Hola from Spain :)

[phoenix]

Hi TinkerBill,

I would like some advice, but first some observations about Spain: it seems that the market (and marketing) here is remarkably (depressingly?) similar to the States, in pretty much every respect. That should tell you a lot.

Unfortunately … I suspect that the issues in the industry are pretty much common in most developed countries with lack of disclosure and the selling of “stories” and profit margin instead of educating customers about materials and helping them to make more meaningful and value based choices.

Without knowing the prices in advance, I easily gravitated toward the most expensive mattresses offered. I was hoping to end up with something in the 500-800 Euro range (don’t try to convert, just think dollars), and am instead looking at 2,400-2,700 Euros.

I think too this is also by “design” in many cases. Larger manufacturers are well aware of how to make lower quality materials feel better in a showroom (using various layering designs and thicker padding) and even though you can’t feel quality … they certainly know that people are willing to pay for feel no matter what the quality of the materials that creates it. This is generally where the difference in where you shop comes into play. It’s not so much that higher quality materials feel better but that smaller local manufacturers and/or better sleep shops have mattresses that feel the same but use higher quality materials to accomplish it so what you feel in a showroom will last much longer.

It’s a toss-up between the two. We like the softer Active Premium, but are a little concerned that it might be less durable in the long run than the firmer Air Premium because it’s softer. Is that crazy?

the Active premium doesn’t indicate the quality of the memory foam (which generally feels softer than latex) and I would want to know this before buying it. Even if it was 5 lb memory foam though … the latex (depending to some degree on the type of latex) would likely be more durable. In an apples to apples comparison … softer versions of the same material are generally less durable than firmer versions but in a latex to memory foam comparison then latex would generally be more durable.

The pocket coils are also a more costly component than continuous coils (which are generally the least expensive type of innerspring).

We also felt that, on the Active Premium/continuous coils mattress we felt a very slight propensity to sink toward each other, and didn’t on the Air Premium/pocket coils mattress.

This would also be fairly typical because continuous coils are joined together with helical wires and will affect adjoining coils much more than pocket coils which compress independently from each other.

I was also surprised that I liked the one with viscoelastic/memory foam, and found it softer, as I generally don’t like memory foam–I usually feel sucked in by it, and feel like turing over is like moving through quicksand.

Many of the newer generation memory foams are more responsive and less temperature sensitive than the older generation memory foams. In some cases this can be because they are lower density (less durable) and in others it can be higher density memory foam formulations which are manufactured specifically to produce different properties. You can see some of the differences that are possible in manufacturing memory foam in post #9 here along with post #8 here. The key is to make sure that you know the density of the memory foam (which is the primary indicator of its durability or how long it will maintain its original properties).

(You’ll love this: the mattress salesman at the store that actually carries these mattresses told us that the innards were exactly the opposite from what they were, and his sales manager agreed, even though there were little brass ID plaques on the mattresses and little brochures attached to each mattress, describing their construction. We didn’t realize the difference until the salesman at the store that doesn’t even carry these mattresses did some research and corrected our misinformation.)

It seems that the lack of knowledge of most of the salespeople in the industry is another factor that both countries share.

Any thoughts you could share on these would be SO appreciated. I know they are confusingly similar: Active vs. Air, etc.

The choice between memory foam and latex would really be a matter of preference but in either case I would want to know the quality of the material in the mattress so that no matter which I chose it would be high quality and more durable. In the case of memory foam this would be about its density and in the case of latex it would be about the type and blend of the latex that was being used.

In terms of the innerspring … the pocket coil would be a higher cost component so this and the higher cost of most latex should be reflected in the prices of the mattresses.

Both of these seem to me to be in the lower “value” range (priced higher than they should be which is typical of major manufacturers) but in terms of value … if they are the same price … I would have to say that subject to confirming the type and quality of the latex and memory foam in each … the latex/pocket spring is probably better value.

Btw, I tried to attach those .pdfs here, and couldn’t.

I downloaded them to my computer and then attached them to this post. When you click “add file” and then find it on your computer and click open … the last step is to click the “insert” button but this is only functional at the very bottom of the square (when the cursor changes to a hand) which is a minor bug in the template code on the site so this may have been the issue with not being able to attach it to your post.

Phoenix

E_GG_DEDICACE_ACTIF_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf

E_GG_DEDICACE_AIR_PREMIUM_2012_FC-2.pdf