Hi,
I’m looking for a firm yet comfortable good quality innerspring mattress in the Philadelphia/ NJ/ Bucks county PA area. I’ve read the tutorials and have visited Verlo, Croydon, magicsleeper, mattress factory in Fanwood, white lotus, sichel, and your organic bedroom in Doylestown PA. I was able to take a look at many of the working areas of these places to actually see their mattress materials. It’s hard to believe the state of their work areas, run down and dirty. Many places have stacks of latex left in the open air and you can see them starting to harden and flake. Polyfoams are sometimes yellow and old too. It’s been very disappointing.
I do not want any latex in my mattress as I find it uncomfortable and the smell bothers me. I can usually detect a layer of latex in a mattress immediately upon laying on it. Even the soft talalay toppers that many people like feel pretty awful to me. I like to lay on top and not sink into a mattress. I am a petite woman with some back issues at times.
So I’m left trying to find a decent quality innerspring with decent quality polyfoam. I am even considering a Serta iseries vantage firm which I know is frowned upon here. It has 1" of firm 1.5 lb. polyfoam, 3/4" gel memory foam - 4 lb., and the foam quilting layer over a pocketed spring coil unit. Serta gave me the specs over the phone. I called twice to get confirmation. I think the springs are fine but not sure about the comfort layers.
Would buying this mattress be a mistake? I can’t believe that finding a decent quality innerspring mattress would be so difficult.
Based on the stores and manufacturers you’ve visited you’ve probably seen this already but the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Trenton/Philadelphia/Wilmington areas are listed in post #4 here. As you’ve seen … mattress factories can be very dusty places when foam is being cut and are nothing like mattress showrooms. What you’ve seen is fairly typical.
As you know from reading this site I would generally suggest avoiding major brands. If you do decide to go in that direction then the specs you would need to identify any weak links of a mattress and make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses are in this article and the guidelines I would use for assessing foam quality/density are in post #4 here.
I would need to know the rest of the specs (making sure they add up to the thickness of the mattress) to make any meaningful comments about the mattress. It would depend on the thickness and density of the foam layers that are missing in the specs you provided but in most cases you will find that with major brands they either don’t meet the minimum guidelines I would suggest or if they do then the mattress wouldn’t compete well with other mattresses in the same price range that use the same or better quality materials made by smaller manufacturers.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, mattress factories are dusty and dirty, but I saw old crusty talalay and old polyfoams being used in new mattresses. Also, many of the small manufacturers were using 1.5 lb. polyfoams and 3 lb. memory foams just like the major brands.
Magicsleeper seems to be a good company, with good people. They could make me a double sided mattress with a multilastic innerspring unit with an inch or inch and a half 1.8 lb. foam and a very nice high quality quilted foam case. This spring unit is an old design and I’m concerned that it may creak in a few years. it is 12 1/2 gauge. They tell me though that it is a great long lasting innerspring. What are your thoughts on this plan?
That’s why it’s always important to know the specifics of the materials in your mattress regardless of who you buy from. I wouldn’t buy a mattress that used lower quality materials or that had a weak link in the design no matter who made it.
I agree that Magic Sleeper is a good company with good people. If a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP, the quality/density of the materials are good and there are no obvious weak links in the mattress, and if it’s also a good match for all the other parts of your personal value equation that are important to you compared to your other finalists, then it would certainly be well worth purchasing. A 12 1/2 gauge innerspring is a very strong and durable innerspring although it may not have the motion isolation that some people may prefer if they are part of a couple that sleep on the mattress. The innerspring of a mattress or any type of support material is not generally the weak link of a mattress since a mattress will tend to soften and break down from the top down.
NOTE ADDED: Magic Sleeper is also now a member of this site.