So about a month ago my husband and I bought a Tatami organic latex mattress. We had done a bit of research (or so I had thought - we actually hadn’t found this forum yet) and the reviews for Essentia seemed great and there was a local store in Vancouver so we could go test out the mattress. Our main complaint with our old mattress was it was too soft so we wanted something firmer. Also our old mattress was an IKEA mattress with a Costco foam topper on top of it.
We got to the store and the sales person was nice but not very helpful. He just stood out of the way and let us lie on the different mattresses and didn’t ask any questions about how we slept or back pain or anything like that. He didn’t recommend any of the mattresses - just seemed to want to chit-chat. We tried a few of the mattresses and asked about the firmer ones. We choose the Tatami. Now, I know we are to blame as we probably didn’t do enough research and we didn’t lie on the bed for long enough.
We then had to wait 3 weeks to get our mattress delivered also after having to call the store 3 separate times to get our receipt emailed to us that had the tracking number on it as we ordered the mattress on the phone.
We were so excited to get our new bed!! The first night we got it - we crawled into bed and read for about an hour. My partner started complaining that his bum hurt from just sitting in the bed and then we went to sleep. It was horrible - way too firm - it felt like I was sleeping on the floor. We are both side sleepers by the way. It’s been 3 nights now and it was the worst sleep I’ve ever had. My partner has only slept about 4 hours each night. We finally went and grabbed our old foam topper out of the garage and put it on top of the bed and then we could sleep.
The next softer mattress will cost us another $1,000 plus the exchange fee of $300 (which I didn’t know about - I thought it was just a free return within 90 days).
I have been on this website now and have been looking at other manufactures and I really like Brooklyn Bedding. I have chatted with both Jacob and Mario and they have asked more questions in 5 mins than our sales person at Essentia did in the 40 mins we were in his shop. Jacob and Mario have both recommended the 10" Essence with a medium firmness - well actually Mario suggested the soft firmness. Basically we can get the mattress from Brooklyn Bedding for around the same cost as the one we bought from Essentia and just be out the $300 for the return to Essentia.
I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing by switching companies too soon. Should I spend the extra $1,300 to return our current mattress and get the Classic 8 from Essentia or should we just return that one and go with Brooklyn Bedding. I have a better feeling about Brooklyn Bedding and I love all the great reviews I have seen about them and I really like the customer service. I also like that if the firmness is off we ship back the top layer and they ship us a new one back and it only costs about $100-$200.
You’ve probably read these already but just in case you can read some of my thoughts about Essentia and some forum discussions with them in this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here. The information and claims on their website are misleading IMO and their pricing is certainly not great and they are a manufacturer that I would be very cautious about considering … especially if you don’t want memory foam in your mattress.
If I was in your shoes I would be very cautious about spending an extra $1000 with them and there are probably better local and online options available to you that would have much better “value” for most people. Some of the better options and possibilities in the Vancouver area are listed in post #2 here. I would also make sure that you use the testing guidelines in the tutorial post to do some careful and objective testing for PPP to make sure that any local mattress you consider is more likely to be a good match for you. The tutorial post also has some good online options if that is a direction you are comfortable with (and of course that includes Brooklyn Bedding which are one of the members here and compete well with the best in the industry).
These types of questions are always up to each person and the parts of their personal value equation that are most important to them so it’s really a matter of your “best judgement”. Neither mattress has any “weak links” in terms of the quality of the materials although of course they may be very different in terms of “value”.
I’m not sure of the price that you would be paying for the Essentia Classic 8 but their web prices are more costly than the Essence (not the same) and I would personally be very cautious spending more money with Essentia. I would also keep in mind that the Classic 8 has about 2" of good quality memory foam (which is not a natural or organic material) and a 6" Dunlop latex core (see post #35 here) while the Essence uses a 6" Dunlop core with 3" of natural Talalay latex which is a higher quality and more costly material than memory foam and also has a wool quilted cover which is also a higher quality and more costly cover. As you mentioned it also has the option of exchanging the comfort layer if you need a softer or firmer version and in King size you can also split the comfort layers on each side to customize them to each of your preferences.
Because the Classic 8 has a 2" memory foam comfort layer and the Essence has a 3" Talalay latex comfort layer and a wool quilted cover they will also “feel” different from each other. You can read more about slow response materials like memory foam and fast response materials like latex in post #2 here.
While the parts of each person’s person’s personal value equation that are most important to them can be very different … If it was me and I was choosing between these two options I would certainly be leaning towards Brooklyn Bedding for all the reasons that you’ve mentioned in your post and in my reply.
Thanks so much! We are going to be calling Essentia today to try and return the mattress and I think we are going to go with the Essence mattress at Brooklyn Bedding as well. I’ll let you know how things go.
Also, thanks for the tip about the King size Essence mattress and being able to have 2 different comfort level layers - I think that will be perfect for my husband and I.