Hi sjramos,
There is more information about choosing sheets in post #7 here and the other posts and sources of information it links to that should be helpful.
Phoenix
Thought I should give my take on Brooklyn Bedding’s BME as I’ve been sleeping on it for a little over a week now!
Prior to purchasing, I spoke to Mario for a firmness recommendation. I’m 5’0" 95lbs and a stomach/side sleeper, while my s.o. is 6’1" 175lbs and a back/side sleeper. He recommended medium for the both of us, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a medium firmness CA king.
It arrived within a few days from AZ to CA. Unpacking the mattress was pretty simple, and while I am fairly sensitive to smells I wasn’t bothered by the off-gassing. I had to press my face into the mattress to even get a good sense of the smell, and by now it’s dissipated completely. Also the s.o. and I both love the soft mattress cover and almost wish we could just sleep on that.
We were coming from an old spring mattress (him) and a med-firm Tempurpedic memory foam mattress (me), so latex foam is new territory for us. I hated his dented, uncomfortable bed, and he didn’t much care for my heat-retaining, body-swallowing bed. We’re both loving how cool the BME sleeps, and its sort of bouncy supportiveness. At first with the medium BME I was concerned it was a little too firm for my liking, as I prefer things soft and squishy (my Tempurpedic was always too firm to me). However I’ve had absolutely no trouble getting to sleep (and that’s after a lifetime of being a tosser and turner), and no soreness or discomfort. My s.o. is satisfied with the firmness too, so I guess the medium is working out after all.
Regarding the edges, they’re at least more supportive than my old Tempurpedic’s, so that’s good enough for me. There’s also little to no motion transfer - my s.o. and I rarely sleep or rise at the same time, but neither of us bothers the other getting in and out.
I just measured the mattress at about 70x84 (standard CA king 72x85), but my measuring might’ve been a bit shoddy. Regardless, we’re happy with the size. I could fit on just about anything (I actually even fit horizontally, lol), but the s.o. is thrilled to have a mattress that his feet don’t dangle off of.
Overall I think we made a really solid choice on the BME (especially considering we were previously looking into another $3000 Tempurpedic); they really make a solid product that I’d definitely recommend.
Hi Morokea,
Thanks for taking the time to share your comments and feedback … I appreciate it 
It’s great to see that your mattress is working out well for both of you!
Phoenix
Thank you! As always the information on this site is incredibly helpful.
Just ordered a BME firm, pretty excited. Everything on TMU help me make a decision. Any thoughts on just laying this thing on the floor, is that okay for the mattress?
Thx J.
Hi jburns,
Congratulations on your new mattress
You certainly made a great quality/value choice and I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback once you’ve received it and of course have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit…
It’s not something that I would suggest on a permanent basis but if it’s just for the short term it would probably be fine as long as you check underneath it on a regular basis and also let the bottom air out once or twice a week (see post #106 here).
Phoenix
I just wanted to stop in and say thanks for all the valuable information provided on this web site. I was due for a new mattress a long time ago, and my teenage son needed one as well. Previously while doing research I grew somewhat frustrated at the confusing or lack of information, especially when that info was coming from the manufacturers.
While nobody in my family is especially sensitive to chemicals, I try to avoid them as much as possible since I think many can cause problems, especially with growing kids. I was looking at some of the organic and “natural” options but couldn’t really afford to spend several thousand dollars on two new mattresses.
Luckily I stumbled across this web site and found some of the pages dedicated to Brooklyn Bedding and other similar styles of mattresses. I decided to use my poor son as the test subject and ordered his from Brooklyn Bedding.
We ordered the medium style in a twin size and it came after a few days. It was interesting to open up the package and have it start self-inflating. Reminded me of some of the mats we use for hiking. Anyway, it seemed to full expand within just a few hours. My son really liked it. I took a few naps on it to test it out and thought it was great.
I’ve ordered a full size for myself and am expecting it to show up tomorrow. I’ve been suffering from various neck and back pain for a while so am thinking this might actually help with some of that.
Thanks again for all the info from all the others who post here and especially to Phoenix for all his valuable information!
Hi wsp2,
Welcome … I’m glad you found us and that the site could help you…
Thanks for taking the time to share your comments and feedback about your son’s mattress … and congratulations on both of your mattresses as well.
You certainly made some great quality/value choices.
Phoenix
My boyfriend and I recently moved to a new apartment and we were in need of a new bed. We decided to purchase #TheBestMattressEver and so far we love it! It was so much fun unwrapping our mattress from the box it fit in. We’ve only been sleeping on it for a week or so, but will give an update soon!
Hi Jmoreno4389,
Thanks for the update … and congratulations on your new mattress
You certainly made a great quality/value choice and I’m looking forward to any additional comments and updates you have the chance to share.
Phoenix
Since I relied so much on this site to make my decisions, I thought I would add my experience to the record.
Because we were rarely sleeping through the night, my wife and I decided to get rid of our 2 and 1/2 year old queen size mattress with a very quicksand-like memory foam top layer (Comfort Revolution 14" from Costco…), and move to something else in a king. After reading and considering the huge amount of info on this site, as well as our budget, we began ordering. I had to start completely from scratch because we didn’t have any furniture or accessories for a king.
-
Brooklyn Bedding BME in medium firmness
Excellent company and very helpful in the process - webchat on their site as well as prompt email response. Ordered on a Tuesday and mattress was at our house in Texas by Friday. -
Mantua/Sealy Posturepedic Bed Frame from Zoro Tools Mantua SP66G $127.05 Bed Frame, Cap. 500 lb., Std King, 76 In. | Zoro.com
Best price I found for this (thanks again to this site) and very quick shipping - also note that the 500-lb limit listed for this item is incorrect, as verified with Mantua office - at least 1000 pound limit -
Knock-Down wood foundation from Arizona Premium Mattress (Mattresses.Net)
Brooklyn Bedding recommended a folding metal foundation sold by sister company DreamFoam and also available elsewhere online, but I wanted to go with wood - I imagine either option would work fine - at very similar price.
Also note that the Mattresses.net website uses photos and assembly instructions that look very very very similar to a VersiFlex on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/VersiFlex®-Mattress-Boxspring-Foundation-mattresses/dp/B002AHT94Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1437773029&sr=1-1) When I mentioned this to Arizona Mattress, the owner replied that he used to buy and sell the VersiFlex but designed his new foundation to overcome “shortcomings…” The slats on the Arizona version are about 2 1/2" apart and use 1 x 3 boards. (Amazon does not list the slat distance or size for the VersiFlex, and I didn’t find any consistent answer in the reviews.) -
Luna Premium Hypoallergenic Waterproof Mattress Protector, purchased via Amazon
we are having no problem with sleeping hot so far, and don’t feel or hear any plastic. -
Sheets from Charles Rogers website: 400 Thread Count Supima Cotton Sheets | Charles P. Rogers®
We had the queen version of these sheets previously and like the soft feel and wear
We had a couple of glitches in the process, but remarkably excellent customer service has smoothed those over: the mattress arrived first, and because we ordered the foundation during the one week of the year that Arizona Mattress closes down for vacation, the foundation was the last thing to arrive - 10 days after the mattress got here. Since I didn’t want to open the mattress in a room on the opposite side of the house and then wrangle it to our bedroom when the rest of the stuff got here and got set up, I used the online chat to ask Brooklyn if there was a need to open the mattress immediately. I was told it would not hurt to leave it in the box until we were ready for it. I have no idea how long these mattresses sit compressed in the factory before being shipped, but when I finally did open the mattress, it did not expand all the way. After 48 hours, the mattress was still curled up on the sides (even though it comes rolled end-to-end) and it was clear that the top latex layers had not expanded to fill in the cover. I sent photos to Brooklyn Bedding, and Mario instantly apologized and had a replacement shipped at no cost to me. I contacted him about the problem on Wednesday morning, and it is now Friday afternoon and the replacement mattress is already open and expanding on my bed. In fact, it expanded more fully within 5 minutes of opening than the first one did in 4 days. And apparently, Mario threw in two king shredded latex pillows as well!
I also need to note that even on the faulty, incompletely expanded mattress, we have been sleeping better. Looking forward to testing the fully expanded one tonight.
The KD foundation from Arizona Mattress arrived with a couple of warped boards. One side rail was warped (or damaged in shipping?) so that it didn’t sit squarely in the bed frame, and a couple of the slats were also warped/twisted to the point of rocking up and down. The weight of the mattress seemed to nullify any problem, but I sent photos to Ken Hightower, the owner, and he responded quickly and simply with “That is extremely unusual. Let me know exactly which pieces you need replaced and I’ll have our supplier send them right out.” This morning, I received a notice from UPS saying the replacement pieces are already on the way.
So while it has taken a bit longer than I expected to get this all done, the outstanding customer service from these companies has been very impressive. Rather than my having to ask for complete refunds, I am instead getting everything taken care of promptly and am here on this forum singing their praises. These guys know how to run a business to keep customers happy.
(And while I am at it, I should mention that Costco is going to come pick up the 2 and 1./2 year old mattress and give us a full refund.)
While we are just starting the generous trial sleep period offered by BB and can’t comment too much yet on comfort and sleep quality, I hope this helps some people who are in the decision process.
Thanks to Phoenix and all the others who came before me on this site.
Hi TS Hill Country,
Thanks for taking the time to share your comments and feedback … I appreciate it!
You certainly made a good quality/value choice (with your other components as well) … and congratulations on your new mattress
[quote]2. Mantua/Sealy Posturepedic Bed Frame from Zoro Tools www.zoro.com/mantua-bed-frame-cap-500-lb...in-sp66g/i/G2429427/
Best price I found for this (thanks again to this site) and very quick shipping - also note that the 500-lb limit listed for this item is incorrect, as verified with Mantua office - at least 1000 pound limit[/quote]
They confirmed the higher weight limit to me as well (see post #6 here). It’s a little surprising that Zoro Tools still lists the incorrect limit since it doesn’t work in their favor.
[quote]3. Knock-Down wood foundation from Arizona Premium Mattress (Mattresses.Net)
Brooklyn Bedding recommended a folding metal foundation sold by sister company DreamFoam and also available elsewhere online, but I wanted to go with wood - I imagine either option would work fine - at very similar price.
Also note that the Mattresses.net website uses photos and assembly instructions that look very very very similar to a VersiFlex on Amazon (www.amazon.com/VersiFlex®-Mattress-Boxsp...id=1437773029&sr=1-1) When I mentioned this to Arizona Mattress, the owner replied that he used to buy and sell the VersiFlex but designed his new foundation to overcome “shortcomings…” The slats on the Arizona version are about 2 1/2" apart and use 1 x 3 boards. (Amazon does not list the slat distance or size for the VersiFlex, and I didn’t find any consistent answer in the reviews.)[/quote]
They are a similar design to the VersiFlex and some of the other KD foundations that are made by other manufacturers as well but the Versiflex and most of the other KD foundations have wider gaps in between the slats (see the foundation post here … and in the case of the Versiflex they are about 4" or more) that wouldn’t be as supportive which is why they decided to manufacture their own design since they sell many all latex mattresses where the distance between the slats is more important and should be 3" ot less.
[quote] I have no idea how long these mattresses sit compressed in the factory before being shipped, but when I finally did open the mattress, it did not expand all the way. After 48 hours, the mattress was still curled up on the sides (even though it comes rolled end-to-end) and it was clear that the top latex layers had not expanded to fill in the cover. I sent photos to Brooklyn Bedding, and Mario instantly apologized and had a replacement shipped at no cost to me. I contacted him about the problem on Wednesday morning, and it is now Friday afternoon and the replacement mattress is already open and expanding on my bed. In fact, it expanded more fully within 5 minutes of opening than the first one did in 4 days. And apparently, Mario threw in two king shredded latex pillows as well!
I also need to note that even on the faulty, incompletely expanded mattress, we have been sleeping better. Looking forward to testing the fully expanded one tonight.[/quote]
They compress their mattresses shortly before shipping them so they don’t sit in a warehouse compressed for weeks at a time.
When I asked them about this (because a few people had mentioned it on the forum) they told me that they did discover an issue with their gluing and compression process that affected about 3 - 4% of the mattresses they manufactured on some of their production runs which is the reason that a few of their mattresses didn’t fully expand (and these would be replaced as soon as they became aware of a customer that received one of these). Once they identified the cause of the issue they of course corrected it right away so that there shouldn’t be any further issues with their mattresses not fully expanding.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences in such great detail and I’m looking forward to any additional updates once you have the chance to sleep on your mattress for a bit longer.
Phoenix
Have the exact same issue. Slats are visible on either sides. Will wait a couple of days and contact Brooklyn Bedding.
Hi leol,
I’m not sure when you opened your mattress but it could have been one of the 3 - 4% that was affected by the gluing/compression issue I mentioned in my last reply so if it’s still outside of their standard sizing (see post #2 here) after a week or so (if you just received it recently) then I would certainly contact them.
Phoenix
[quote=“Phoenix” post=54803]Hi leol,
I’m not sure when you opened your mattress but it could have been one of the 3 - 4% that was affected by the gluing/compression issue I mentioned in my last reply so if it’s still outside of their standard sizing (see post #2 here) after a week or so (if you just received it recently) then I would certainly contact them.
Phoenix[/quote]
I received the mattress three days back and placed it on a bed two days back.
Hi leol,
As you mentioned in your earlier reply … I would probably give it a couple more days and then if it hasn’t reached it’s full dimensions I would give them a call.
Phoenix
Reporting on the BB-BME, Medium, Cal King, ordered on July 4th.
Two weeks have passed now with the mattress. This is a good mattress overall with no major complaints on how it sleeps. Love the plush cover of this mattress and it’s got excellent bounce which I guess is a characteristic having Latex in the top layers. What a treat if you are coming from a slow-reacting foam mattress!
However some minor complaints are noted including the more serious “failure to expand to size” problem.
Odor/Outgassing:
Slight odor was detected right after inflation from the box. It didn’t bother me since I could barely detect it with my nose but it did bother my wife. I solved this problem quickly though by opening all windows in the room and placing a high-velocity fan (set at maximum speed) to blow air continuously right over the mattress for 14 straight hours forcing air throughout the room. BTW the mattress was taken out of its plastic wrapping in the morning and used on the same night. Odor was gone by night time and my “sensitive” wife could barely detect any.
Sleep Comfort
I am a side sleeper, the wife is a back sleeper. Wife found the mattress perfect for her sleeping style (so far) but I wish it was a tad softer for me. Although the cotton cover is first class, I wish the soft material right under it was a tad thicker. I found myself thinking that if it had it been 0.5 inch thicker it might have “hit the spot” for my side sleeping as well.
Size
A Cal King mattress should measure 72 x 84 but after 2 weeks of sleeping on this mattress it measured only 70 x 83. That amount of shortfall in size makes the slats of the base frame difficult to hide even after the covers are on. The strange thing is that this mattress is visibly NOT RECTANGULAR and if you measure it at its center it comes much closer to the size it should be. There is definitely something with this mattress that BB needs to figure out in regards to inflation/size. By comparison, a cheaper COSTCO foam mattress I had bought from COSTCO a few months ago measured less than 1/2 inch off of the stated specification within 2 days of inflation.
The size problem is by far our biggest complain with this mattress so far. At this moment our plan is to stay with it for at least 60 days monitoring both the size and the quality of our sleep before we make a final decision.
Reporting back-
I received my BB King medium Mattress on thursday 7/23/15, Approximately a week from the date of order. I have it placed on a king size bed frame from amazon.
I will quickly mention this bedframe is great! cheap, solid, and extremely easy to put together, and disassemble to move if needed.
so I have been sleeping on the king medium now 3 nights as of this post and heres what I can report from my personal experience.
The box it comes in is a great size for moving around, however it is surprisingly heavy. Not a bad thing, but I do suggest most people should get help moving it around so you don’t hurt yourself.
Unpacking basically place it on the bed frame you intend it to be on, and peel off the vacuum wrapper until you see just the mattress in the heavy duty plastic. spin it, slide it, into position and carefully tear open the plastic. It quickly expands and is quite large and heavy so have it as close to position as possible.
neither of us noticed any smell after unwrapping…
By day 3 it still has not reached full width approximately 3-4 inches shy of filling the full width of the king bed frame. And about an inch or so in length. I have however noticed as the days go by it has expanded slightly more.
sleeping experience: Well, coming from a memory foam bed with a memory foam topper.
This one - https://www.amazon.com/Density-Elastic-Memory-Foam-Mattress/dp/B004AR5X92/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1437937154&sr=1-1&keywords=memory+foam+topper
The latex mattress is certainly a new experience. More Supportive is the right word, consistent in pressure as a good description. Doesn’t seem to get hot or change in pressure applied against you no matter how long you lay on it, coming from what we had thats a good thing. , and the side support doesn’t seem to be an issue, at least for me.
The drawbacks, well motion transfer seems to be issue number 1. since ive been with my fiancee we have always had a memory foam mattress. I have shoulder and neck injuries and do apparently toss and turn a bit at night to get comfortable. That was never an issue on memory foam, on this however it has become a problem for us. Obviously the new material is going to take some getting used to but the degree of this issue is something we didn’t think about,
The supportive nature of the mattress along with its slight “bounciness” of being latex is nice, but lay in one position too long and i started to feel almost sore, almost forcing me to move again and put the constant pressure on another part of the body. The movement going from back to side causes the motion transfer.
So night 2, we decided to try the queen size memory foam topper from the old bed and put it on the new one. Well, ill say this…it did significantly decrease motion transfer which was nice. Not to zero like the old bed but MUCH better… and seemed to relieve some of the pressure point problems. the woman was happy as well and as well as on night 3, we both woke up happy and refreshed. No heat retention problems with the topper either. I do realize this defeats alot of the purpose of this mattress, but it is great quality, it does do everything its suppose to, its just very different and this remedy seemed to help us dramatically.
I will also reiterate the mattress , going into night 4 still hasnt reached full king size, which is someone disappointing, but ill continue to be patient and see what happens in a week or so. We also do plan to order the correct size memory foam mattress topper for the king.
Hi Lower_Back_Pain and billynath1,
Thanks to both of you for the detailed comments and feedback about your mattresses … I appreciate it :).
[quote]The drawbacks, well motion transfer seems to be issue number 1. since ive been with my fiancee we have always had a memory foam mattress. I have shoulder and neck injuries and do apparently toss and turn a bit at night to get comfortable. That was never an issue on memory foam, on this however it has become a problem for us. Obviously the new material is going to take some getting used to but the degree of this issue is something we didn’t think about,
The supportive nature of the mattress along with its slight “bounciness” of being latex is nice, but lay in one position too long and i started to feel almost sore, almost forcing me to move again and put the constant pressure on another part of the body. The movement going from back to side causes the motion transfer.
So night 2, we decided to try the queen size memory foam topper from the old bed and put it on the new one. Well, ill say this…it did significantly decrease motion transfer which was nice. Not to zero like the old bed but MUCH better… and seemed to relieve some of the pressure point problems. the woman was happy as well and as well as on night 3, we both woke up happy and refreshed. No heat retention problems with the topper either. I do realize this defeats alot of the purpose of this mattress, but it is great quality, it does do everything its suppose to, its just very different and this remedy seemed to help us dramatically.[/quote]
As you probably know from your reading here … memory foam is the most motion isolating of all the foam materials and would generally be considered to be “excellent” but latex is also “good” at motion isolation and for most people this wouldn’t be an issue but of course this is always relative to each person and what they are used to so this is one of the advantages of a good trial period so you can see if it’s “motion isolating enough” for your own specific circumstances or whether the advantages of latex are “worth” any additional motion transfer compared to memory foam.
The most important goal of a mattress is that you sleep well on it and that it is a good match for you in terms of support/alignment, comfort/pressure relief and all the other preferences that are important to you regardless of the materials inside it or the individual components of a sleeping system so if adding a memory foam topper to a mattress works better for you then I certainly don’t think that it would defeat the purpose of the mattress.
[quote]The size problem is by far our biggest complain with this mattress so far. At this moment our plan is to stay with it for at least 60 days monitoring both the size and the quality of our sleep before we make a final decision.
I will also reiterate the mattress , going into night 4 still hasnt reached full king size, which is someone disappointing, but ill continue to be patient and see what happens in a week or so. We also do plan to order the correct size memory foam mattress topper for the king. [/quote]
They have identified and corrected the reason that a few of their mattresses weren’t expanding to their full size (see the end of post #116 here) so if your mattresses haven’t reached full size after about a week or so then I would definitely give them a call.
Phoenix
Instead of putting the bed in the floor I bought a frame like the one in the photo. They must have fixe whatever the issue was cause I opened my mattress and it expended really fast I mean within 10-15 minutes. I measured the frame and it was just at 60 inches the mattress came out at 57 inches wide and ended up right at about 59 after about 3 days. I talked to the guys on chat the day it came cause delivery was super fast it shipped out the same day I ordered it and was at my house two days later #awesome. My bed is firm but not too firm, with good edge support and is heavy. Feels really well built I originally chatted to thank them for the super fast delivery but also to ask if I could sleep on the mattress the same night they said that the pressure on the mattress is good to help it expanded and and to keep in mind the mattress will continue to get firmer as it expanded. Overall I am really happy. I have already referred some friends and family, apparently they now offer some type of referral program so I will have to find out what that is all about. The mattress and the service is especially great. Hope to see this forum continue to help others for years and years.