We are looking at getting a new mattress. We’re in the DC area, so not many places to choose from. We need something ASAP because our current mattress is giving me significant back pain. At the top of our list at the moment is the “Healthy Back Bliss Essence.” (We also liked the icomfort Renewal, which has a layer of Talalay latex, but I’m concerned about odor issues and in doing more research here think it may not be the best option (esp. for the price, which is higher than we wanted to spend anyway). We also liked the Technogel Armonia, but we aren’t comfortable with the price on something that is so new to the market.) It was explained to us that the the Healthy Back Bliss mattress is Pure Latex Bliss made for Healthy Back. Can someone tell me what model the “Essence” is? Have others here used this and what is your opinion of it? Is $1749 a good price?
You’ve probably seen this but just in case you haven’t … the better possibilities in the DC area are listed in post #2 here.
The Renewal refined is really a memory foam mattress (the top 4.75" are memory foam and the latex is only a thin transition layer in between the memory foam and the support core) but regardless of this I certainly wouldn’t consider a major brand like Serta or the iComfort line anyway because of their poor value (see the first guideline here).
I think Healthy Back is certainly one of the better retailers in the area and are generally very knowledgeable and open about the mattresses they sell. The Pure Latex Bliss mattresses they sell are usually “better than average” value but not in the “best value” range but their current pricing has been reduced and I would currently put them in the “good value” range. The Essence is their 10" model which would be similar to the old version of the PLB nature (see the specs here) except that the top layer uses Celsion which the old versions didn’t and in this way would be similar to the new PLB models. They should be able to provide you more specific details.
Regardless of the specific construction though … your personal testing would tell you much more about how suitable the mattress was for you in terms of PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and your Personal preferences) much more than how well it may have met someone else’s comfort and support needs. In terms of value … their current prices are good value IMO for any mattress that is made of 10" of blended Talalay latex regardless of who manufactured it especially considering that you are able to test it in person.
We recently purchased a PLB (different model) from the Healthy Back Store. I do get the sense that we maybe overpaid for what we got, but there did not seem to be a lot of choices and I was uncomfortable going the online route. I do recommend Healthy Back Store – we had a crazy problem with the mattress not being level, and they gave us a replacement with few questions asked. I would also consider visiting different Healthy Back stores – one just up the road offered us a better price on the same model.