Help w/ my Mattress Choice

[phoenix]

Hi jsjs54,

Hopefully you’ve had the chance to read the tutorial post here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices.

There is also more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that you can use to make meaningful comparisons between mattresses.

1. I’m currently favoring a mattress from the local Berkeley Ergo dealer. They have a mattress that they call their “promotional” version that they say they make specially from them. It’s 2 layers of springs and a very thin layer of latex covered with wool and cotton. To my eye, it seems exactly like their other version but just created to have a cheaper option to offer people. The queen version is 1K which seems like an amazing deal to me. This mattress feels very firm, but this doesn’t bother me. I like the idea that it’s well make, functional etc. Will it last as long as all-latex models? I figure that if it costs half as much, it’s just fine if it lasts for 10 years. Do you really want a mattress to last longer than that? If it turns out to be too firm, I figure I can buy one of their latex toppers after the fact.

I’m not sure of the specifics of the mattress you are describing but you may be referring to the Cantoni mattresses and if this is the case you can see my comments about them in this topic.

2. Flexus seem like they are just some latex wrapped in a cover. I found these comfortable to lay on, but the cover feels relatively cheap compared to other options. Overall, I’d say that I like the feeling of latex but I don’t believe that one can know much from laying on a mattress for 15 minutes. Basically, I tend to think they are all comfortable.

Their wool quilted cover is anything but “cheap” (wool quilting is more costly than most other types of quilting materials) and latex is also a more costly material but of course that has little to do with the type of cover or the “feel” that you may prefer. If you test a mattress for 15 minutes using the testing guidelines that are in the tutorial post then you will have the best possible odds of predicting how the mattress will sleep for you in the long term and good testing can be one of the most helpful and predictive parts of choosing a mattress although there are always a smaller percentage of the population whose sleeping experience is more difficult to predict (they are closer to the “princess and the pea” end of the scale than the “I can sleep on anything end of the scale”) and in this case the options you have after a purchase to exchange layers, exchange a mattress, or to do other types of fine tuning based on your actual sleeping experience or even to return a mattress if there are no other good options available may be a more important part of their personal value equation. I would also keep in mind that if you can’t tell which mattress is the best match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) then nobody else will be able to tell you either and PPP is the single most important part of the value of a mattress purchase.

3. PJs in LA makes a line of “latex” mattresses but they have about a 3 or 4 inch latex core surrounded by a lot of wool and cotton. These are very comfortable and feel very well made but I worry that all that wool and cotton will compress over time and become lumpy or uneven.

Depending on the amount and thickness of the materials … thicker layers of wool or other natural fibers will compress more (and become a little firmer) under the heavier parts of the body or the areas where you sleep most often faster than the lighter areas of the body or the parts of the mattress where you don’t sleep as often. Over time though … (generally a few months) if you rotate the mattress from time to time, spend some time sleeping on the parts that you don’t sleep on as often, or as the other areas compress to the point where the compression of the natural fiber stabilizes, then the compression over the sleeping surface will even out to some degree. Because compressed fibers get firmer the effect of the compression is much less noticeable than the softening of foam materials because even if a fiber layer was still more lofted … it would still feel firmer when you sleep on in and compress it. Thicker layers of wool or other natural fibers tend to be firmer than the equivalent thickness of softer foam materials (including latex) but like any other choice of materials … for those who prefer the feel of sleeping on thicker layers of wool or other natural fibers or who prefer the temperature regulation of wool and other natural fibers, there would be no substitute that would provide the feel that they prefer to sleep on and nothing else will do.

4. Custom Comfort frankly seems way better in terms of quality and construction than all the other option, but the prices reflect that. I think I’ll pass just because I can’t justify 3 or 4 K.

Custom Comfort uses some manufacturing methods that require more time to build and their mattresses are two sided but as you mentioned they are also in higher budget ranges than other mattresses that use similar materials.

Anyway, I was thinking of trying foam sweet foam and then making a decision. My tendency is to trust Berkeley, that has been around for a long time and everyone says good things about. Do you have any thought about avoiding the “promotional” version. They say it’s all the normal Berkeley components but they build it special for them out of whatever they have surplus of. The pure latex ones feel good but frankly I don’t see much of anything lasting for over 15 years. In my thinking, the covers themselves would be breaking down at the point and their is certainly no guaranteeing that any of these companies will be around that long to honor these sorts of guarantees. Better to my a high quality thing at a lower price now and then something new in 10-15 years. Thoughts? Thanks so much.

There are many mattress materials and covers that will last for much longer than 10 years (including most wool quilted cotton covers) but to some degree I agree that beyond 10 years the limiting factor in the useful life of a mattress may be changes in the needs and preferences of the person sleeping on it so any length of time beyond that would be “bonus time”. In many cases though “bonus time” by itself can be longer than 10 years and some of the mattresses you are considering would have a useful life that was closer to 20 years than 10. In any case … the weakest link in a mattress is generally the upper layers and a component mattress has some advantages because you can replace individual components or layers that soften or break down or if your needs and preferences change instead of having to replace the entire mattress.

All of the companies you are considering have been in business for much longer than their warranty so from this perspective there would be no difference to me. For me the quality of the materials is also much more important than the length of a warranty because warranties only cover defects … not how long a mattress will maintain its comfort and support or the durability of the mattress (see post #174 here)

The most important part of the value of a mattress is PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) and for this part of the value of a purchase you are the only one that can decide which mattress is the the most suitable choice for you based on your testing and experience. If you aren’t confident in your testing then the options you have after a purchase to fine tune or exchange the mattress or exchange individual layers or even return the mattress would probably become a more important part of the “value” of your purchase.

Outside of PPP … the quality and durability of the materials are the most important part of a purchase. In the case of all the mattresses you are looking at none of them have any weak links in their materials or design that I’m aware of. If you can list the specifics of all the layers in each mattress (see this article) I’d also be happy to make more specific comments about the materials in any of them but I don’t think that 10 year durability would be an issue with any of your choices.

Once you have eliminated the worst options or any choices that would be less suitable for you and you are down to finalists that are comparisons between “good vs good” … if there are no clear winners between them then you are most likely in a position where any one of them would make a good choice for you and a final choice would be a matter of “best judgement” based on all the objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Phoenix