Hybrid Latex Advice Sought -- Green Sleep Niu vs. Other Options

[phoenix]

Hi AnalogJ,

To make a long story short, throughout all these trials I discovered an important thing – what makes a bed comfortable and what makes it help align your body/spine for a good night’s sleep are two different things. Something many of you, I’m sure, already know, but, like Dorothy Gale, had to discover for myself.

I couldn’t agree with this more (as you know from the tutorial post which talks more about the two basic functions of a mattress) and I think that half the battle with shopping for a new mattress (and testing mattresses) is differentiating comfort/pressure relief from support/alignment. If anything alignment is a more important factor than “comfort” since the comfort can be adjusted if a mattress is too firm.

By the way, the pocket coils not only isolate my wife’s movements from my movements, but better separates the areas of my body that need to sink into the mattress and the parts that don’t.

Point elasticity and the ability to contour to the body shape is certainly one of the “strengths” of pocket coils compared to other types of innersprings and is one of the reasons they are so popular.

The Niu uses two 1.5" layers of natural Dunlop latex over either a coir (rubberized coconut fiber) over pocket coil support layer, or you can flip the support layer to the side without the coir (but with an extra layer of wool) for slightly softer support. Another nice thing about the mattress is that the sides are split, so each person can decide whether they want firmer or slightly less firm support side. There is some additional anti-sweat layer in the mattress’s design, and (I don’t know if this is one and the same or not), wool and organic cotton next to the organic cotton twill encasing. Smartly, if any layer ever needs to be replaced, the bed doesn’t need to be shipped out, just a new layer swapped in (as everything is exposed by unzipping the cover).

As you may know from reading the site … I’m a fan of component designs that can be customized to the individual needs and preferences of different sleepers on a mattress both side to side and top to bottom. While the Niu is in a higher budget range than other types of component mattresses that also use similar high quality materials … the most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is always PPP (see post #13 here). How well you sleep on a mattress (suitability) and how long you sleep well on a mattress (durability) are the two most important parts of a successful purchase and if the Niu is in a budget range that someone is comfortable with and it’s the best choice out of all your finalists based on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you then it would certainly be well worth purchasing although I would always make some careful value comparisons when you are in a budget range that is higher than the norm.

And THAT’S that quandary for me. Their 2" Talalay latex over pocket coils queen mattress with foundation (their solid foundation is comprised of steel slats and beams, but they also have a box spring if desired, which would give a bit more bounce) goes for about $1700, half of the price of the Green Sleep Niu. From my memory, I’m not sure I’m quite as absolutely perfectly aligned/balanced as I was on the Niu, but it’s close. I’m going to have to try both again. But the Gardner one feels bouncier and a bit softer than the Niu (with the coir over coil side up). I worry with the potentially faster breakdown or depression of the Talalay, the experience I have in the showroom may not last nearly as long as the experience I get with the Niu. Sure, at some point, if there is a real problem and my body feels awfully supported, Gardner will replace the latex. If they don’t exactly determine that the latex layer is officially defective, at the worst, they’d take the mattress back to their showroom and fix it at cost ($200-300 if it means a replacement of the 2" latex comfort layer). Not terrible, and certainly cheaper than the Niu in the short run. But given its features and build quality, is the Niu the better long-term purchase?

Whether the Niu is a “better” long term purchase is a question that can only be answered in retrospect (how well you sleep on a mattress and how long you sleep well relative to the price you paid) so this is something that only you can answer based on your testing and “best judgement” and the criteria that are most important to you. I know that there have been some issues with some of the latex that comes from Latex International over recent years but for what it’s worth they appear to be “over the hump” (and hopefully this will continue with their chapter 11 bankruptcy which should remove some of the financial pressures) and there have been many fewer reports of issues that I have heard about in the last few months. There are also other component innerspring/latex mattresses that may also be worth considering either locally or online although latex/innerspring component designs are less common (two examples are Bay Bed & Mattress and Berkeley Ergonomics). I think that the closest dealer for BE would probably be Fly By Night if you wanted to test them in person (they use Radium Talalay).

I really appreciate how accommodating Gardner is, and how hard they try, as well as how honest they seem to be. Interestingly, he shared with me that they’re continuously trying out new options. He showed me a whole bunch of coir and saris and jute samples that were sent to him, as well as horsehair samples. He then opened a couple of boxes that contained different Talalay and Dunlop samples, all with different densities.

This is part of the reason that I think highly of them as well.

Are there any other good options for us? Any advice on which way we might want to go here? I don’t think buying online would be a good option. Clearly I feel even minute differences. I feel a bit like the Prince and the Pea.

I don’t know all the specific mattresses that are available to you locally and I don’t have any specific advice other than to continue doing what you are doing and following the steps in the tutorial post until you believe that you have done “enough” research and are ready to make a final choice. Based on the care you are taking and the thought you are putting into this and of course the research you are doing I think you will certainly end up choosing between some great options

Phoenix