Hi sqls,
Thanks for the feedback about Tulsa Mattress. I included them in the list because they carried Golden and I hadn’t talked with them but they clearly don’t belong there and I’ve removed them from the list.
With the Lady Americana … knowing the quality of the materials they use depends on knowing the thickness of all the layers, the density of any polyfoam and memory foam they use in each layer, and the type and quality of any latex.
You can see a little more about the information you would need and an analysis of a couple of the Lady Americana mattresses (made by Bowles Mattress) in post #2 here and some thoughts about one of the mattresses in the Silver series in post #1 and #2 here.
When a consumer needs to track down information about a mattress by emailing the manufacturer … it means that the salesperson you are dealing with or the store itself is not doing its job. They should not only be able to provide you with this information without you having to do anything but ask for it, they should also have the knowledge and experience to be able to explain and educate you about what it means and how to use it to compare different mattresses.
Better salespeople, retailers, and manufacturers will already know and be happy to explain what consumers would otherwise have to learn (which can be frustrating, time consuming, and often overwhelming)
Some of the licensee factories of Lady Americana are better than others at providing this information.
Lumbar support usually indicates that the middle third of the mattress has been designed to be firmer to better support the heaviest area of the body (the pelvic girdle) and preventing it from sinking down too far relative to the other areas of the body so that the spine is kept in better alignment. It can be accomplished in different ways including innersprings that are “zoned” to be firmer in the middle area, foam layers that are zoned in the same way, or a layer of firmer or more supportive foam that is used over the innersprings in the middle third of the mattress only (often called a belly band). in the case of Lady Americana, they use both zoned innersprings and a belly band.
Your personal testing will tell you more than “theory” though about how effective a design is in terms of keeping your spine in neutral alignment for your body type and all your sleeping positions.
Phoenix
PS: Here is the layering of the nobility listed on their site layer by layer and the information I would want to know about each layer along with some further comments.
Mattress cover and quilting layers.
Four-way Stretch w/Silk: with silk generally means a very low percentage and the rest of what is in this fabric is missing.
High loft Fiber: This is probably polyester which is subject to breaking down and compressing over time.
1.5" Supersoft foam: This is probably lower density polyfoam and by itself is getting close to the maximum amount of lower density polyfoam I would want in the comfort layers of a mattress. i would want to know the density of the polyfoam
Comfort Layers.
1.5" over .5" Convoluted Super Soft Foam: This means that the peak of the convoluting is 1.5" and the valleys are .5". This produces a layer thickness of 1.5" and the polyfoam density would be very important to know. Convoluted polyfoam is softer than a solid layer and can be less durable because there is less material in the layer.
1.5" over .5" Convoluted Super Soft Foam: Another layer of the same thing and I would want to know the density.
Support System.
5" Talalay Lumbar Support: This is a high quality material but is only used as a very thin layer for a “belly band”.
Mattress Support 704 Individually Encased Coil Unit: This is a pocket coil which would be softer than other types of innerspring and they don’t provide the gauge of the steel. It also uses very firm polyfoam for edge support which can delaminate and soften (again depending on the density) and is a lower cost method of providing a firmer edge than using steel or firmer coils to provide the edge support in a mattress. The support layers of a mattress are not normally the “weak link” of a mattress though and this would not be as significant as the amount of lower quality polyfoam in the upper layers.
Overall … this mattress has 4.5" of supersoft polyfoam in the upper layers and some additional polyester fiber which are all likely to be lower quality materials (probably in the density range of 1.5 lbs which is not great quality polyfoam) and if this turns out to be the case I would personally not consider this mattress because of the risk of early foam softening in a one sided soft mattress that uses this much lower quality polyfoam in the upper layers.
The “simple” version (that is much easier than a more detailed analysis like this and can apply to other mattresses as well) is that once you are at 2" or more lower quality polyfoam in the upper layers of a one sided mattress (1.5 lbs or less) or you see other lower quality materials (such as polyester fiber) in addition to this I would be very cautious about considering the mattress.