My husband and I are ISO of a new mattress as our current is queen and we need to move up to a king as it is common that one of our children joins us in bed somewhere between 3 and 6 AM. We need more space so we get a good night sleep.
We had some family members watch the kids while we were visiting Rochester NY so we could go out to a store and sample some mattresses. My husband fell in love with the Prana Sleep Wahe Guru - and I have to be honest - it felt great. However, at 8K, it is way outside of our budget.
We returned to DC and have looked around at some local stores that carry latex mattress - tried one out at RoomandBoard and did no like their latex mattress at all.
Lucky for us, I found “the mattress underground” and I am hopeful that you can move us forward in this purchase.
If you need to know, my husband is about 5’10" and 200 lbs. He is a back sleeper. I am 5’’ 5" and 150 lbs and a side sleeper. Our most frequent visitors are my average sized 5 year old - or 2 year old.
I think my questions are:
Is there a mattress similar in feel to the Prana Sleep Wahe Guru that is a bit more reasonably prices. We are willing to spend on the right item - but the Prana was double the absolute top of our budget.
We are willing to go to a local retailer or order online. Can you recommend either for these for a purchase.
Any other key reminders in our shopping process
Thank you! This is really overwhelming and we have just been paralyzed with information / or lack there of.
You can read a bit more about the Prana mattresses in post #3 here. As you can see they all have thick layers of polyfoam over the latex so you are sleeping more on polyfoam than latex and they don’t have good value compared to many other mattresses that use similar amounts and quality of latex. There are many similar options available at much more reasonable prices.
Just in case you haven’t read it … post #1 here is always the best place to start when you are looking for a new mattress.
Some of the better options and possibilities in the Washington, DC area are listed in post #2 here. No matter who you are dealing with though … always make sure you can find out all the details of every layer in a mattress you are considering. This is the only way to assess the quality, value, and durability or the potential weak links of any mattress.
If you are comfortable going in an online direction then some of the members here that sell latex mattresses online and have among the best quality/value in the country are listed in post #21 here.
In terms of materials … yes … and at much better not just a bit better prices. You would need to asses how close they were in terms of feel and performance though. You may want to consider trying some of the Pure Latex Bliss mattresses (or any other talalay latex mattresses which is what is used in the Prana) to see how they compared in terms of feel and performance for you.
One step at a time following the guidelines in the “guidelines post” I linked earlier will give you the best possible odds finding your best mattress and most of all finding the “experts” that have the knowledge, experience, and integrity to help you make great choices.
I am also searching for a latex mattress in the Washington DC area. I did some screening ahead of time before I dragged my husband around. I liked the Dunlopian at Urban Mattress but I knew that it would not be firm enough for my husband. I brought him in anyway and that was the case. He did not like the solid latex mattresses but headed over to the Prana, which I had avoided because of the price. He really liked it.
We went across the street to Savvy Rest and didn’t like those either. I had tried the Pure Bliss or whatever it’s called at the Healthy Back store and didn’t like that either. I know that what my husband liked about the Prana was the firmness with the quishiness on top. I saw your warnings about that and will definitely take them under consideration.
We haven’t gone to American Foam Center yet. I’m going to reach the end of his patience for mattress shopping soon. What other brands on that list for N. Virginia have such latex mattresses? We’re willing to pay $3000 for a king but I don’t think anything else out there is worth more. There is a risk of a one sided mattress with too much of that pillow top material that can wear out over time.
I saw your discussion for the Boston area in this regard.
The better options and possibilities I’m aware of are in the Northern Virginia list which I think you’ve already seen but I’m not familiar with the specifics of all the mattresses each of them have on their floor (that would be more than anyone could keep up with for hundreds of retailers and manufacturers across the country in a constantly changing market) so you would need to call them to find out what they currently have available in the way of latex or even latex hybrid mattresses.
There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here and in some cases a higher priced mattress may be “worth it” for a particular person that has specific criteria that aren’t available in lower budget ranges but in general I agree with you that if you are looking at mattresses in much higher budget ranges that there would need to be a compelling reason that clearly indicated there was “enough” of a difference compared to similar mattresses that are in lower budget ranges to justify the higher cost based on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you. I would certainly make some very careful “value” comparisons.
This depends on the quality of the materials in a mattress but you are certainly correct that if there is too much lower quality materials in the upper layers of a mattress that there is a much higher risk that foam softening or breakdown can lead to the loss of comfort and support (which usually isn’t covered by a warranty) and the need to buy a new mattress much too quickly relative to the price you paid.
You have tried a fairly wide variety of latex mattresses and if none of the latex mattresses you have already tested or any others that you may still want to test don’t seem to be a good match for you then it may be worth considering other types of mattresses and materials or various latex hybrids because it may turn out that latex isn’t the material that you do best with or that you prefer. If a latex mattress with polyfoam layers on top of it seem to be the “best” latex mattress for you so far then that may be a good indication that similar latex mattresses with a similar quilting or “surface feel” may be the “best” version of latex for you.
In some cases … what we “want” to like and what we really do like or do best with may not be the same thing.