comparison + advice needed

Hello - I just stumbled upon this website while mattress shopping - mainly after realizing I did not want to buy from a “big box” store. It seems like Phoenix is the one to direct questions toward, so I hope you can help a little bit!

I am a new mother - of a six month old - so I have just a bit of time on my hands for mattress shopping. My husband and I are 26 and 24 and looking to buy a new mattress. We currently sleep on a cheap, firm Serta that I purchased while in college. It served me well for quite a while, as I was a stomach sleeper due to a horseback riding injury - I have a small compression fracture in one of my thoracic vertebra - about a third of the way down from my neck.

After having a baby, I am now mostly a side sleeper, but sometimes halfway onto my stomach. I am about 135 lbs and 5’8". My husband is a back or side sleeper, 6’2" and 175. He really likes higher end hotel beds - something supportive but very “cushy”. We will be buying a queen size.

I sleep very hot, and have heard that the memory foam tends to be hot, so I have been looking at inner spring. I looked at the Saatva website, and actually almost bought one, but grew a little suspicious after seeing so many glowing reviews and none that were negative. We are looking for something like what they called their “luxury firm”. We’re looking to spend no more than $1500.

As I said, we are located in Maine, so not too many options for local stores. I have looked at the websites of Portland Mattress Makers and Maiden Maine, which you recommend. We are about 2 hours from the Portland area, so I’d like to have an idea to purchase before driving down there.

Can you compare for me the luxury firm from Saatva and what they call the Luxury inner spring from Maiden Maine - the specs are on their website. Do you have any other recommendations for a good, relatively inexpensive “luxury firm” type mattress from an online retailer, with a good trial period?

We are just not sure what we want, and I don’t have too much time to do research. I would appreciate any help you can give!

Hi ahoward,

Most of your questions will be answered in the tutorial post here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices … and know how to avoid the worse ones.

I’m always happy to make some comments about the quality of the materials in a mattress and to help you identify any weak links or make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between them but any “comfort” differences or differences in PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) between them would be too subjective and the mattresses are too different from each other to be able to compare them outside of your own personal side by side testing or sleeping experience (or a more detailed conversation with a manufacturer or retailer that had personal experience with both of them).

There is more information and a very detailed analysis of the Saatva mattresses in post #1 here that may be helpful. A forum search on Saatva (you can just click this) will bring up more information and feedback about them as well.

The Maidenmaine/Daley Bros website list the layers of the Luxury as follows (from bottom to top) …

660 MIRA-COIL™ Spring Unit 15 Ga. Coil Wire
Heavy Duty Comfortlast Fiber Insulator Pad
Highly Resilient 2.6 Lb. High Density Foam
Specially Treated Cotton Felt for Comfort And Fire Resistance
Inner Tufted Construction
2.6 Lb. 27 ILD HR Convoluted Foam
Damask Cover Quilted To 3/4" of Soft Resilient Foam and another layer 3/8"foam

The Mira-Coil innerspring is a continuous coil and is different from the Bonnell Spring used in the Saatva (there is more about the different types of springs in this article and in post #10 here) but both are lower cost innersprings. Having said that … the innerspring of a mattress isn’t generally the weak link of a mattress in terms of durability (the upper or comfort layers will soften or break down faster than the deeper support layers or components) so either one can make a good choice in a mattress as long as the rest of the materials and the mattress design overall is suitable for you in terms of PPP.

Outside of any differences in the innersprings and how that affects the feel and performance of the mattress (based on your testing) … the Maidenmaine luxury uses very high quality and durable foams in the comfort layers (2.6 lb polyfoam which is much higher quality than you will generally find in a mainstream mattress) and there are no weak links in the design or in terms of durability. It certainly appears to be a good quality/value choice that would be well worth considering although the “value” of any mattress purchase will depend on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you. Of course you would still need to do some careful and objective testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post) to make sure it’s a good match for you in terms of PPP because no matter what the quality or value of a mattress if it’s not a suitable match for your body type, sleeping positions, and personal preferences and you don’t sleep well on it it would have little value to you.

Some of the better options or “possibilities” I’m aware of in Maine are in post #2 here.

Phoenix

Thank you, Phoenix. We are thinking about driving to Biddeford to look at the Daly Brothers/Maidenmaine mattresses.

We are also close to Gold Bond and Symbol dealers. Have you looked at the specifications for the Gold Bond Premier Innerspring mattress? How would that compare to the Luxury at Maidenmaine? I am also looking for a Symbol to compare, but their website seems to have many different models. Would the Claiborne, or Grayson, be a good comparison for the Luxury Maidenmaine or Gold Bond Premier Innerspring?

Thanks!

Hi ahoward,

I don’t know the specifications so you would need to get them from the retailer (or Gold Bond) to make any meaningful comparisons.

Most of the larger manufacturers make a wider range of mattresses than they show on their website and it can also vary by store or by region. They also don’t generally include any foam density or more detailed information. Corporate websites usually only provide generic information that doesn’t list all the mattresses they make or the specific details of their mattresses. Once again I would need to know the specs of the specific mattresses you are considering to make any meaningful comments about them.

All of this also wouldn’t say anything about how a mattress would feel for you in terms of PPP (which the quality specs won’t tell you) and of course this is the most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase.

Phoenix