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.