I am so glad I found this forum. My wife and I have been thinking about a new mattress for awhile. I like to buy local and heard great things about Gardner. Well, we went there, the sales person directed us to two mattress’s there, the All Latex and the Pocketed Coils with the 3 inches of Latex. Both felt more on the plush side in the showroom. I was sold on the Organic All Latex line. We had been looking forward to our made before delivered Gardner Mattress, but only to be a bit disappointed. It’s has nothing to do with the quality of the construction, but two things. We have had the mattress for a little over a week and we feel like we are sleeping on a piece of plywood. It’s just too firm for us. Will it break in, that is what I am told, but how long and how much. The other thing is the mattress is only 6 inches thick. My wife feels like we are sleeping in a clown bed. We could get past that, but not for the comfort. We took another ride down from NH to Woburn to check out some of the other beds. We were told we had the softest bed they made. We tried the Pocket Coil with the 3 inches of Latex again. The sales person also asked us to try out there mattress toppers. We just are not sure what to do. We did not make any decisions and also stopped at Jordan’s on the way home. We tried some mattresses there and we feel we do like the Beauty Rest Black Brooklyn. Now, what do to. Do we replace the Latex for the Pocket Coil with 3 Inch of Latex and put a pillow top on it (getting about $100 back) or buy the Beauty Rest Black for about $200 more (since we’ll have to pay for Gardner to come pick up the mattress). Now, I also just saw that there are two other local manufacturers in Maine, Portland Mattress Makers and Maiden Maine. Should I check them out? Will they have more "plush’ type of mattress. Please Help
Hi FeveZs,
Based on some of the feedback I’ve seen … Gardner tends towards firmer mattresses although of course firm and soft is relative to each person.
Like all mattresses … a latex mattress will have an initial break in period where the foam will soften slightly and the cover will stretch a bit which will give a softer feel to the mattress. There could also be some other factors that are contributing to the firmness of the mattress and there are some suggestions that may help in post #2 here. One of these is to make sure that your mattress is on the same base or boxspring that you tested in the store because with a 6" mattress the boxspring or foundation that it’s on will make a difference.
Which of their models do you have and do you know the details of the layering?
Regardless of which mattress you have … it would provide a great base for a topper if you need some extra softness because there are no low quality materials in the mattress. Latex is a very high quality material and most people only need somewhere in the range of 6" to 9" depending on their body type, sleeping positions, preferences, the thickness of the comfort layers they do best with, and on the type of base under the mattress. The idea that thickness relates to the quality of a mattress is really a myth promoted by larger manufacturers who use it to sell a lot of low quality foam or pillowtop mattresses to consumers that end up breaking down and softening much more quickly than they should. You can see an example here of a relatively thin latex mattress that was used for over 40 years.
I would first give your new mattress some time (30 days or so unless this is just not practical) both to go through any initial break in period and your own adjustment to a new sleeping surface and then eliminate the possibilities one at a time. If you do decide that you need a topper then post #2 here and the guidelines they link to (as well as your own testing of toppers on the same mattress with toppers at Gardner) should be helpful.
Phoenix