ISO vs Beautyrest

[phoenix]

Hi dpastor,

Still shopping for my guestroom mattress. First, I googled ISO and I keep getting reviews of their mattress pads, not their mattresses. Do you know of any showrooms in NYC where I can try them?

I think you mean OSO (not ISO) mattress? Try www.OSOSleep.com. They are an online-only company, so I am not aware of anywhere in NYC that would have one available for you to try.

I happened to be near a Beautyrest mattress store - and really liked the Legend Winward and, to a lesser extent, the World Class Bridgewater. Both are firm, with pocket coils, and lots of mystery foam. So, I can order one of those - hopefully at a discount through my friend, or I can get an ISO.

While I know you have a special situation where you’re able to procure some discounts on certain brand-name mattresses, and this is for a guest room, I would still advise caution when considering the major brands such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta, as they all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors, which is why I would generally suggest avoiding all of them completely (along with the major retailers that focus on them as well) regardless of how they may feel in a showroom along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see the guidelines here along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here).

Which ISO would approximate these models?

There is information in post #9 here about the different ways that one mattress can “match” or “approximate” another one. Every layer and component in a mattress (including the cover and any quilting materials) will affect the feel and performance of every other layer and component and the mattress “as a whole” so unless you are able to find another mattress that uses exactly the same type of materials, components, cover and quilting, layer thicknesses, layer firmnesses, and overall design (which would be fairly unlikely) then there really isn’t a reliable way to match one mattress to another one in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) based on the specifications of the mattresses (even assuming that you can find out all the specifications you would need for both mattresses you are comparing in the first place). This would be especially true with the traditional innerspring items you are comparing versus the OSO with the DreamCell layer.

The “bottom line” is that spending time testing major brand mattresses or any mattress where you can’t find out the specifics of the materials and components inside it and where it doesn’t use the same componentry on the inside as what you’re comparing it to can’t be used as a reference point to purchase another mattress that is “similar”.

Phoenix