So as promised, I will give my initial review of the Aloe Alexis (Level 6 - Medium, ILD 28 and 24). I placed the order last Monday, May 20th and the two 90-lb packages arrived yesterday around 5PM via FedEx (shipped from Phoenix to coastal Georgia).
The FedEx truck pulled up just as I was getting home from work and I had to leave at 5:30 to make it to a softball game, so setup was a bit chaotic. The mattress arrived in two boxes, one for the main support core and two free pillows and one for the 4 pieces of talalay latex. Both boxes weighed around 90-lbs, so it took some energy to get them into the bedroom (luckily on the main floor of the house).
I got the main portion of the mattress onto the bed and opened up and removed the quilting cover (it is zippered on all the way around the mattress) to insert the 4 latex pieces. Two ILD 28 and two ILD 24 3" layers of talalay latex are included in the Level 6 Aloe Alexis. In my haste I put the ILD 24 layers beneath the ILD 28 layers and did not realize it until I woke up this morning, but more on that later. My initial impression was very satisfied with the apparent quality in the materials and workmanship. This is a very well-built and high-quality mattress and hopefully an excellent value at ~$1500 for the King size.
After the first night of sleeping on the mattress I woke up with some soreness in my shoulders (I am a side-sleeper), but there may be explanations for this outside of the mattress itself. I spent most of Monday prepping and painting my garage floor, which was a lot of brooming and painting via extended rollers. And then I played softball for the first time in two years last night, which means I was using muscles I probably haven’t used in awhile. Another factor may be that I had the latex layers reversed (DOH!). I took the time this morning to fix the latex layers putting the ILD 28 on bottom and the ILD 24 on top, which should help in softening up the feel on my shoulders tonight. I would also like to point out that the main reason I wanted a new mattress was to aid in alleviating lower back pain that I have had for years. It isn’t severe, but it is enough to nag me pretty much daily. At the age of 24, I was willing to spend some money on a quality mattress with the hope that my back pain will benefit as a result. And after just one night I woke up pain-free in my lower back, which almost never happened on my Sam’s Club Serta Pillowtop that we just moved to the upstairs guest bedroom.
So all in all I think it was a very positive first experience and I plan to report back again in about two weeks once I’ve really had a chance to get a feel for the transition to a latex mattress!
I’d also like to point out that the shredded talalay latex pillows seem to be very comfortable and receiving two King pillows for free on top of the 5% TMU discount is a definite bonus in value!
