Hi,
First of all, I would like to say thank you for making this site.
It has provided a lot of important information and has been very useful in assisting our mattress search.
Background:
I am 5’9" 150lbs, mostly side sleeper, sometimes back.
My wife is 5’1" 100lbs, mostly back sleeper, sometimes side.
We are in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Comfort Layer:
Top: 2" soft Dunlop latex (17-19 ILD)
Bottom: 3" medium Talalay latex (not sure about ILD) zoned with bigger holes in hips/shoulders area
Support layer:
6" Leggett & Platt 3-zone BodyPrint coil system
The mattress was very comfortable in terms of pressure relief for hips and shoulders on our sides.
The only thing I am worried about is the spinal support and alignment while on our backs. Is it too soft for back sleeping?
It is easy to check that your spine is straight while on your side, but how can we check for alignment/support on our backs when we are “sinking in” due to the softer upper layers?
Foundation:
Our bed frame has a slat system where the slats are about 3.5 inches apart.
I have read that the maximum spacing should be 3 inches, but a lot of the posts were for foam or latex support cores.
Does the 3 inch spacing suggestion also apply to latex and innerspring hybrids?
We have gotten different answers from different places to this question.
One place told us we would need a bunkie board (to avoid voiding the warranty on a brand name mattress) while other places said 3 to 4 inch spacing should still be fine.
Your mattress certainly uses high quality materials and there are no obvious weak links in terms of durability.
It’s certainly more difficult to check for alignment (which is more about what you feel when you wake up in the morning) than it is pressure relief (which is generally what you feel when you go to sleep) but the testing guidelines linked in post #1 here should be helpful.
The key to good testing is to make sure you wear loose clothing, test the mattress with the same people that will be using it, and making sure you spend at least 15 minutes after you are completely relaxed and in a “pre-sleep state” so that as much as possible it approximates the way you actually sleep. Then you can use a combination of visual cues and listen to the more subtle cues that your body provides to test for good alignment. Keep in mind that things that seem to be minor over 15 minutes or so (such as tension or discomfort) can often become worse over the course of the night so make sure that your muscles are able to completely relax and “let go” when you are testing the mattress without feeling any tendency to keep your muscles tense to compensate for any alignment issues.
They can also make comfort adjustments in case your actual experience is different from your testing so you still have good options available after your purchase.
The 3" guideline for mattresses with a latex core that sits right on top of the slats and is because of the greater natural elasticity of latex. Polyfoam or innersprings will be fine with gaps that are wider and 3.5" would be fine.
The warranty criteria is determined by the manufacturer and if they are selling this foundation with their mattress it would certainly meet the conditions of the warranty.