First, thank you for the site. It is extremely helpful.
My wife and I need a new mattress now that our Sealy posturepedic has begun to give out in the middle after only two years. We’d like something to last a little longer, but intend to buy something inexpensive. We’ve narrowed our search down to two mattresses, and we’re wondering if you could weigh in.
Dreamfoam bedding ultimate dreams. I know you’ve talked about it and recommended it before. We’re not crazy about buying something we’ve never tried, but everyone seems to love this mattress and we think the 6 comfort level sounds about right. I’m 6’3" 210 and my wife is 5’4" 110 and we both sleep on our sides. We tend to like firm when given a choice in innersprings, but that may be due to the fact that “plush” seems to mean incredibly soft these days. The poly foam base seems to be a good density, but would the 1.5" reflex foam be likely to wear out in a year or two?
Eclipse Chalfonte. You’ve mentioned Eclipse as being something of a quality manufacturer, I believe. This innerspring mattress feels comfortable in the store and costs $200 less than the dreamfoam. It seems like it may be better constructed than our Sealy, so perhaps it would last longer than two years.
We like the idea of going latex, but would only pay the extra money for the bed we haven’t tested if it really seems likely to last longer and be more comfortable.
Thank you again for this excellent site. We really appreciate any counsel you have to offer.
No … this is a quilting foam which means it is already very soft so further softening will have little effect on the mattress. If it was thicker and was “holding something up” rather than being designed to “go through it” it could be a different story. This is why an inch or so of quilting foam is not an issue but with thicker layers or with firmer polyfoam, then softening will have more of an effect. It is also pre-compressed in the quilting which adds to the durability as well.
Yes … they can have “better than average” value but to find out if this is one that has, you would need to know the specs of the mattress and then compare it to other similar mattresses. If the price is that low then the odds are very good that the polyfoam over the springs is low density/quality but knowing all the specs is the only way to know for sure. If it is very low quality polyfoam … it may not even last for two years depending on the effect that foam softening will have on your alignment. There was a post earlier today from someone who had purchased a Sealy pillowtop and just the initial softening of the thicker polyfoam that all foam goes through over the first 90 days or so was enough to put them out of alignment (that mattress was probably “barely OK” for alignment when it was new and the initial softening put them on the other side of the line for support).
Good quality latex will last longer than any other foam. As far as comfort … that will depend on the softness/firmness of the layers in the mattress (particularly the upper layers) more than the material itself although latex also has many advantages over polyfoam comfort layers in terms of performance and in particular pressure relief (it conforms to the body shape better than polyfoam and will distribute pressure better).