Moved into different house about 3 years ago and quickly needed a king bed. We were sick of sleeping on an air mattress and wound up rushing into a purchasing a bedroom set from a furniture store going out of business. I had heard of how great latex beds were and had felt latex toppers in the past that felt great. I had not done any research and knew nothing about the different types of latex. Normally I research and probably over analyze everything but we just went with it because there were other more important things to deal with. We paid too much for a Posturecraft king, that felt great in the store. After about a year there was severe hammocking in the center and after 2 years we wound up sleeping on an old spring mattress with a costco memory foam topper. That was a huge upgrade.
Up until this past December we researched and looked at other options, but for some reason had not come across this website. I spent around 5K and am in the middle of the sleep trial of a Comfortaire Elite 2. I’ve pretty much given up on it and cannot get past the air mattress feel and the value for how it feels. It also feels like it is hammocking in the middle after a night sleep. It isn’t terribly uncomfortable, but it should be pretty awesome for 5k. I am 5’6 145 and my wife is about 5’, 100# so we are not big people. I am a side sleeper and my wife is either side or back. I wouldn’t have done it if it were not for the risk free trial. They are even paying shipping both ways.
I really liked the PLB Nutrition that we tried at mattressusa, but with the past experience with the poor quality latex we went with the comfortaire. Mattressusa also seemed a little shady to me. Any time I asked for details on different mattresses they could not really provide useful information and kept steering us towards TempurPedic (which we do not like the feel of). Also they would not provide their return policies in writing.
Looking through all of the information on this site I am leaning towards contacting sleepez. The sleepez 13000 is half the price of the PLB Nutrition, and I like the fact that the layers can be adjusted orreplaced. PLB however is local. For either the sleepez or the PLB, has anybody had any issues with hammocking or any other issues after 1-2 years? If I can get 5 good years out of either of them I would rather pay half as much and not be as annoyed about replacing. They both look like they are good quality.
Which mattress did you have your experience with poor quality latex? I’m asking because many mattresses that are described as “latex” often contain other foams in the mix and in some cases only have much smaller amounts of latex “buried” in the deeper layers and fairly thick layers of other less durable materials on top.
Hammocking can come from several causes. The first one is a mattress that is too soft for your body type or sleeping positions which means that the heavier parts of your body can sink down too far and put your spine out of alignment. Preventing this depends on making the right choice in terms of the firmness of the support layers and the thickness and firmness of the comfort layers and has little to do with the quality of the materials.
The second cause of hammocking is the result of the gradual softening of the foam in the mattress. When this happens a mattress that was initially a good match for you and inside your “range” in terms of support/alignment becomes softer under the heavier parts of the body and they will sink in more deeply than when the mattress was new resulting in the loss of support/alignment. This is independent of any visible impressions in the mattress and isn’t covered by warranty (unless the material also has visible impressions with no weight on the mattress that are deeper than the warranty exclusions which is usually not the case). This will also be affected by the suitability of your original choice because a mattress that is “on the edge” of being too soft for you can cross the line into being too soft more quickly with just a small degree of softening than a mattress that was “on the edge” of being too firm and has more “room” for the materials to soften.
Both of the mattresses you are looking at use blended Talalay latex (in the case of SleepEz it’s one of the options you can choose) which is a very durable material and will maintain its firmness for longer than other types of foam materials. You can also read a little more about the different types of latex in post #6 here and there is more about the factors that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to each person in post #4 here and the posts it links to.
The advantage of a local purchase is that you can test it for PPP before you purchase it but there are fewer options to do any fine tuning after a purchase (you would be limited to a mattress exchange if they offer it or using different types of mattress protectors, mattress pads or toppers to do any fine tuning). Post #32 here also includes some sources for PLB mattresses that ship across the country that you can use to make some “value” comparisons with your local store.
The advantage of the SleepEz mattresses (besides any cost difference for a mattress with a similar amount of the same type of latex) is that you can customize the firmness levels or each layer and re-arrange or exchange the layers after a purchase to fine tune the mattress in terms of PPP. A component mattress with individual layers and a zip cover can also allow you to replace just a single layer if it softens or breaks down faster than the others (typically the top layer) rather than replacing the complete mattress.
Just in case you haven’t read it yet … some of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the Atlanta area are listed in post #2 here.
Which one is the best “value” for you would depend on the parts of your personal value equation that were most important to you and as you mentioned both of them use good quality durable materials.
Assuming that the mattress you choose is a good initial “match” for you in terms of PPP and isn’t on the edge of being too soft, they should both last you significantly longer than 5 years.
Posturecraft/comfortpedic or whatever they are calling themselves these days. Warranty wasn’t an option because they changed their name, factory burned down, removed website and contact numbers, etc. I found out after the fact they are a low end mfr so who knows what they are actually made of. We fell for the pitch in the store and needed something right away. The only latex was probably the word written on the label. I measured the impression and it was >1 3/4" but it didn’t matter since the company could not be contacted.
That was the case with the previous latex since it was good for awhile… With the Comfortaire we have the settings pretty low and it feels like not enough support. With the settings higher I wake up with my shoulder and hip in pain, being a side sleeper. Their spec states the comfort layer is 5lb. Gel Infused Visco.
I actually did check out the links for local outlets plus the overview and the details pages. With so many combinations and variables it is difficult to compare without sleeping on a mattress for a month. That is also one of the reasons why a component mattress looks good. Our spare bed is some kind of Serta gel memory foam manufactured by Sleep Innovations. It was too firm so we threw the Costco topper on it and it is pretty good. In about a month we will probably try the Sleepez unless something else pops up, and hopefully it will be our last mattress purchase for awhile.
We also tried (in a store) an inner spring/latex hybrid. It was pretty comfortable but a little “springy”. I will probably check that out as well since it is local.
The mattressUSA guy was also trying to sell the Nutrition and said we needed a PLB topper with it for another $500 or so. When I start dealing with guys like that it just turns me off to the whole thing.
If it was Posturecraft (Comfortpedic is a west coast manufacturer and comforpedic is a mattress made by Simmons) then they are back in business and still have the same name. They moved to Plantersville from Double Spings after the fire but were back up an running in only a few months and you should be able to contact them now to make a warranty claim if you still have the mattress.
This is one of the weaknesses of airbeds which don’t have any “progressive” support and can sag in the middle even though you can change the firmness of the support system with manual adjustments. At least the 5 lb memory foam layer is a good quality material.
Savvy Rest has a retailer in Alpharetta called The Green Pear (which I just added to the list) which has a very comparable component mattress to SleepEz with similar layer choices may give you a good reference point if they are close enough to you.
It’s unfortunate when a retailer is more focused on their profit and the size of the sale than they are in your best interests. Unfortunately it’s much too common in the industry.
Thank you for your reply. It was definitely Posturecraft. The only contact information I could find last year was through a local news article about the fire and their pending move and a few BBB complaints. Website was down, phone was disconnected, emails got returned. I figured it a total loss and had the Comfortaire delivery take it away in late December. A search now looks like their website is back up and my old mattress the LumbarPedic is on there although they are not indicating it as latex. There is no spec sheet on it, just a photo (that looks different than mine). It annoys me that they are back up because I would have contacted them for a warranty claim and not just discarded the mattress.
I saw the Green Pear retailer on your link but couldn’t find them in any search other than Facebook, and a note says by appointment only. The weblink they provide is for Savvy Rest. The address they provide is about an hour away but it is probably worth the trip to check out if I can make an appointment… Thanks again.
That’s unfortunate because they were back up and running in December (this is a copy of their site from Dec 15th). I don’t know what their warranty exclusion is for visible impressions (it’s typically 1.5" to 2" in the industry) but you could have made a warranty claim in December.
I was quite surprised that they were back up and running as quickly as they were after that kind of unfortunate disaster.
They don’t have a website that I know of and very little web presence but it may be worth a phone call to see what they have available for testing at their showroom (not all Savvy Rest dealers carry both Talalay and Dunlop in all the firmness levels).
Wound up stopping back into the Mattress USA store in Norcross to look at the PLB again and have to say I got a really good salesperson (as good as a mattress salesperson can be I guess). It’s got to be a tough, thankless job…worse than a used car salesperson. Nothing against either, just both tough jobs that have a lot of competition. He was good. We kept an open mind and looked at 4 alternatives.
Also stopped by the Green Pear place to see what they had. Unfortunately the person I spoke with was on vacation so I couldn’t talk to anyone. They had one SleepSavvy setup that I wasn’t too impressed with, especially for the pricing. I didn’t spent much time with it and I wish that there could have been someone there to talk to, switch layers around, or whatever.
How do the Flobeds and SleepEZ beds compare to the SleepSavvy ? I don’t mind paying more money for something of better quality or better return/exchange policy? The PLB Nutrition felt nice, but I like the thought of being able to customize layers and adjust the feel. Sill unsure but hopefully getting close.
All three are component mattresses where you can choose the type and firmness of each of the layers, re-arrange or exchange layers, come with a zip cover. All three have the specific details of the layers they offer and the details of each layer on their site.
With Savvy Rest you can choose either 100% natural Talalay or 100% natural/organic Dunlop in each layer. They only offer 3" layers.
With SleepEz you can choose either 100% natural Talalay, blended Talalay, 100% natural Dunlop or on request organic Dunlop as well. They also come in 3" layers except for the 9000 which has a top layer that is 2".
With FloBeds you have the choice between 100% natural Talalay or blended Talalay. They also have a 2" convoluted top layer that is their “standard” top layer (although you can also request a solid layer) and their vZone also offers the option of customized zoning.
The exchange policies are different and the details are on each site but SleepEz and Flobeds also have a money back return policy which Savvy Rest doesn’t.
You can read more about the different types of latex in post #6 here but they all use very high quality materials and components and have no weak links in their mattresses.
Just wanted to follow up. Wound up going with Flobeds and couldn’t be happier. It is so comfortable and exceeded my expectations. Dealing with Flobeds was easy as well and they were a pleasure to deal with. I just need to be home long enough to fully enjoy the bed. The only drawback is that it is so comfortable that now the hotel beds I sleep in are not at all comfortable.
On a side note, Comfortaire customer service was also great. I received my full refund from the sleep trial a short time after I sent everything back. The only hassle was boxing everything up for shipping. They had included delivery and setup and I thought that they would have also picked everything up using the same shipping company.
Thanks for letting us know what you ended up deciding and I’m glad to hear that your mattress return was relatively “painless”.
As you know … I think highly of Flobeds and you certainly made a great quality choice and it sounds like with their help you also chose the combination of layers that was perfect for you.
Congratulations on your new mattress
That should end your “mattress shopping experiences” for many years!
Follow up after 1 year. This Flobed is hands down the best I have slept on and I look forward to getting into it every night. Support is still the same as the day I put it together.
