Dormeo Vitality - our experience and plead for help

[phoenix]

Hi WearyMattress,

Are we destined to change mattress layers every 3 months if we are this sensitive? Are there any materials that hold their firmness longer? It seems the top layer is the problem. I’ve never had a top layer in any bed hold up it’s firmness longer than a year.

While all materials will soften to some degree over time … some are also much more durable than others and the softening and breakdown will happen much more slowly. There is more about the many variables that can affect durability and the useful life of a mattress relative to different people in post #4 here and the posts it links to. One of the links is post #2 here which talks about the effect of foam softening on people who are more sensitive.

The biggest issue with most of the mainstream mattresses today is the use of lower quality materials in the upper layers of the mattress which in almost all cases is the weakest link of a mattress because a mattress will tend to soften and break down from the top down. The loss of firmness vs the loss of height is the reason that most people need to replace a mattress and is the reason that mattress warranties are more about marketing than about the useful life of a mattress (see post #174 here).

The way to avoid this to the extent possible is to make sure you know the specifics of all the materials inside any mattress you purchase (see this article) so you can confirm that the mattress doesn’t have any lower quality materials or weak links in the design. This is also the main reason that I suggest avoiding all the major brands because almost all their mattresses use lower quality materials in the upper layers (see the guidelines here).

Am I a hopeless case? Should we resort to building our own and making sure we can replace the top layer every 3 to 6 months or is there really a material that actually remains as strong as it was when new for even 6 months? I don’t care if it visually bounces back to where it was, it’s the amount of pressure it takes to depress the material that changes so quickly. We are disappointed and ready to sleep on the floor, which won’t provide a decent night sleep. We’ve tried extra firm mattresses and it was like sleeping on a rock and caused other areas of our bodies to hurt. We paid $1659 for the Dormeo Vitality king mattress and $400 for the bases. Total was $2059 + tax (included free pad). It wasn’t a bad price campared to many other alternatives, but a complete waste it seems. I hate mattresses! They are too expensive of an item to have to replace every year. HELP if anyone can!

Outside of making sure that any mattress you purchase uses all higher quality and more durable materials (for example the top layer of the Dormeo you purchased is 3 lb memory foam which is a lower quality/density memory foam) … there are also many manufacturers that make component mattresses which use a zip cover and allow you to replace some or all of the layers or components if they soften or break down before the other layers or if your needs and preferences change over time. If you focus on mattresses that use higher quality and durable materials, have a component design with replaceable layers, and are also closer to the middle of your ideal comfort/support range (so that even the slightest amount of foam softening doesn’t put you outside your ideal range) then you will have the best possible chance of buying a mattress that will not only be suitable for you in terms of PPP when it is new but will last you for much longer and provide you with options to replace individual layers if necessary rather than replacing the complete mattress.

Wife and I recently bought a Dormeo Vitality king mattress from Mattress Warehouse in the Akron, Ohio area (around Sept/Oct. 2014).

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Cleveland/Akron area (subject to the guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.

The mattress shopping tutorial (which is the best place to start your mattress research) also includes several links to lists of the better online options I’m aware of as well.

Phoenix