Experimenting in Tennessee. Tips? Suggestions? Recommendations?

[phoenix]

Hi Osborn,

She didn’t really answer my question about experimenting with splitting the middle layer between one or two inches of soft and medium, and she seemed to believe that people spend way too much time researching and making it more complicated than it really is,

I would agree with this. I would tend to avoid having too many possible combinations because it can become overwhelming or in some cases too tempting to make continuous changes to your mattress that may not make any meaningful improvement. For the large majority of people the “standard” layering combinations that a good retailer or manufacturer suggests will likely be inside the range that would be a good “match” in terms of PPP and for a smaller percentage where it isn’t then either rearranging layers or exchanging a layer and testing one or two alternative combinations would generally be “enough” to find a combination that will work well.

Of course having said that there will always be a much smaller minority of people that are very much “outside the averages” where nothing they try with the layers they have available seems to work and with this small percentage of people it can be very difficult to “diagnose” the reasons why and in some cases they may not be able to find a suitable combination or may give up before they do. In some cases it can involve issues that aren’t even related to the mattress itself (such as health or physiological issues or pillow issues for example) or it could be that they are much more sensitive to very small changes and would do best on combinations that aren’t possible with the layer thicknesses and firmnesses that they have available … but these would be the exceptions.

Also, I know that Savvy Rest doesn’t disclose their ILDs, but do you have any information or speculation about them that you would like to share?

As you mentioned they don’t disclose their ILD numbers so I’m not sure how accurate or current they are (this was from when they were using Latex International Talalay) and in the case of their Dunlop the ranges would cover several different firmness levels but the ILD ranges in post #2 here may be helpful.

I’m wondering if I should talk to more dealers, or if I should just stick with Val’s recommendation.

Which retailers or manufacturers you wish to talk with or which combinations you wish to have available to try would be completely up to you but I think highly of Val and she is certainly knowledgeable about suggesting combinations that would work well for most people based on her experience and the “averages” of other customers that would be similar to you. Having too many combinations available can become overwhelming and can often lead to “information overwhelm” or “paralysis by analysis”.

By the way, I live in Ethridge, TN, about an hour and a half south of Nashville, and the store I went to yesterday in Nashville only had the one Savvy Rest with two sides to try. I don’t know of any other latex mattress dealers in the Nashville, TN, or Huntsville, AL area, but if you know of anything, I would certainly like to try out more configurations before ordering. Thanks again for taking the time.

The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Nashville area (subject to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #7 here. There is also a forum list for Huntsville, AL in post #2 here.

Phoenix