I purchased a Orthopedic Ultra Plush mattress from my local OMF about six months, and since purchasing the mattress I’ve been having problems with on and off back/hip pain. The first few months of sleeping on the mattress alone led to some pain in my hips, as there wasn’t enough cushion in the mattress to support my side sleeping. To help relieve the hip pain, I have tried a 2 inch gel memory foam topper and 3 inch 19 ILD Talalay topper from Latex International. The 2 inch memory foam topper didn’t solve the hip pain problem as I sank through it rather quickly, so I returned that. I’ve tried sticking it out with the Talalay topper and find that it comfortable to sleep on; however, I now have on and off pain in my lower back. Given that the Ultra Plush mattress already has about 2" of foam built-in, I think my back pain is arising from sleeping on too much foam/latex.
I’m currently debating what the best resolution would be to solve both the back and hip pain problems. Here are the options I’m weighing.
Keep the current mattress and opt for a 2" Talalay Topper, possibly at a higher ILD (22-24).
Swap the mattress under the OMF comfort exchange for one of their pillow top models. Right now, I’m leaning towards the Regency Euro Top because of cost. The downside here is that I know the life of the mattress would probably cap out around 5-6 years depending on how quickly the foam starts to degrade.
Swap the mattress under the OMF comfort exchange for a firmer model with less foam on top and add the 3 inch latex topper. This seems like the smarter option in terms of durability. However, I’m not sure which of the models would be best and if it will truly solve both of the problems I have had with the first mattress.
Any thoughts on the best way to solve this problem?
That’s a somewhat difficult choice because there are some risks involved with all of your options.
Just to clarify first of all … the knotted offset coil that is used in the Orthopedic line is 6" tall and then there is a cotton layer over the insulator and springs and then the rest is polyfoam (1.5 lb and some layers are higher density in some of their mattresses) so there would be more than 2" of foam on each side of your mattress (yours would probably have about 3" of polyfoam on each side).
The Eurotop would probably have somewhere in the range of 4" of polyfoam on each side.
I don’t know the density of all the foam layers in each of their mattresses so if you can find that out for the mattresses you are considering and post it on the forum it would be helpful to assess the “risk” involved with each choice.
As you know … choosing a topper that is a good match for both you and the mattress you are using it on has some uncertainty and risk involved to find the right type, thickness, and firmness for a topper that will work best for you. If you can’t test the combination in person it can be almost as difficult as choosing a mattress in the first place.
Post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to can help you use your sleeping experience as a reference point to choose a topper that has a reasonable chance of success although only your own sleeping experience can assess for certain whether any mattress/topper combination will be a good match for you in terms of PPP.
Based on your feedback though … it sounds like your 3" topper is just a little bit too thick/soft in combination with your mattress and if you can exchange it I would be tempted to try a slightly thinner topper in the same ILD which would be less risky in terms of alignment. I would decide on whether to choose 19 ILD or 24 ILD based on your weight (higher weights would probably do better with a little bit firmer) and on how you felt sleeping on 19 ILD latex (whether you believe you would be OK with a little bit firmer latex). If you think that you would be OK with one step firmer then this may be a little less risky as well but you will need to decide on this based on “best judgement” and on how you felt about sleeping on the 19 ILD topper.
The most effective way to choose which mattress would be the best exchange would be your own careful and objective testing … preferably using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). I don’t know the specifics of the foam densities or layering in their mattresses but with a 2 sided mattress (that you actually flip on a regular basis) and with 1.5 lb or higher polyfoam I would normally expect this to last longer than 5-6 years. I would be tempted to consider the Orthopedic Premier Super Pillow Top rather than the Eurotop both because it would have less polyfoam and because a pillowtop construction may be a bit softer but again this would depend on the specifics of the materials inside the mattress and on your own careful testing. Whether this option would be a good choice for you would also depend on your confidence that your testing will come close to predicting your own sleeping experience because if you do the exchange then you would be out of any further options … especially if the mattress you exchange for turns out to be too soft.
This would be the most risky of all your choices IMO because you don’t have any reference points for which topper would work well on one of their firmer mattress (and it would depend on which mattress you chose as well) so in some ways you would be starting all over again. This would probably be my least favorite option in your circumstances. The only way I would consider this would be to take your topper into the store and test each mattress with the topper you already have to see which combination was the best match for you and again this would also depend on how confident you were that your testing will come close to predicting your actual sleeping experience.
While the information you provided is fairly limited and there are risks involved with all of your options … based on your feedback with your 3" topper I would be tempted to choose a slightly thinner topper on the mattress you already have.
I think it’s easiest to hit you your points from last to first…
Option #3-I agree this is the riskiest of the choices because there is no guarantee the firmer mattress will remedy the problem. That said, my thinking here is that if I can’t modify the topper (I’m out of a return period there), then it might make sense to modify the foam under the topper. I’m leaning towards two of the firmer options that OMF has (around 1" of polyfoam) and thinking that may interplay a little more like the Eurotop and/or Pillowtop. Either way, I think my problem with the current topper is that I just lack that firm feel underneath and that is what I’m looking to remedy.
Option #2-The Regency I’m looking at is only a one sided mattress, so that is why I’m decreasing the life span a bit. I have considered the ortho super pillow and euro tops, but they are more expensive options and I’m afraid of the hip pain returning once the polyfoam begins to wear down. I like the feel of the Regency and nearly bought it my first go around; however, the mattress has about 4" of polyfoam and the sagging issue is what I always come back to.
Option #1-As I mentioned above I’m already out of the return window for the purchased topper, and have tried to think of way to trim it down. My concern with going this route is cost wise it’s a little more expensive than going with option #3 or option #2. I’m afraid of ending up in a position where I have a 3" and 2" inch topper and then still need to add a newer mattress on top of it. For that reason, I’m leaning toward option 2 a bit just because I could re-decide which mattress is the best fit and ride out what life it provided.
There is more in post #13 here about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase and the most important of all of them is choosing a mattress that is suitable for you in terms of PPP. Everything else would come after this because if a mattress or mattress/topper combination isn’t suitable for you to sleep on then it would have little value to you regardless of durability or price.
So you will need to assess the risk involved with each option and how confident you are that each of them will be a suitable choice. This will also depend on your confidence that careful and objective testing will do a good job of predicting your sleeping experience. When you aren’t confident in a choice then the options you have afterwards will be a much more significant part of the “value” of your choice and the risks involved.
IMO … because you have a reference point with your current mattress and a 3" latex topper that seems to indicate that it is “close” … it seems to me that a slightly thinner topper would have a good chance of success and this would be one of your least risky options in terms of suitability and PPP.
If you are confident in your testing … then option #2 would also be a good choice in terms of suitability. If you aren’t … then you would have limited options available afterwards because you can’t make another exchange so it would become the most risky choice … especially if you chose a mattress that was too soft because it’s not really possible to “firm up” a mattress that is too soft expect partially or temporarily.
Option #3 has more variables involved than the other two so unless you can bring your topper into the showroom and test the combination in person AND you are confident in your testing it would seem to me to be the riskiest choice. If you are confident in your testing and you bring the topper into the showroom then the risks would be the same as #2.
Outside of suitability … there are also an additional set of risks that are related to durability but these would be secondary to suitability.
Assuming for the sake of this part of the comparison that you would make an equally suitable choice with each of them … I would say that option #3 would likely be the most durable followed by option #1. Neither of these are likely to have any weak links in their design (especially if you flip and rotate the base mattress). With option #2 being only one sided (I misread your comments and thought you were looking at the Orthopedic Eurotop in my last reply) whether I would consider this at all would depend entirely on the specifics of the density of the foam layers inside it. If you find out the density of all the layers and it turns out that there are some obvious weak links in the mattress based on the guidelines here … then no matter how suitable it was I would avoid it because of the higher risk of premature foam softening and breakdown and the potential early loss of comfort and support.
Trimming a 3" topper down to 2" would be very difficult and “risky” without specialized equipment but there are some suggestions in post #2 here that may be helpful.