Hope I picked a good one: Just ordered SleepEZ 8 inch special!

After a ridiculous amount of research and hours spent mining this forum, google, and talking with reps at my “finalists” sites, I just clicked order on a SleepEZ 8 inch special. Thank you so much to Phoenix and all the great dialogue on this forum!

Here’s why iI think that this purchase was right for me. I’ll be back to update after I get it, and again when I’ve had it for a few months. Maybe this will be helpful to someone else. I benefited so much from the information sharing I found here that I want to share my experience too!

The “finalists” were:

-Ultimate Dreams Freedom

-Ultimate Dreams Natural

-Brooklyn Bedding 10in Total Latex

and then the last minute dark horse candidate, the SleepEZ 8inch Special

My husband is a nearly 300lb back and side sleeper with 2 herniated disks and severe nerve pain.

I am a 200lb mama who is nursing a baby and sleeps on my side (and before I got pregnant was a stomach sleeper)

We currently have a 12 year old Sealy Posturepedic extra firm that I got as a $350 mattress/foundation special in grad school. It has been getting increasingly uncomfortable over the past 5 years and even with a topper it is pretty unbearable right now.

Our budget was $600 or less and we started thinking that we were going to get a traditional mattress. I tried a latex mattress at Ikea a few years ago and liked it very much (though the two models I tired, one was too firm and one was too soft) and have several friends who rave about their latex mattresses, so that’s been my closet hope but I thought they would cost thousands of dollars.

When I found the Dreamfoam on amazon it was interesting, then when I researched it more and found the site and the discount code i realized we might be able to make it work.

Then I learned about Brooklyn Bedding. After a lengthy online chat with BB and phone conversation with Chuck, I realized that given our weight and sleeping preferences, we needed at least 2 lb base foam and that latex would be a better option for comfort and durability. I have to say that Chuck and Jacob were so, so helpful, patient, informative, and if I were purchasing as a single person I would have stopped looking after talking to either one and purchased a mattress then and there. but…my husband is a big guy, together we are quite heavy, and I needed to talk to him before purchasing, so I had time to continue obsessing about the details before I decided to purchase:-)

I was happy with the three finalists, but something wasn’t quite right for me with each one:

UD Freedom, I really wanted :100% natural latex, or at least a blend as opposed to its 100% synthetic dunlop latex; a talalay top; and no soft layer. Having said that, if I could have ordered it as firm, medium, medium my husband and I probably would have gotten it. Chuck said I could order a medium layer later for an extra charge and swap it out myself for the soft, but couldn’t get it at the time of purchase as part of the mattress. I was also perplexed at the price jump from twin to queen (twin is $100 less than Natural and Queen is $100 more than Natural…)

UD Natural: I couldn’t quite grasp the nuances of 2lb vs 2.17 foam, but everyone I talked to was certain that 1.5 would not be a lasting option for us given our combined weight; wasn’t sure if we would have any compression/sagging issues; and wasn’t sure if I wanted dunlop as the top material. My husband and I were debating hard between the Freedom and the Natural and it was very close, but we were likely going to go with the Freedom.

BB Total Latex 10in, I really wanted this one, but the price was way beyond our budget even with discounts/sales/etc. At this price, I didn’t really want to make any compromises. I would have preferred 100% natural Talalay to blend, but that wasn’t such a big deal. Also, I would have preferred being able to customize my side vs my husband’s side, but that wasn’t a deal breaker. We just couldn’t get to the price.

Then, right before I clicked to purchase the Freedom I found a thread on SleepEZ. I spent all day going through thread, searches, and their site.

The 8 inch special seems to be the best compromise for us.

-$600 less than the BB Total Latex, and $400-$500 more than the UD options we were considering
-1 inch less talalay in the top layer, but it’s 100% natural instead of a blend
-no bamboo/wool cover, but I can live with that (just a plain cotton stretch cover with fire retardants–I would have preferred all wool and cotton cover with no bamboo and no fire retardants, but that was not an option with any of the mattresses we were considering)
-ability to customize my husband’s side
-great return policy (just $30 to exchange one layer, and then cost of shipping for any additional layers). Hopefully we’ll get it right the first time, but if not there is an affordable, straightforward, convenient way to try and fix it
-because of the zip off cover, we can customize/replace components down the line. If I find a cotton/wool cover I like and can afford I can swap it out. If we want to change a layer, we can. If the top layer starts to breakdown, we can change it. If at some point we want to get a 3 inch top layer and a new cover, we can. So, I feel like this mitigates some of the risk of making a purchasing error, and/or break-down in the future.

This is a much more significant mattress purchase than I thought we would be making, but hopefully it’s the right choice for us and my husband and I will enjoy significantly improved sleep (when we aren’t up with the baby:-) and reduction in neck/joint/back/nerve pain.

Hi rumplestiltskin,

Thanks for sharing all the feedback about your research and for letting us know what you ended up deciding.

You certainly did some good research and were looking at some great options and I know that it can be difficult to make a final choice when there are no clear winners between them.

Having said that … you certainly ended up making a great quality/value choice … and congratulations on your new mattress :slight_smile:

I’m looking forward to your feedback when you receive it and have had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.

Phoenix

It’s here and we are unpacking it:-)

After I took off our old mattress I could see again what the base of our bed looks like:-) It’s wood slats that are 3.25 in apart. Will it work to put the latex mattress directly on them or is that too far apart?

Another option is putting it on top of our old “boxspring” foundation. It’s basically hard (just barely flexs to the touch) but the top has what feels like very heavy metal coils just under the surface.

So excited to get this set up!

Hi rumplestiltskin,

I’m assuming that your slats are 1x3’s (which would measure 2.5" x .75")? I normally suggest slats that are 3" or less apart (less is better) for a latex mattress so yours are a little more than the guidelines. This is one of those situations where you will need to use “best judgement”. It would “probably” be OK in the short and medium term but if you want a little bit less risk over the long term and a little bit more evenly supportive surface then you can always add a bed rug on top of your slats.

I would avoid using a box spring that flexes.

Phoenix

Thank you so much! We just put it down over the slats and for the long term, we will likely get a bed rug.

We haven’t even slept on this bed yet, but WOW just sitting on it, playing with the baby, etc. it is amazing!

When we moved the old box spring, it turns out one of the metal coils was broken, and the mattress was 11+ years old, so obviously, anything would have been a huge improvement. But I can’t wait to sleep on this tonight. I want to replace my son’s mattresses now too, so I think we’ll be getting the Roma or 6in special for his bunk beds in the near future (unless there is a less expensive 100% natural latex option you would suggest:-)

Also, I was considering ordering some extra firm latex and cutting it to fit inside our sofa cushions to replace the foam in there that is getting worn out. Has anyone done that before?

Hi rumplestiltskin,

Latex is a much more costly material than polyfoam and most people would use higher grades of polyfoam for their sofas or couch but there are certainly people who like the feel of sitting on latex as much as they like sleeping on it or that prefer more natural materials that have used firmer versions of latex for their couch in spite of the additional expense. I would make sure that you wrap the latex with a fiber material such as dacron (or wool if you are OK with higher costs as well) to better fill in the sofa cushions to prevent wrinkling and shifting and help the sofa cushions to keep their shape.

Phoenix