Hi notahelixfan,
Thanks for taking the time to share your comments and experiences on your helix mattress … I appreciate it.
I’m sorry to hear that your mattress didn’t work out as well as you hoped for but it’s good to hear that you had the foresight to purchase a mattress with a good return policy so that you could try it out without any risk and that they were as responsive to you as they were. You were also fortunate that they allow you to return two mattresses since many companies only allow for only a single return and if you exchange your mattress instead of returning it and purchasing a different mattress from a different company then you would need to keep the second mattress.
While I would agree with you that the Helix mattress uses lower quality/density materials than I would normally suggest in higher weight ranges … in all fairness even low quality materials wouldn’t normally soften or break down that quickly so it’s more likely that the reason for your experience was that your mattresses were “on the edge” of being too soft for you in the first place so that even the normal foam softening that happens with any new mattress over the course of the first few weeks (see post #3 here) was enough to take you outside of the comfort/support range that is suitable for you (see post #2 here). In other words … I think that your mattresses just weren’t a good “match” for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) rather than your experiences being the result of a mattress that uses lower quality materials because durability issues would generally take much longer to become apparent.
In looking at your pictures it also “looks like” there could be an issue with the support system under your mattress which appears to be sagging and which may have been part or even all of the reason for your poor experience on the mattress as well.
Phoenix