This risk can be significantly reduced by local testing on latex layers of different types and firmness levels that would āapproximateā your sleeping system.
Because of the use of too much lower density and āsuspectā polyfoam in the all important upper layers (which are the weak link of a mattress). The more of this material there is (and pillowtops and eurotops generally contain more of this type of foam) the greater your risk of early softening and failure. Itās the same reason your other mattresses have only provided you with comfort and support for only a few years. Once you have 2" or more of either unknown or lower density polyfoam (or memory foam) in the comfort layers ā¦ you are in very risky territory. More increases the risk further.
If my research into Stearns is correct they have 5 levels in most lines:
Ultra Firm-stands on itās own
Plush tight top
Firm tight top
Plush Euro pillow
Frirm Euro pillow
The only difference between like rated tight and Euro tops is how the fabric is pulled tight or left loose in pillow form. Same contents.
I donāt see how trying a single piece of foam out on a hard floor or odd mattress will help. Donāt get me wrong here, I want to be helped here and youāve been a great help, I just donāt see how a guy can trust a variable so huge as mattress selection under a topper nor mattress topper for over a mattress.
Being able to do any meaningful research into these mattresses is the biggest issue as you can see in these guidelines. They donāt disclose the quality of the materials they use in their mattresses so meaningful research isnāt possible. You are basically buying the equivalent of particle board under a veneer instead of real wood and paying even more than real wood prices. It may feel and perform the same as higher quality materials initially (just like particle board furniture has the same functions as wood furniture) ā¦ it just wonāt last as long as better materials. When you buy into their description of āqualityā ā¦ you are buying a marketing story without any way to validate the information. If you do have the ability to validate it (through for example other people taking apart their mattresses and weighing out the foam or through talking with people who know the quality of the materials they use through past experience or knowledge) ā¦ you will find that the weak links explains the āfailureā of these types of mattresses that are so common everywhere.
The ālevelā doesnāt matter except to the degree that pillowtops and eurotops have even more of the lower quality materials that will soften and degrade than the less costly and firmer models that use less of this material. Thicker layers of cheap lower quality polyfoam are more risky than thinner layers of the same foam. The softening of thinner layers has less effect on the mattress as a whole. The same low quality foam can also come in firmer and softer versions and firmer versions are also more durable than softer layers of the same material but both firm and soft lower quality materials will soften faster than higher quality materials.
Adding your own comfort layers is far less risky from many levels. If you use higher quality materials in the upper layers of your sleeping system it will last longer in the first place. It will also extend the life of the lower quality layers underneath it. Finally, you will have the ability to replace the layer that is the biggest cause of softening and loss of comfort and support without having to replace the entire mattress.
Comfort/pressure relief is what you feel when you first lie on a mattress. This is mostly about the upper layers.
Support/alignment is what you feel when you wake up in the morning either with or without the discomfort and pain that can come from sleeping out of alignment. This is mostly about the deeper support layers.
Quality/value can only be known by knowing the specific quality (type of foam and its density in the case of polyfoam or memory foam) of all the materials in your mattress and this will determine how the mattress will feel in months or years down the road. You canāt feel quality. Both low and high quality materials can feel identical in a showroom and they both come in soft and firm versions. The only difference is that lower quality materials wonāt keep their original properties for nearly as long. The mattresses you have been buying that havenāt lasted all have the same issues ā¦ low quality materials in the upper layers of the mattress that have softened and degraded to the point where you lost either comfort or support.
Unlike most other people ā¦ you have been fortunate that they broke down faster than most (probably because of your higher weight) so the permanent impressions were outside of the warranty exclusions. Most warranty claims are denied because they arenāt outside of these exclusions and the loss of comfort and support by itself without permanent unweighted impressions is not covered by a warranty.
So you are buying the very type of mattress that is one of the primary reasons this site exists to warn people about. If you know the quality of the materials in your mattress ā¦ you can avoid the types of choices that you have made in the past where a mattress feels great initially and for a while ā¦ only to soften or degrade much too quickly and where the price you paid is much higher than mattresses that use much higher quality materials that are more durable and will last longer.
I donāt see how trying a single piece of foam out on a hard floor or odd mattress will help. Donāt get me wrong here, I want to be helped here and youāve been a great help, I just donāt see how a guy can trust a variable so huge as mattress selection under a topper nor mattress topper for over a mattress.
With some testing on mattresses that have known materials and layers along with the help of someone with the knowledge and experience to help you make good choices and some general guidelines about the types of thickness and softness that is generally appropriate for someone of your body type and sleeping positions ā¦ you can certainly come close enough that the risks are far less than the risks and costs involved in the directions you are looking.
So shifting gears what do you think of this recipe:
Stearns & Foster Mattress
Comfort: Firm TT
Comfort Level: 2.0
Mattress level 3
Mattress Top Down
Quilt: FR Fiber
High Loft Fiber; .5" High Performance Foam, .5 High Performancce Foam
Comfort Layers: 1.57" Smart Latex;
Core: 8.75" Smart Latex
Edge System: Interlock Support system
Box Spring: LTD ā¢
Box Spring Height: 9" or Low Profile: 5 1/2"
Mattress Height: 12 3/4"
Only 1" of the non latex stuff and that is in the quilting where it should do minimal harm. I guess the only real question then is how good is the latex?
The Villa firm is a mattress I have suggested several times for those who are ātrappedā in situations like yours and forced to consider a Stearns & Foster. You can see examples in post #66 here and in post #6 here. The same principles (finding a firm mattress with less polyfoam) are the basis for the suggestions in post #4 here.
All of these were in circumstances similar to yours.
The latex is mostly synthetic Dunlop which is the lowest cost and quality version of latex but it is still a better material than lower density polyfoam. You can read about some of the different types of latex in this article along with post #6 here.
While I would never buy a Stearns & Foster latex mattress because they are poor value (like all major brand mattresses) compared to much better quality versions of latex mattresses which are available at much lower prices ā¦ if you are forced to do so because of an exchange then at least the Villa is the best of some bad choices.
I donāt know and there isnāt any information that came up with a search.
I would probably suggest calling Sealy/Stearns & Foster, the retailer it was originally purchased from, or a retailer that may be more knowledgeable about their older models or alternative names it went by (such as www.themattressexpert.com/ or www.gotomattress.com/)
Still canāt get to the sealy/stearns web site. I get redirected to sealy canada. Sealy canada sent me a phone number with automated answer that gets me nowhere without a valid extension and a defunct email address. If you could post sealy US phone would be appreciated.
Sealy Company Headquarters
Attn: Consumer Support
One Office Parkway at Sealy Dr
Trinity, NC 27370
Still canāt get to the sealy/stearns web site. I get redirected to sealy canada.
That really is bizarre. Have you tried deleting all your āSealyā cookies and clearing your browser cache?
A google search on ādisable automatic browser re-directionā may also be useful but thatās about the end of my technical knowledge that may help solve this.
Post #4 here has a lost of many of the better topper sources Iām aware of.
Well 2 weeks have passed. The initial āno problemā from my go-to dealer has become a string along, but now today FINALLY the rep send him the warranty claim packet. So now we strip the bed, take the pics with the ruler, pics of the tags, pics of teh foundation, pics of the frame, spend an hour breaking down and rebuilding the bed. Itās not so much the money itās the principle. At this point Iām so gunshy and unsure which way to go other than to stuff this beachside sideway up the Seal Repāsā¦
So today I called the manager. The guy that I dealt with last time. I asked him politely yet forcefully to just get me an answer so I can choose a direction.
One thing that I discovered is that the tag on the Beachside states
90% latex foam
8% poly foam
2% man made fiber (rayon/visil)
So after reading another post here where a similar situation came up and the poster performed surgery on his mattress I may just follow suit if I get screwed hereā¦
My partner has had a flu bug so we have not ben able to get to Verlo together just yet.
The law tag lists the materials by weight but because latex weighs much more than polyfoam the percentage of polyfoam based on layer thickness is much more. The Beachside specs are in post #12 here and as you can see it has 3" of polyfoam in the comfort layers which is closer to 25% of the mattress thickness vs 8% of the weight (the type of polyfoam they use is about 1/3 the density of most Dunlop latex).
I am very curious about how your exchange will turn out. In most cases ā¦ warranty exchanges end up being denied because the unweighted impressions are not more than the warranty exclusion (usually 1.5" or more) or because of other exclusions that void the warranty (such as a small stain on the mattress). You have been āfortunateā so far and hopefully you will be this time as well.
At this point I have zero interest a national brand mattress. Iām in round #2 of warranty battle over the Stearns and Foster set that I bought back around 2004. As a replacement I made the mistake of trying Sealyās Latex spring free Beachside which is now 3 yrs old and sunken. Sealy and/or Mall Furniture have been running me around since Dec13. I stripped the bed and took pictures, sent to Mall as instructed. The pics that best highlighted the impressions were with mattress pad. They then requested pics of the mattress surface itself so I stripped it again and obliged. Next they FINALLY sent me the warranty application with instructions to do it all over again so they had pics of the frame etc and the ruler pics so I stripped it again. NOW Sealy has sent a measuring ātoolā and someone from Mall will be stopping out at some point when they can get it scheduled. We are past week 3 at this point. At this point itās not about the money itās the principleā¦
Well itās been just over a month now and I finally got the word that the dealer will be coming to measure with the special ābarā from Sealy.
What puzzles me is this statement:
āThen it is up to Sealy to decide if the mattress has impressions or a warranty sag.ā
So if I have a 1.5" āimpressionā itās not covered, but a 1.5" sag is?
Weāll see how Sealy plays this. I know that ultimately it is Sealyās discretion, but I also know that the dealer can play a key role and Iām not geting the same feeling of support that I did last time.
I āthinkā what they may mean is that their terminology for an impression is anything less than 1.5" and āwarranty sagā is anything 1.5" or more. So if you have a sag of 1.4999" itās an impression which is ānormalā but if itās 1.5" itās a warranty issue ā¦ as long as none of the other exclusions kick in (such as a watermark or tiny stain on the mattress or something with the foundation or support).
The request was for 1pm. Not sure if that is convenience or coincidental time to allow the mattress to recover, but weāre home all day here and know what to do
Well the dealer was here with āthe barā and we took pics showing the sag. Setting the bar the one direction was pretty close. This was perpendicular to the side. Turning the bar so that the outer end was closer to the head of teh bed made a big difference as the outside edge is sagging somewhat as well.
So I got the āweāll get ahold of the rep and it will be based on what you paid for the mattress itselfā spiel
Now to me thatās crap. I bought a premium mattress with a premium warranty and now they plan to look at what it cost? I told him my that if this was a level R then I wanted to know what a level R series was and thatās what I wanted. A matress warranty should be just like replacement value insurance coverage. Replace with like model quality and if the price went up so whatā¦
