Latexco double-sided in Birmingham and Sleep Harmony memory foam: what do you think?

[phoenix]

Hi Prohazard,

I think that personal testing would be far more effective than what I call “theory at a distance” in terms mf the suitability of any particular mattress but I’ll make a few comments about each of your choices in terms of things that may be worth paying attention to.

One memory foam by Sleep Harmony was called Bliss (1499 Queen) with 6" ventilated memory foam (made out of 2 3" layers) sitting on top of 6" high density memory foam.
? Does the ventilation actually achieve a cooler mattress compared to the traditional Mem Foams that sleep hot? Seemed like it did, by the way. Price was wayyyyy lower than Tempurpedic ($1499 for Queen Bliss). Is this basically as good as the pricier T-pedic? I thought it was perhaps a bit too hard but pretty good.

Glideaway/Sleep Harmony makes some good value memory foam mattresses and there are a few manufacturers that carry then instead of making their own and going through all the difficulties of prototyping and testing a mattress for the fire code. Comparing it to Tempurpedic though is a little difficult because the layering is different and I don’t know the density of the materials. If the foam quality (density) was the same in both the memory foam and the polyfoam support base … then they would be comparable but without the density numbers there is no way to know. I think that 6" of memory foam can be quite risky though … especially if part of it isn’t HD memory foam (7 or 8 lbs) and I would hesitate to choose any memory foam mattress this thick without some very careful testing. This is because memory foam can continue to sink over the course of the night and if you start off in alignment you could end up sinking in too far. Ventilation or hole punching memory foam will have some effect yes but by itself it may not be enough without other cooling factors (see post #6 here) especially with 6" of memory foam. Of course this will also depend on the person.

Another one was called Sleep Harmony Revitalize with pillowtop. It was more comfortable but had much more complicated construction with less memory foam and my main question is whether you think it would hold up as well. From top to bottom: The Pillowtop itself was 1.5" “comfort foam” + 1" of 4-pound ventilated memory foam. Then the rest of it was 2’ of 4-pound memory foam, them 1.5" of synthetic latex then 8" of “high density base foam”. Sounds like a lot of polyfoam, right? I have no idea whether it’s quality is good or bad or what to ask even. Pricing was $1450.

Again … without knowing the density of the layers in either mattress there really isn’t a way to know how it may compare in durability terms with another mattress. Polyfoam and memory foam density is the most important factor in it’s durability.

What do you think of Latexco latex? I guess this is their synthetic one (he handed me some printouts but they did not make it clear). The salesman had himself been reviewing some printouts off the internet about the 7-zone Latexco core (the “add file” button seems not to be working so I can’t show you but it is described here ).

I had several conversations with Tom while he was designing and building this mattress and it was designed to appeal to a wide range of people and sleeping positions. I have to say I really like the design. It uses natural Dunlop (not synthetic) in all the layers and has soft Dunlop (legitimately low ILD) in the comfort layer and also more in the the quilting. Unless he has changed the specs … I believe the comfort layers are 2" on each side and then there is an extra 1/2 an inch or in that range (I can’t remember exactly) in the quilting. The fact that it is two sided is a “value bonus” and will make a very durable mattress last even longer.

Latexco is one of the two main suppliers of Latex in north America and they supply several types of Dunlop latex and Radium Talalay as well as their own soft Dunlop toppers which they make in North America. I think they are a high quality supplier.

Overall this is a very high quality mattress and would be a very good choice IMO if your testing indicated that you had the pressure relief and alignment that you needed. It would be very adaptable to a wide variety of people and sleeping positions.

While I can certainly be accused of being biased … there is no doubt which direction I would be going in terms of quality, value, and durability but of course each person has their own individual needs and preferences and your personal experience and how it feels to you should always be the deciding factor.

Hope this helps

Phoenix