Budget mattress or mattress surgery?

[phoenix]

Hi sdmrk,

Unfortunately … as you probably know from reading here … your situation with a denied warranty claim because of foam softening and the loss of comfort and support without impressions deep enough to trigger a warranty exchange is fairly common.

So I’m looking for options. The mattress budget was spent two years ago, but maybe I can invest another $500 if it helps with the sleeping and lower back pain. It seems the custom shops often referenced here start at around $1000 so I haven’t tried them. I’m wondering if there is a decent new mattress in this range or, after reading a couple accounts here, whether I should operate on the almost-new Sealy.

Many of the manufacturers and retailers mentioned on the site either in the membership or in many of the lists from around the country have mattresses that range from the lowest budget range to the premium budget ranges so I certainly wouldn’t make the “$1000 and up” assumption.

Doing mattress surgery can be an interesting project but can also involve some time, experimentation and trial and error along with some costs (higher costs if you make choices that aren’t suitable for you) depending on what materials you use to replace the foam in your mattress and on whether you buy a new cover to replace the one you will need to cut open. Whether you are up for the challenges that may be involved is something that only each person can answer but it may be worthwhile at least opening up your mattress so see what is inside it and then deciding whether you want to proceed. Since the springs in your mattress are likely to still be OK … mattress surgery lets you put more of your money into the comfort layers and possibly a new cover but the risk is that if you were to buy a more costly foam layer and it doesn’t work out for you then you would need to buy another one if you can’t return it and the costs can end up higher than if you purchase a new mattress in the first place.

For the buying option, I feel like I need to avoid Sealy etc., so I visited Ikea. The “high-resilience” poly foam Favang ($329 queen) felt pretty good but their twin demo was on a springy wood slat base so it might feel too hard on my waterbed “platform.” The latex Elsfjord ($499) was okay but I liked the feel of the innerspring Hogla ($479) better–they had that on a platform already. I did not notice the thinner, cheaper innerspring Hanestad ($249) while I was there and wonder if it would be just as good; the ability to take it home rolled up is attractive (no free delivery from Ikea).

You can see some of my comments about some of the Ikea mattresses in post #3 here.

Only you can decide from your testing how suitable they may be in terms of PPP (posture andalignment, pressure relief, and personal preferences) but I can certainly make a few comments about the quality of the materials in the ones you mentioned that aren’t included in the post I linked.

SULTAN FAVANG:

The polyfoam in this is good quality (2.2 lbs) although the rest of the materials are lower quality (polyester fibers etc) but for a mattress in this price range I would consider it good value (as long as it works well for you). I would try this mattress on the floor or on a firm base because with a mattress this thin you would probably notice a difference if you used it on a firm non flexing platform, slats, or foundation (or at least buy it with the base you found was comfortable as long as it fits in your bed)

SULTAN HOGLA

This only has 1.5 lb density foam in the top layer (and I would want to know the thickness of the polyfoam) which is low quality for a one sided mattress but it’s also in a lower budget range so for those where durability wasn’t as big an issue it could make a reasonable choice although even the Sultan Holmsta which includes some latex in the comfort layers (although I also don’t consider this to be one of the better Ikea choices either and the thickness of the layers aren’t disclosed) may be a better choice yet.

SULTAN HANESTAD

Again they don’t disclose the thickness of the polyfoam or any specifics about the coil gauge (only the coil count) but it may also be worth considering as a “throwaway” mattress where durability isn’t a real issue.

Open to other vendors/options including airbeds or waterbeds (not a memory foam fan). Any thoughts appreciated!

It may be worth looking at Dreamfoam on Amazon which has some low cost innerspring options (including an innerspring/latex hybrid).

Some of the better options and possibilities in the San Diego area are listed in post #2 here and if you call them some of these and let them know your criteria some of them may also have some low budget options available that would be worth testing as well.

Phoenix