My husband and I are upgrading to a king bed and I am overwhelmed with information and have become stressed with finding the “perfect” mattress to suit us. I’ve reviewed this website and others extensively and still don’t know what options to consider. It is also worth mentioning that where I currently reside (Ottawa, Canada) is in lockdown meaning I cannot see or try mattresses in person. Your assistance in helping me narrow down our options is greatly appreciated. One I had been looking at is the Stearns and Foster Bardot Tight Top mattress.
About Us
My husband primarily sleeps on his side or back and prefers a firmer mattress
My husband is a very hot sleeper, I typically run cold but do not mind layers, and have traditionally preferred a softer mattress but am now leaning towards a medium-firm/firm
I am a very sensitive sleeper and need something with minimal movement
I toss and turn all night. Before our current mattress really deteriorated I primarily slept on my stomach
We currently own a 3.5 year old Kingsdown pillow top mattress which has sagged in a number of spots and is now uncomfortable
What I have been looking for
[li]An inner spring mattress. From my research I believe this would be the best option for us as they run cooler than foam[/li]
[li]A mattress roughly around 12 inches in height[/li]
[li]A mattress that is really worth the money. I don’t mind spending good money on a mattress so long as it will last[/li]
[li]A mattress available for delivery within Ottawa, Canada[/li]
Welcome to The Mattress Underground ! Thanks for your question.
Congrats on your new mattress shopping journey, PillowTalk ! You both must be super-excited to upgrade to a king bed as well! As other consumers shopping for a mattress from home would tell you, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed while sorting through all of the reviews, opinions, and online chatter. We are happy to help you develop a thought process for narrowing down options and provide many tools for your use. The first primer that comes to mind is Phoenix’s “The Basic Functions of a Mattress”, this article recaps simply how Comfort and Support are delivered by the mattress; once you have a basic understanding of these concepts, finding the “perfect” mattress to suit you both becomes easier!
Thanks for including the S&F Bardot Tight Top mattress link. Unfortunately, the Dufresne site offers no clear product specs or materials information (other than “Intellicoil” support technology), so there is no way to understand its construction or to evaluate its durability potential.
Thanks for sharing some of both your sleep positions and preferences. It would also be helpful to know both of your personal stats as besides your sleep positions, body weight and shape play the biggest role in how well each layer relieves pressure and supports you for proper spinal alignment.
Regarding your current Kingsdown pillow top mattress which is now sagging in various areas: will you be contacting the retailer for a warranty claim? As it is only 3.5 years old, they may offer you some recourse for this mattress that may offset a future purchase of a new mattress and it would be interesting to know whether that is a possibility. Have you reported the sagging issue to the retailer?
You may find a hybrid mattress using a combination of latex foam and pocket coils or all-latex mattress to be among the coolest sleeping choices. These fine Canadian trusted member partners would be happy to help you with your specific product questions and may offer mattress suggestions as well:
You may also want to review these two Phoenix articles to help you formalize a list of questions for discussion with mattress manufacturers and understand how to work over the phone with them/ what to expect when talking with them: “Mattress Specifications You Need to Know” and “Finding a Great Mattress Outlet”. Hopefully, this will help get you started in your research and let us know how things go when you have time… .
Thank you for your response, Sensei! I have read through the the basic functions of a mattress and unfortunately, am still overwhelmed by the options.
I didn’t realize until you pointed it out that the mattress specifications are not listed on the Dufrense website. Apologies about that.
My husband is 5’11 and 180lbs, whereas I am 5’3 and 130lb, and we both are very active.
I hadn’t planned on reaching out to them or the mattress outlet where we made our purchase as they have proven to be difficult to deal with. It is for this reason we will not be purchasing another mattress from Mattress Mart. Thankfully, we had planned to put this mattress to use in our guest bedroom, therefore it won’t go to waste and will hopefully be enjoyed when we’re allowed to have guests again in our home. I also was not aware of sagging issues until after purchase. After recently researching Kingsdown, this seems to be a very common issue with their mattresses.
Do you have any other suggestions, perhaps with specific mattress choices. My partner would prefer a more well-known and familiar brand with a good exchange policy should we need to try another mattress.
No worries PillowTalk; we’ll talk you through your questions as best we can and soon you will be helping others using your experience . The "Basic Functions of a Mattress"article is something of a primer for dissecting the different roles that comfort and support play within the mattress and what each layer’s job is. The more familiar you are with understanding how comfort (pressure relief) and support (correct spinal alignment) work together, the closer you are to finding the mattress that is best suited for you.
Did you have a chance to review the Canada-based trusted member list from the previous post? If you have questions regarding one of their mattresses, we can help sort through those. We do not make recommendations for specific mattresses (read more about why in this tutorial here , particularly point #4) or mattress brands unless they are thoroughly vetted Trusted Members of our site.
Do you have any updates since our last chat that you would like to share? Hope your research is going well and let us know what other questions we may help with .
I’ve done quite a bit of research, and even reached out to Strearns and Foster directly to get more information on the mattress I was originally looking at. Unfortunately, I have yet to hear from them, and I’m not sure if I will end up hearing from them. If not, that is fine as it is my understanding that the majority of the ‘S’ mattress companies use lower quality materials. With that being said, I’ve done extensive research on Aireloom mattresses and believe that they may be a good choice for us. They are on the more expensive side of things, but I would like your opinion on the materials. I discovered that The Bay, in Canada sells Aireloom mattresses and that Aireloom also manufacturers the Hotel Collection mattresses. There is not a lot of information available on Canadian websites, but they do seem to be well reviewed on American websites.
The Bay is also currently running a sale and the mattress is currently discounted as many are on their website. They also offer a 60 day return/exchange policy. The mattress I am currently looking at is the Hotel Collection Paradise Copper Tech Firm Tight Top Mattress[sub][/sub]. I’ve attached a PDF that has the mattress specifications listed. If you could please share your feedback on the mattress that would be much appreciated.
Unfortunately Aireloom doesn’t provide any density specifications of the foam they use which would be needed to determine its ultimate durability. I have some personal experience with Aireloom mattresses and have to say that their better models are those using Hand Tufting and latex in the comfort layers, and the more entry level models like the Paradise are not really anything special. I’ve been told Aireloom came out with those entry level models just to have something at a lower price point to compete with ‘big brands’, but that they don’t hold up well and many of their retailers wish they didn’t since their lower quality tends to devalue the Aireloom brand. After trying out most of their models myself I have to agree that the more entry level models don’t really compare to their higher end offerings which have a very luxurious and supportive feel which is quite unique. Their failure to provide density data on the foams that they use isn’t a good sign for the durability of Aireloom products, but is unfortunately typical of most of the major brands. I should also mention that the Canadian mattress market tends to offer different models than in the US, so the US models I’ve tried are not necessarily representative of the Canadian models you’re looking at although I can see quite a bit of commonality in the details of their construction.
! Thanks for your question.
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