Help for a grad student on a budget and time crunch

[phoenix]

Hi jus1chancefree,

is there a review on your site that I failed to find?

A forum search on “Restava” (you can just click this) will bring up all the posts that mention them.

I think are members of the underground

They are not a member here (you can see the membership list here) but they are included in the list of online memory foam options because I thought they were among the better memory foam options and would be of interest for those who were looking for some good sources of memory foam online. (NOTE: They have since become a member of the site).

NOTE ADDED: Restava is no longer a member here since a redesign of their mattresses and they may no longer be fully transparent about the materials in their mattresses … see this topic.

After talking with Chuck from DreamFoam and someone from Christeli, I was talked out of each’s lowest-end memory foam mattresses on the understanding that they are “extra firm” and would probably be too firm for my side-sleeping wife.

This would probably also be true for most memory foam mattress with 2" or 3" of memory foam over a firmer base layer and is the reason it’s a good idea to talk with a knowledgeable manufacturer or retailer first. The ones that are more concerned with selling you whatever they can wouldn’t likely give you this kind of guidance and would welcome the chance to sell a mattress regardless of whether it was suitable or not.

Thus, next on the list would be the adjustable-firmness DreamFoam Mattress Ultimate Dreams Latex at $599. It’s 3" of you-pick-the-firmness ~4lb Latex over 7" of 1.5lb support foam. We would probably go with the usual “6” on Chuck’s 1-10 scale which is an ILD of 28. I am hesitant here because on all of our tests we preferred the memory foam to latex, but only slightly. I also am unsure what DreamFoam’s return policy looks like.

If the mattress is fulfilled by Amazon then their large items return policy would apply. You would pay a few dollars more for the mattress and wouldn’t receive the pillow bonus but you could choose your shipping method. If the mattress is fulfilled by Dreamfoam then you would pay full shipping if it was returned which is quite costly. You would pay a few dollars les and would receive the pillow bonus that goes with being a member here. With latex density is directly related to the firmness level and is not a “quality spec” like it is with memory foam or polyfoam. The type and blend of latex is what differentiates them (besides firmness levels) and in this case it’s blended Talalay which is a high quality material in any density and is also more costly than memory foam. The choice between memory foam and latex is a matter of preference.

They refused to give me any specific ILDs over the phone

I wouldn’t either because ILD is not really relevant with memory foam (because it changes with heat, humidity, and the amount of time the material is compressed) and even with polyfoam is a “comfort spec” not a quality spec and would have little meaning to 99% of consumers anyway. When you ask for the ILD of memory foam or polyfoam in most cases a manufacturer would realize that you are probably getting confused by specifications that have little meaning in practical terms and have nothing to do with quality.

Other than the Serta Roma which is very low quality (see post #3 here) you have eliminated the “worst” options and are choosing between “good and good” so your best judgement based on the conversations you had with each manufacturer and your confidence that a mattress will be a good “fit” and meets the criteria of your personal value equation is the best way to make final choices.

Phoenix