Hi shadowman1jb,
I think that testing mattresses made by major manufacturers can end up doing more to confuse than to help because no matter how they feel in a showroom … you are making a blind purchase and since you can’t feel quality or durability all that happens is that you waste a lot of time testing mattresses that aren’t worth buying but also can’t be used as a reference point or compared to other mattresses. This is the reason for the first guideline in this article which suggests avoiding them completely (and the chain stores that sell them) The only exception I would consider is if I knew the quality of all the materials and layers and they were good quality materials and value which unfortunately you aren’t likely to find. Excluding the worst choices (which is probably about 75% of them or more) will help you focus on the better ones without being overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of information or misleading information that you will encounter or worse yet spending the time and adding to the confusion.
There are also some guidelines in post #1 here which can greatly increase your chances of finding the most suitable mattress that has the best possible quality and value.
One of the mainstream mattresses that I would use though for testing purposes though is Tempurpedic because they can be a model for other memory foam mattresses with similar or better quality and much better value. Most manufacturers of memory foam mattresses have a good idea of how their mattresses compare to the various Tempurpedic models and some have even designed and tested their mattresses to be as similar as possible in terms of both feel and performance and the type of layering and materials inside.
I agree with your thoughts about the BBB and know many examples where good businesses have in effect been held to ransom by a single complaint (such as an “F” rating) which “magically” disappeared the day after they joined and changed to an “A”. while they do perform a service … they are not my favorite business (and that’s all they are). The article and video here done by ABC News also has some good information about the BBB that is well worth watching.
To me … how a business deals with complaints is much more telling than the complaints themselves. The bigger the business of course the more complaints there tends to be (just by the law of averages) so the number of complaints can also be misleading in some cases.
The soy gel foam is actually a comfort layer or a “transition” layer (memory foam or gel memory foam is too soft to be used as a support layer in any mattress although some memory foam is relatively more “supportive” than others and is used as a transition layer) and the support layer under all the memory foam is made of polyfoam. I’m not certain (and they will tell you when you talk with them) but I believe the density of their polyfoam is 2.1 lbs or higher.
I don’t know where this came from but they are exceptionally knowledgeable about memory foam and they use good quality materials in all their mattresses (or good quality within a budget range because the lowest budget mattresses may not have the same quality materials as higher budget mattresses). If you have any doubts about the quality of the materials they use I would encourage you to talk with them. They wouldn’t be able to compare their mattresses to the Comforpedic Seabrook but most manufacturers would have a good idea of how their mattresses compared or at least approximated the Tempurpedic lineup. They also sell Aerus, Sensus, and Venus memory foam so they would be well able to tell you how their Bayer memory foams compared to other types of memory foam. They have some videos here which can give you a sese of how different memory foams respond and will also custom build a memory foam mattress.
I think it’s good to question any so called “expert” or “consumer information” site because many of them are not what they seem to be. How the members of this site are chosen and its neutrality have all have been challenged in the forum on many occasions and this is as it should be from time to time. Nobody is infallible and information is constantly changing. The last paragraph in post #2 here and the articles and much more lengthy post it links to go into much more detail about how the members here are chosen (it’s by invitation only and most merchants wouldn’t qualify for membership unless they really were among the “best in the country” in some quantifiable way).
I would also say it’s much more accurate to say that I “follow” the better manufacturers rather than in any way lead them. They have been in existence for much longer than I or this site have and much of whatever I may know has come from talking with dozens of good people who have spent many years manufacturing mattresses and willingly shared years of knowledge, experience, and information with me.
I would certainly recommend any member of this site and would encourage anyone who has an interest in any of the mattresses they make to talk with them and ask any questions that they may have. They are all open, knowledgeable, and transparent and all of them in different ways have exceptional quality, value, and service. I was suggesting almost all of them as great choices long before this website existed or I even had any thought of putting it together.
Hope this helps and while it’s unfortunate that you spent the time with the Seabrook (or most mattresses from major manufacturers where the layering or quality of materials isn’t known). While some of the materials are better quality (you can see the general layering here) such as the latex under the memory foam … there are also some lower quality materials (such as the memory foam) and worse yet is that they go to such great lengths to keep the most important information about the quality of the materials they use invisible. While because of the lack of information it will have little value to you either as a purchase or as a point of reference … at least your experience with the Tempurpedic can be very helpful as a reference point.
Phoenix