Lack of mattress info...

[phoenix]

Hi bludwig,

A forum search on Croydon (you can just click this) will bring up more comments about them and as you will see, I also ran into the same barriers that you did. For a local mattress manufacturer to be this vague and as you say even “irritated” to have to answer these types of questions is unusual to say the least. I was hoping that my experiences with them were not the norm but it appears that this is part of the “Croydon culture”. There is no legitimate reason for this IMO because they order the materials that they use to build their mattresses and the kind of information you were asking for should be normal for a manufacturer. Some of my comments you will see in the forum search include (to give examples for others who may read this) …

They also make mattresses using a range of materials but the value here is not quite in the same range as other local manufacturers. I also had some difficulty getting answers to my more specific questions and he is not as focused on materials and tends to generalities more than most most factory directs.

They seem to me to be producing good quality mattresses but I would have some questions that I would want to answer before before I could form a better opinion about their value. In a brief conversation with them I got the sense that they are not as materials focused as I would personally like to see and I would want to know the density of any polyfoam they are using, the type of latex they are using, and the density of any memory foam they are using. While they would IMO represent better value that similar mattresses that were available at mass market outlets … they don’t seem to be in the same value range as many other factory direct manufacturers that I have talked with and I would want to talk with him more and ask some further questions (that I had some difficulty getting answers to) before I felt completely comfortable with them. I personally don’t understand why a mattress that is selling for well over $2000 (queen) would use 2" of 1.5 or 1.8 lb less expensive polyfoam in a quilting layer over either memory foam or latex. I am also curious why they are in some cases adding thick layers of polyfoam under a mattress that doesn’t seem to need it (as in the Heavenly Sweet Dream). Overall I would want more information than I currently have to understand their design ideas and justify their prices in comparison to other factory directs.

From your responses from them …

“We use only foams that are a 1.5 or above in everything we make and the visco is a minimum of 3lbs.”

This means little to me. While 1.5 is better than the cheapest polyfoam of 1.2 or less … it is still not great quality and I know many manufacturers that use this in their low end mattresses. If they are using better foam in their top end … they should have this information available. 3 lb memory foam may be suitable for a thin quilting layer but I wouldn’t consider a mattress that used it as their memory foam comfort layer unless it was in the very low budget range. While I understand that they may not offer this information to everyone because quite frankly it would not mean much to most consumers who don’t know how to tell the difference between good and lower foam quality … it should be easily available for those who want to know and ask.

“Sorry, can’t help you and I don’t know any manufacturer that uses a 1.8 foam layer in their mattress. I use that on my top all polyurethane mattress, but I do not use it as a topper. As for a 4lb memory foam, my toppers are not 4 lb, they are 3lb. I do use 4lb, but it is for my all foam thermopedics.
Good luck in your search, I’m sure someone will tell you they have it in their mattress.”

All I can say to this is that he must not know many good manufacturers. It’s also strange because on their own website they say that they use 5 lb memory foam. Is their own site not accurate?

Will a mattress with memory rated at 4+ and poly rated at 2+ cost me more than $1500? I may be asking for too much when I couldn’t afford that caliber foam. Granted the mattress in question was about $1000, I just want to make sure I don’t sound unreasonable.

IMO … your expectations seem reasonable but you didn’t mention the size you were looking for or whether your prices included a foundation or were mattress only and this could make a difference. Post #12 here has a list of online outlets that have better memory foam outlets (several of which are members here) and these can act as a rough reference point for a local purchase. While these are all very good value … local purchases should at least be reasonable close to these. Of course the prices go up with the contents of the mattress so the thickness of the memory foam layers you want will affect the price but for a mattress with 3" - 4" of 4 lb or higher memory foam over a good 1.8 - 2.0 lb (or higher) base your prices seem to be well in the range (depending again on the size and whether it is mattress only).

I know it is difficult to tell, with such little information, but do you think getting a mattress from Croydon isn’t a good idea? The mattress is 16" thick with 3" of 3lb memory foam, which leaves 13" for springs and at least 1.5lb. polyfoam. Does this seem like a no-no? or do we need more info to say good or bad?

I would be very hesitant to buy any mattress with a combination of 3 lb memory foam and thick layers of 1.5 lb polyfoam unless a very low price justified it. I probably wouldn’t consider it at the prices they are probably charging for it. I would also not feel great about dealing with a manufacturer that made it so difficult to get important information. They are missing the boat IMO.

The bottom line is that you were asking all the right questions … but they weren’t giving you good answers. This is exactly the reason the questions need t be asked and it seems to confirm my impressions from talking with them as well.

Phoenix