and hadn’t found when I searched for it (I searched “DIY mattress”). [/quote]
I’m glad i could help
The membership list is limited to manufacturers and retailers that sell mattresses although I may add additional membership categories at some time in the future.
For now though there are many more “specialized” forum lists such as the DIY component list that I try and keep up to date and link to on request.
