Help choosing a new mattress

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

Hey there! I’ve been a lurker on this site for about a week now and am hitting saturation/overload from all the great info so I thought I’d better post some questions and get myself a new mattress so I can stop dreaming about mattress shopping lol.

First about me - I am about 5’4 and 170lbs and a side sleeper. I’ve never slept on a mattress besides innerspring and an old sleep number (ugh). I tend to prefer a softer mattress that I can sink into a little. The mattresses in store that I’ve tried and found pretty comfortable are the tempurpedic cloud luxe (for about 10 mins, then it felt like I ‘bottomed out’ and hit the hard stuff), the eclipse calla which is a pocket coil with zoned support topped with a 2" gel foam (they wouldn’t share density), and a restonic kingsomething which was also a pocket coil with zoned support topped with 2" 21ILD talaylay and 2" unspecified softer foam in the quilting. The restonic still felt a tad too firm and I know that soft foam won’t hold up long term.

I would prefer a cover that is tufted with wool for the natural fire protection and 3" of a soft, probably 14-19ILD natural talaylay, just because it seems to be the safest stuff to sleep on. Once I get past the comfort layer I get a little lost though. Both mattresses that I really liked had the zoned pocket coils however I don’t know if there should be some sort of transition layer between the latex and coils since the restonic sales lady told me she didn’t really like the mattress she showed me because the latex tended to sink into and get stuck in the coils. I haven’t really seen any mattresses that are designed like this though. I’ve also heard that having firmer coils in the middle can actually cause hip pain rather than alleviate it. I’m willing to be brave and try some other kind of foam for support but need some advice as to what exactly I should be looking for. I don’t have much selection locally to try besides the big name brands and a very few random licensees.

The one real question I have, besides my general cry for help, is on the Brooklyn Bedding best mattress ever. The soft mattress which they recommended has only 2" of soft latex going straight to 2" of firm. The price is amazing but I’m concerned this won’t work well for a side sleeper who likes a plushy bed.

Thanks for any thoughts you had while reading!

2

Hi KayaO,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!. Hopefully you’ve already read the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and value.

The first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components would be the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

I can certainly help you to narrow down your options, help you focus on better quality/value choices that are available to you either locally or online, help you identify any lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress you may be considering, act as a fact check, answer any questions you may have along the way that I am able to help with, and help with “how” to choose but only you can decide which specific mattress is the best match for you in terms of PPP or all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Unless you have a great deal of knowledge and experience with different types of mattress materials and components and their specs and different layering combinations and mattress designs and how they combine together and can translate them into your own “real life” experience that can be unique to you … I would tend to avoid using complex specs to try and predict how a mattress will feel or perform for you and focus more on your own actual testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) and/or personal experience. When you try and choose a mattress based on complex combinations of specs that you may not fully understand or only based on a single spec (such as ILD) that may not be a relevant or meaningful as you believe it is then the most common outcome is “information overload” and “paralysis by analysis”.

If you let me know your city or zip code I’d be happy to let you know about the better options or possibilities I’m aware of that are in your area.

Brooklyn Bedding has some guidance about their firmness choices on their page here that should be helpful. Their medium would be an “average” choice that would be suitable for the most people so the soft would be softer than average.

If you are uncertain about your firmness choice though and when you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or even to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.

Don’t forget that most of the simplified choice mattresses (including Brooklyn Bedding) have a free return policy so you can try it in your bedroom instead of a showroom and if for some reason your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for then they have a 120 day trial policy that costs you nothing if you don’t like it.

Phoenix

3

My zip code is 74006. I’ve been to Cooper Herrington Furniture (Bartlesville), Mattress Firm (Owasso), Denver Mattress (Tulsa), and Snow’s Mattress (Tulsa). If you know of any other good retailers within 50 mi or so that would be awesome! Unfortunately it seems like (besides the big name retailers) most of the shops in Tulsa are in really sketchy areas of town so I haven’t been to a lot but I’d be willing to go with a recommendation from here (with the hubby as bodyguard of course :stuck_out_tongue: )

Pending any further recommendations, the plan right now is to make my own side by side mattress comparison list with my top 5 and their pros and cons, hand the list to the hubby who hasn’t gotten emotionally involved and frustrated, and let him pick what he feels is the best overall value. Trial periods and free returns is definitely a big plus, especially for trying something new like latex!

4

Hi KayaO,

The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Tulsa, OK area (subject to the quality/value guidelines I linked in my last reply) are listed in post #2 here. There is also a forum list for the area around Coffeyville in post #11 here that also has some options that are reasonably close to you.

I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any comments or questions you may have along the way.

Phoenix

5

After writing out my top 5 list and vetting with the hubby, we decided that the best two value mattresses for us were the Foam Sweet Foam Urban Green, which is a completely customizable all-latex mattress, and the PlushBeds Heavenly Plush which is foam over latex over foam. I’ve attached my comparison list if anyone is interested (sorry the writing may be a bit small). We wound up opting for the PlushBeds mattress because they make it no risk to try it and we were a bit hesitant to jump straight into an all latex mattress without first being able to try anything all-latex in person… Foam Sweet Foam has an 18% restocking fee which seemed risky. After speaking with John at PlushBeds, the final purchase was actually the Cool Bliss gel foam mattress since I did find my hips sank too far in the softest foam mattresses we could try locally and I also occasionally wake up hot at night. The best thing is, I totally forgot we have a vacation coming up in the Toronto area and there are 3 mattress stores within 5 mi of where we’ll be staying that have all-latex mattresses! We plan on trying these while we’re there and who knows… we may wind up liking them much better. If we do, we can return the PlushBeds and get the Foam Sweet Foam without losing anything :slight_smile:

I would also like to share my experience shopping locally and hopefully help someone else out in the Tulsa/North OK/South KS area.

Denver Mattress (owned by Furniture Row) in Tulsa: This store was really nice. It’s large with a good selection of brands and also their own Choice brand. They have memory foam, pocket coil, air, and latex in pretty much every combination. This is the only store I found in the area that has an all latex mattress. I was not a fan of the current model which was too firm without the 3" talaylay topper and too soft with it. However, I was informed that within the next month they have a new line coming out that’s all-latex so there will probably be more selection soon! The sales guy was also friendly and knowledgeable and showed us around for about an hour with no pressure to buy.

Snow’s Mattress in Tulsa: I’m kind of surprised this one wasn’t on your list. They are a little smaller but have a good selection of major brands and also carry some smaller licesees like Eclipse and Eastland (both Sleep Designs brands). I would say this is a decent mid-range quality/value store. The sales guy was very helpful within his limits but didn’t know much about the construction of the mattresses. Unfortunately Sleep Designs out of Houston seems to either be very tight lipped in their construction or their reps are pretty clueless. Out of two contacts I got at the local manufacturer the best specs I could wheedle out of them are below:

Eclipse Calla Plush
Polyester cover
Quilting foam and FR layer
2" Convoluted memory foam
8" 660 pocket coil with 5 zone support
$795

My husband and I found this mattress very comfortable however after getting all the great info out of this forum we just didn’t feel like that was enough info to make a quality decision if it would be right for us in the long run.

Cooper Herrington Furniture in Bartlesville: This is a local mom&pop shop (or rather a mom&son shop in this case). They only carry Restonic mattresses which are manufactured in Haven KS. This is a very small store so there was not a lot of selection. They primarily carry innerspring mattresses with two all-foam choices and one pocket coil/talaylay hybrid. The owner was not very helpful and didn’t know anything about the mattresses. She mostly tried to push her preferences on us and discouraged us against the only mattress I was interested in (the talaylay hybrid) because apparently the latex sinks into the pocket coils and makes dips which seems pretty weird. The son really didn’t like when I started asking questions and also had no idea what was in the mattresses. He did finally offer to call Restonic who (second hand) was very transparent and gave the full specs of the mattress including the ILDs. The asking price for this mattress was pretty high considering similar constructions online with all natural materials go for much less. Overall I would say this store is another mid-range one and it’s unfortunate the owner only gets in mattresses she likes so there isn’t much variety.

Bob Loftis Furniture in Bartlesville: This was probably my favorite local shop. They have a great selection of brands including Golden, King Koil, and Sleep Designs in addition to all the major brands (minus S&F). Half the mattresses are foam/pocket coil hybrids and half are all foam. Unfortunately they do not have any latex because the owner found that several people had allergic reactions and decided to not stock them. The lady who helped me was also very knowledgeable and knew the construction details of all the mattresses. It’s a good thing she was there because some of them were not labeled very well (or at all) and I had no idea what the model even was. She helped look at my alignment and was also part of my decision to go with the Cool Bliss over the Heavenly Plush because she agreed that I was sinking too deep in a soft foam.

Therapedic: This was a promising looking brand (not a store) but I was unable to try any of their mattresses. I called the local manufacturer who gave me a huge list of retail outlets. Half of them were closed and the other half look super sketchy.

Meek’s Sleep Shop: This is another mom&pop shop just north of Tulsa that only sells Corsicana mattresses. I did not personally try this brand. They have inner spring, pocket coil, memory foam, and hybrids. I’m guessing this is another mid-range brand similar to Eclipse. Might be worth adding to the list…

6

Hi KayaO,

As you probably know from your reading here … the two mattresses you were comparing are very much apples to oranges comparisons. The Plushbeds Heavenly Plush is primarily a memory foam mattress (with a latex transition layer) and the FSF Urban Green mattresses are all latex component mattresses. There is more about the pros and cons of latex vs memory foam in post #2 here.

Having said that … the type of materials or mattresses that different people tend to prefer can vary widely and some people prefer sleeping on memory foam and other people prefer sleeping on latex. The Plushbeds uses 4 lb memory foam which would certainly be suitable for your weight range in terms of durability and all the other layers are all high quality latex and polyfoam materials so there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the mattress. If your mattress turns out to be a good “match” for you in terms of PPP then it would certainly make a good quality/value choice.

Their current iChoice HeveaPUR is a “mostly latex” mattress that uses 4" of polyfoam in the design. The latex in the topper is very soft so it certainly wouldn’t be suitable for everyone. They make some good quality/value mattresses although I would avoid the Green Choice mattresses they sell which are made in China and use low quality memory foam that would be a weak link in the mattress. Thanks for the heads up about the new latex mattress that is coming … I’ll keep an eye out for it.

[quote]Snow’s Mattress in Tulsa: I’m kind of surprised this one wasn’t on your list. They are a little smaller but have a good selection of major brands and also carry some smaller licesees like Eclipse and Eastland (both Sleep Designs brands). I would say this is a decent mid-range quality/value store. The sales guy was very helpful within his limits but didn’t know much about the construction of the mattresses. Unfortunately Sleep Designs out of Houston seems to either be very tight lipped in their construction or their reps are pretty clueless. Out of two contacts I got at the local manufacturer the best specs I could wheedle out of them are below:

Eclipse Calla Plush
Polyester cover
Quilting foam and FR layer
2" Convoluted memory foam
8" 660 pocket coil with 5 zone support
$795

My husband and I found this mattress very comfortable however after getting all the great info out of this forum we just didn’t feel like that was enough info to make a quality decision if it would be right for us in the long run.[/quote]

One of the most important criteria for inclusion on the forum lists is that there is a good chance that a consumer can find out the specifics of the materials in the mattresses they sell. While the Sleep Designs mattresses they carry would be “possibilities” and when I talked with the owner of Sleep Designs he certainly appeared to be transparent about the mattresses they make … when I talked with Snow’s Mattress on the phone they didn’t impress me at all with their knowledge or willingness to provide meaningful information about their mattresses which is why I left them off the list. Buying a mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/density of the materials inside it or dealing with retailers or manufacturers that aren’t able or willing to provide the information you would need to make an informed choice it is much too risky.

The specs that they gave you don’t include the information you would need to make any meaningful assessment about its durability or whether there are any weak links in the mattress (see this article) and with 2" of unknown density (and probably lower density) polyfoam I definitely would avoid it.

Thanks for your comments here as well and i’ve added a link to your post in their description.

A store that only carries Corsicana mattresses would automatically exclude them from any of the forum lists. They tend to use lower quality materials and they also aren’t transparent about the quality/density of the materials they use in their mattresses. There are usually carried by stores that are looking for relatively “cheap” mattresses.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences and most importantly … congratulations on your new mattress :slight_smile:

I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback when you receive it and have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.

Phoenix

7

Absolutely I am comparing apples and oranges, but in the end it’s all fruit :wink: I don’t think it’s a bad thing to compare mattresses that are different especially for people like me who can’t really try anything out locally that would allow for an apples to apples comparison. In that case I think companies with an easy and low cost return option would tend to weight higher like it did for me.

That aside, I’ve had a rather interesting adventure so far with my PlushBeds Cool Bliss mattress. We received it much earlier than expected and it was nice and easy easy to unwrap and set up. We slept on it the first night and there was no smell which was great. However, the “feel” was a very odd mix of soft and hard. It felt soft and squishy when I first got on it but when laying on my back or side it definitely had a firm “feel” to it. I thought this rather odd and after about a week finally unzipped the mattress cover and took a look. Sure enough, this is when things got weird.

The Cool Bliss mattress has 3" of gel memory foam with 2" talaylay latex underneath. My mattress has 2" gel foam with 3" latex underneath. Not only that but the tag says Posture Plush which is supposed to have 3" PlushFoam and 2" latex. NONE of their mattresses have 3" latex or 2" foam. I don’t know what the heck I got but something went very wrong in manufacturing/assembly. I called them earlier today and sent an email with pictures so we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully this post gives a heads up to anyone else who recently purchased from PlushBeds - go check your mattress and make sure you got what you think you got!

8

Hi KayaO,

I completely agree with you and I also think it’s important to test or consider different types of mattresses to help you decide which materials or types of mattresses you prefer. It just makes “value comparisons” a little more difficult because it can add more subjective considerations to the picture.

That’s certainly odd and I hope you have the chance to let us know what they say when you talk with them. The mistake actually works against them in the sense that latex is a more costly material than memory foam but of course that doesn’t mean anything if the mattress isn’t a good match for you in terms of PPP and you don’t sleep well on it.

Just for reference as well … the Arpico 100% natural latex is Dunlop not Talalay.

I’m looking forward to your next update.

Phoenix

9

Yep I didn’t think they were trying to cut corners because of the extra latex. I think someone just must have ordered the thicknesses swapped. It seems to be a rather small company so there may not have been anyone to double check the materials. They are still looking into it as far as I know.

Whoops! You’re absolutely right. I just assumed it was talalay because it’s very bouncy.

They offered to replace the mattress if I send my current one back. Since I don’t really want to deal with the hassle of trying to box my current one up and it’s not really uncomfortable it’s just a bit too firm, I suggested that they send me one of their 2" gel foam toppers that way I’ll only have an inch extra latex and an inch extra gel foam than the standard cool bliss. Hopefully it’ll work out!

10

Hi KayaO,

It’s good to see that they are working with you to resolve any issues you are having with your mattress and I’m looking forward to finding out how things work out for you.

Phoenix

11

KayaO,

Thinking of Plushbeds myself, and have to say you are easier going than I would have been. If they goofed and I got the perfect bed, no harm, no foul. But I would like to know if they offered to pay for shipping to return their mistake or … ?

I am very concerned about their customer service from some reviews I’ve read, ergo the question.

Thanks!

12

Hi ttight1,

While I was rather concerned with the quality control of the manufacturing (that was a pretty big goof), customer support was great about fixing it to my satisfaction. They offered to replace the bed at no cost and were easy to work with to make sure I got what I wanted. I also had the option to return the mattress for a full refund per their 90 day satisfaction guarantee. If you have concerns, I would highly recommend calling them up and talking about it and then see how you feel. After way over-thinking and over-stressing myself, I strongly believe you should absolutely feel confident and excited when making such a big purchase!

In my case, I requested they send me the 2" memory foam topper so my mattress is now totally custom with an extra inch of latex (support) and an extra inch of foam (comfort). I actually think it worked out in my favor since it’s now extra plushy and the top half of the comfort layer can be easily swapped out after a few years if needed. There was no cost to me. Overall I’m pretty happy with it and sleeping much better (except when my cat decides to serenade us all night :S :stuck_out_tongue: ).

13

Hi KayaO,

Thanks for the update … I appreciate it.

It’s good to hear that everything worked out so well for you.

Phoenix