I'm so in need of help.

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

Hello. I am in need of some guidance here. I’m a big guy at 6’5 and 265lbs. I just returned a tempurpedic Cloud Supreme (after 3+1/2 weeks hoping it would work I realized it was just not offering enough support) and exchanged it for a Stearns & Foster Kathryn 13.5" Luxury Firm inner spring bed. I suppose those are about the two opposite extremes on the feel of a bed. My first night on the S&F which was last night was spent tossing and turning in pain from it being too hard. I got out of bed feeling like I had been beaten with a baseball bat. My wife, god bless her, can sleep on anything and calls me princess and the pea in regards to a bed. I wish I had as easy of a time sleeping as her! I suppose it would help to add that I am primarily a side sleeper but also sleep on my back.

At this point I’m at a loss regarding what I should do. The store I bought the beds from said they don’t usually do a second exchange. Although I suspect if I made a big enough stink they would. Maybe a topper is the answer?

I hoping someone else has gone through this and can offer some advice.

Thanks!

2

Hi Mirage_Man,

You are in a difficult situation similar where you are limited to an exchange at the store you purchased your mattress which may not have any good quality and value mattresses. Post #66 here and some of the other threads it links to talk about this in more detail and have some suggestions about some of the options that may be available to you. Exchanging for a mattress that has the least possible amount of lower quality polyfoam possible in the comfort layers and then adding your own comfort layers in the form of a topper can be among the better solutions in this case.

Adding a topper to the mattress you now have may also be a reasonable option but it would depend on the details of the layers that were in it. If your mattress contains too much lower quality polyfoam in the upper layers then with your weight even adding a high quality topper may not help as much as you hope and may only be a temporary solution anyway once the lower density foams start to soften underneath the heavier parts of your body.

If you can let me know which store you purchased from and which mattress you purchased (a link would be great) I can take a look and may be able to give you some suggestions or thoughts that are a little more specific.

I should also mention that all new mattresses will go through an initial period of softening in the first few weeks and you may also go through some kind of adjustment period when you change from one type of mattress to another so even if adding a topper to what you have is the direction you choose to go it would be worth waiting until the initial break in period and your own adjustment period has stabilized before deciding on which topper may be best.

Phoenix

3

Thanks for your reply!

The mattresses were purchased from Mattress Firm here in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I spoke with the manager last night and they said they would do another exchange or even a refund if I so desired. I’m sure I’d have to eat some delivery fees or something. The bed I have in my home now is the Stearns and Foster Kathryn seen here: http://www.mattressfirm.com/Stearns-and-Foster-Kathryn-13-5-Luxury-Firm-P276.aspx

On a side note I stopped at a local Sleep Number store last night and tried out their offerings. The ILE they have on sale right now was pretty comfy. I don’t know what the general consensus is about those beds but I wouldn’t be opposed to one of them I think.

4

Hi Mirage_Man,

If you have the option of a refund at a reasonable cost that’s certainly the direction I would personally go. In my opinion you would lose much less than you would gain by having the chance to start all over again and look at much better quality and value mattresses. The prices of the Kathryn are much higher than even an all latex mattress for example (even though it uses much lower quality materials) and many other higher quality and value choices made by smaller independent manufacturers.

I am not a fan of airbeds and there is more about the reasons why in this article.

Some of the better options and possibilities in the Tampa Bay area are listed in post #143 here.

If you do have the chance to start all over again (and you would be one of the fortunate few) … then post #1 here and the information it links to will help you avoid most of the worst choices (including chain stores and major brands) and focus on the better ones and lists the steps that will help you find them.

Phoenix

5

Ok, I thought you would say to return it and that was my feeling as well. The only problem is don’t have my old bed. They took it when they delivered the tempurpedic bed. So I would need something fairly quickly. My wife has grown ever increasingly annoyed with this whole process and me. What makes the situation worse is we financed the current bed as we don’t have the cash on hand to lay out for $3000 bed. So whatever we would replace the S&F with would either have to be around $1000 or be able to finance.

Now I’ve read as much as I can digest on this site. My question is how in the world would I know what to have someone build for me without actually laying and sleeping on it? I mean I understand what the materials are and how they are used but in a real world what does it mean to me? I’m all for buying a bed that uses quality materials and craftsmanship. I guess this where a consumer needs help from someone that is not just trying to make a commission on a bed sale. This is why I so greatly appreciate this site and ones like it.

6

Hi Mirage_Man,

I’m not sure how long you have until the refund option expires but at least you still have some time to start over again and buy something with better quality/value because hopefully you don’t have to do the refund right away.

There are many places with better mattresses that offer financing so this may still be an option with a new purchase.

Post #1 I linked earlier is the most important information on the site and will tell you how to bypass the need to become the expert yourself and focus instead on finding the experts who already know what you would otherwise need to learn. I would strongly discourage anyone from trying to design their own mattress. The steps in the post and the information it links to will help you make good choices but most importantly help you recognize the manufacturers and retailers that can give you the guidance you need. The better ones will already know what you are “studying” (and don’t need to) so all you need to do is test mattresses and listen to your body and the guidance you will have and the more basic information on the site will help you make sure that what you are buying doesn’t just provide you with the PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) but that the quality of the materials in the mattress will also be good (so that it maintains it’s comfort and support for longer) and you will also know that what you are paying represents good value.

I would take it step by step.

Hopefully you have read (or scanned) the basic information in step 1.

The next step (step 2) is to know what to eliminate (chain stores and major brands especially) so that you don’t waste a lot of time dealing with people or testing mattresses where you won’t be able to find out what is in them or know what you are buying. This is also outlined in the post. This will save you huge amounts of wasted time.

The next step (step 3) is to find the better options in your area (which I’ve given you) and to talk to them and then visit the ones that most interest you and that you confirm will tell you what is inside the mattresses they sell and have the knowledge to help educate you about the real differences between their mattresses (beyond the marketing). this step (talking to them first and then visiting the ones that you want todeal withy) will also save you huge amounts of time.

Step 4 is to test mattresses so you can “feel” the differences that the information talks about … most particularly in terms of the differences between different materials. The same post links to information that will help you test mattresses more objectively and the people that you found in step 3 will help you with this as well. This site can also be a backup to make sure you are getting accurate information. At this point you would narrow down your choice to one at each place you are dealing with.

Step 5 is to choose the"best of the best" among the “final choices” you have made at each retailer or manufacturer based on your own personal value equation (and there is more information about how to do this as well in the same post)

If you follow these steps then the odds are very high of making a great choice that is not only suitable in terms of your needs and preferences but also great quality and value as well.

If you follow these steps then the information here will be more to help you recognize the “experts” and to “fact check” what you are being told rather than a course in how to design your own mattress based on “theory at a distance” which is never as accurate as your own personal testing.

What you do at home on the internet and on the phone can save you a great deal of time when you are testing mattresses because who you buy from and their ability to help and guide you can be just as important as what you choose to buy.

None of this makes it 'easy" of course … but it makes it much “easier” and more importantly you will know what you are buying. Your feedback about the retailers and manufacturers in the area will also add to the information in the forum so it will be even easier for the next person in the same area.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

Phoenix

7

Again thank you for your help. Your last post helped a bunch.

Can you help with one thing that has come up after talking to two local manufacturers? One says a boxspring will extend the life of anspring matress and the other says the opposite. Which is right and why?

8

Hi Mirage_Man,

There is no fixed “rule” here because there are many different types of innersprings and many mattress designs that can be built around each of them. You can read more about box springs vs a firm non flexing foundation in post #2 here.

If you were being told this by two different manufacturers who make their own mattresses (not just salespeople at a store who may not know) then it would probably be safe to say that they are both correct when it comes to the specific design of their own mattresses and I would follow their individual recommendations.

Phoenix

9

Ok, a little update.

I went by Innomax and Bodyrest today. All they had at Innomax were memory foam and latex beds. I like a couple of the MF beds but the latex beds they had were too firm fro me.

Bodyrest on the other hand had a latex bed the Panache Belissima that I really liked. They also had a couple individual wrapped coil beds with talalay in the comfort layer that were really nice too. One was the Bonsai they other a pillow top version of the same. The Panache is considerably more than the Bonsai. I don’t know if it’s propper to post pricing here or not.

10

Hi Mirage_Man,

You’re absolutely welcome to post pricing here. It would also be helpful to list any further details of the mattress layering you know so the priced can be “matched” to the materials and components and it would be helpful as well to mention the size and whether it was mattress only (which makes it easier to make comparisons).

They don’t mention the specific layering of either but the Belissima looks like it is mostly latex (with some polyfoam in the quilting and as a base layer) while the Bonsai looks like it has one layer of latex mixed in with mostly polyfoam and the innerspring.

Phoenix

11

Yeah, that’s certainly what it looks like to me. I’m on my way down there again now to have another look and hopefully get more specific details on the Bonsai as I think the Panache is just out of my budget.

Pricing for Bonsai King with foundation delivered: $1275

Does that sound fair for what it appears to be?

12

Hi Mirage_Man,

I’d need to know the details of the layering before I could make any meaningful comments about it. I would particularly want to know the particulars of the polyfoam layers (thickness and density) to identify any potential weak links in the mattress and of course the thickness of the latex would be a “value” consideration as well.

Phoenix