I wish someone could point me in the right direction!

[phoenix]

Hi srockrae,

First stop, “The Original Mattress Factor”. I mean it met that local/regional criteria and was suggested. But when I look at the materials based on this site I feel like I am back to junk! The latex mattress they had “Serenity” had 5"s of 2.75 lb poly foam surrounded by latex. The only positive is that you can flip it but this does seem to break the rules of this site in terms of the core. All the memory foams were similiar and the innersprings only had low grade poly foam in them.

I’m not sure what information you’ve been reading on the site that somehow suggested that they were “junk” but Original Mattress Factory makes some very good quality and value mattresses. There is more about the OMF Serenity Latex in post #4 here and post #8 here and the posts they link to. If you compare the materials to the guidelines here you will see that it uses very high quality and durable materials and there are no weak links in the mattress. The same would be true for their Serenity memory foam mattresses and their two sided innerspring mattresses are also good quality/value choices in their budget range as well.

After visiting 3 more stores I realize that although this website is very informative in defining the needle, it does little to help me identify where in the haystack to look. That being said I am hoping someone can help me identify a particular bed to check out that might fit our needs.

Unfortunately only you can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone to be able to make specific recommendations or suggest a specific mattress or combination of layers or materials based on specs (either yours or a mattress), health conditions, individual circumstances, or “theory at a distance” (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

If you follow the 5 steps and the guidelines in the mattress shopping tutorial one at a time you will quickly narrow down your choices to the better ones and eliminate over 90% of the mattresses in the industry (and probably more) so you can focus your time and efforts on the better possibilities that are the most suitable, the most durable, and the best “value” for you based on all the criteria that are most important to you.

Two of the more important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to buy a suitable mattress that is the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks involved in each of them and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and value.

The best “shortcut” is to use the knowledge that you have gained from reading the tutorial to help you identify the most knowledgeable and transparent retailers and manufacturers in your area that carry the types of mattresses that you are interested in testing and that already know what you would otherwise need to learn. Some preliminary phone calls to the retailers and manufacturers on the list to make sure that they are transparent about their mattresses and to confirm that they have some mattresses on their floor that you are interested in testing can also help you save a great deal of time. Who you deal with can be one of the most important parts of a successful mattress purchase.

The all latex and memory foam mattresses seem to be too firm for us.

Both latex mattresses and memory foam mattresses come in a very wide range of firmness levels from very firm to very soft so if you are interested in either memory foam or latex mattresses it would be a matter of testing softer versions of each type of mattress.

Is there a quality built mattress out their that might fit our needs that we can go check out. Our budget it up to $3,000 for a King (Would love to spend less though but I just want value for the money).

For most people there will be a range of mattresses that would all be suitable, durable, and “good value” choices and there would be more than “one needle” and with the information here you would have a much smaller haystack where most of the hay has been removed.

Phoenix