Thank you so much for creating the great web site! It is an amazing website and your knowledge is incredibly helpful! My journey for mattress-shopping was very painful until I found this website. I felt like being buried and overwhelmed by too much confusing info out there. After following your guidelines for few days via this website, I have started finally seeing some bright light. So, thank you again.
Now, I know what I want for my mom [65 yrs-old/ side (maninly) and back sleeper/ tinny and average-weighted/ needs her quality sleep so badly after work/ having a blood circulation issue (her feet easily get cold)]: Latex adjustable bed! Also, since we live in Fairfax, VA where not many local factory direct outlets are found, I’ve decided to purchase it online and I’m completely OK with it. Could you please advise below (Our budget is $25-2700 for both the mattress and adjustable base)? Thank you for all your advice in advance, Phoenix!
Among other Tempur lines, she felt most comfortable with the Tempur-cloud supreme. What Latex thickness/ density/ inches should she consider?
What type (Dunlop, Talalay or blended) of Latex would be the best?
Do you have a few list of online factory direct outlets with good reputation (they are quiet a lot)?
Should we consider buying both mattress and adjustable based via one place? Or, should we consider buying the base for better quality/ value at a certain place separately?
I’ve learned that an adjustable base has its massage function these days. I’m wondering how it works since, on the base, there are layers of Latex. Does it make simple vibration or quality massage motions like those expensive massage chairs? Is it really worth the money (if it only does simple vibration I will pass it.)?
Latex and memory foam are completely different materials with very different properties so your mom’s experience on a memory foam mattress won’t be particularly useful or meaningful to help her choose a latex mattress outside of just having a very general sense of the overall firmness she prefers. There is more about how latex and memory foam compare in post #2 here.
There is also more about the different ways to choose a mattress (either locally or online) that is the most suitable “match” for each person’s specific needs and preferences and how to identify and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for that are involved in each of them in post #2 here.
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation on the phone 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 happen to be familiar with) than anyone else.
The choice between Dunlop and Talalay is a preference choice not a “better/worse” choice. There is more about how Dunlop and Talalay compare in post #7 here and there is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here. The most reliable way to know which type or blend of latex someone may prefer is based on their own local testing and personal experience.
The tutorial includes this link to a list of the members here that sell mattresses online (in the optional online step) that all compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, and transparency and many of them also make latex and latex hybrid mattresses that use different types and blends of latex that have a range of different designs, options, features, return and exchange policies, and prices that would be well worth considering.
There is also more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and “value” based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
I would purchase an adjustable bed separately from a mattress (unless you would purchase one of the adjustable beds that are available at the store you are dealing with anyway if you were buying it separately). There is more information about choosing an adjustable bed in post #3 here and the main adjustable bed topic that it links to that can help you choose an adjustable bed based on price vs features comparisons and also includes some retailers that you can use as good sources of information about the features of the adjustable beds they carry and as pricing references as well (in post #6 in the main adjustable bed topic).
It’s more than just a “vibration” but it’s also not a “real” massage that has a “kneading” action. Most of them have different massage options and wave functions that can change the “feel”, speed, massage pattern, and intensity of the “massage” but there is also a mattress between the massage components and the person so they are similar to massage chairs but there is more padding between the massage and the person (depending on the type and thickness of the mattress) which attenuates how the massage feels once it “goes through” the mattress. IMO it’s more like a “moving vibration” than a real massage with a kneading action.
I think that each person may have a different answer to this. Some people love it and use it on a regular basis to help them relax and for others it’s not nearly as important. In our own case we are somewhere in the middle and use it rarely although we do “like” it when we do (our adjustable is also on a wooden floor so we put the adjustable bed legs on rubber cups to reduce the noise of the vibration) but we don’t use it nearly as much as we thought we would when we purchased it. In other words we wouldn’t miss it if we didn’t have it (although it’s still “nice” to have) and the ability to raise and lower the mattress is much more important to us than the massage function although other people may have a very different opinion about the importance of the massage function than we do.
