Looking for a Queen size coil/microcoil with Talalay Latex in North NJ/NYC

Hi, this site has been such a great source of information! I am coming off at 14 year old Simmons BackCare Inglewood that recently has to give both my wife and I slight lower back pain in the morning. Time for a new mattress!

After reading many many posts and tutorials on this site, and checking out a couple of local ‘recommended’ stores, I think we know what type of mattress I want but it the local stores are very expensive. We have narrowed our search down to an interspring (coil and/or microcoil) with a Talalay Latex top (1-3"); however at the local Urban Natural or Scott Jordan, such a mattress with foundation is mid-$2K or more (although very nice pieces). Are there any recommendations in the $1000-1200 range? For more context, my wife and I are side-sleepers, 135 and 175lbs, respectively, and average/modest shoulders and hips. Many thanks for any advice on more moderately priced modes/stores!

Hi GIGmatty,

I would be cautious about using criteria for a mattress that are so restrictive that it would exclude almost all of the mattresses that are available in the industry because there could be many mattresses that don’t match your specific criteria that could be a very good choice for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your personal preferences) that use durable materials and are good value as well.

I would also keep in mind that the overall design of a mattress will be a more important factor in whether a mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) than the specific components in a mattress. While some mattresses that use the materials and components you are looking for may be a suitable choice in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP … other mattresses that use the same materials and components but have a different design or firmness level may be completely unsuitable for you to sleep on.

I also doubt that you will find a good quality mattress that uses the components you are mentioning and doesn’t have any lower quality materials or weak links in its design in the budget range you are working with.

While I can certainly help with “how” to choose … It’s not possible to make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress, manufacturers/retailers, or combinations of materials or components because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more reliable than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

If you are in the general New York City area then the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area (subject to making sure that any mattresses you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines I linked earlier in this reply) are listed in post #2 here. There is also a forum list for the Monroe Township/Newark, NJ. area in post #7 here (with a lot of overlap).

I don’t keep a record of the individual mattresses or their specs that the retailers and manufacturers in the hundreds of forum lists throughout the forum carry on their floor or have available online (it would be a bigger job than anyone could keep up with in a constantly changing market) but checking their websites and making some preliminary phone calls to the retailers/manufacturers that are on the local lists is always a good idea before you decide on which retailers or manufacturers you wish to deal with anyway. This will tell you which of them carry mattresses that would meet your specific criteria, are transparent about the materials in their mattresses, and that carry the type of mattresses that you are interested in that are also in the budget range you are comfortable with. Once you have checked their websites and/or talked with the ones that interest you then you will be in a much better position to decide on the ones that you are most interested in considering or visiting based on the results of your preliminary research and conversations.

While it isn’t a complete list of mattresses that contain the materials and components you are looking for … off the top of my head both Naturepedic and Berkeley Ergonomics make mattresses that have an innerspring support core and microcoils and talalay latex comfort layers.

There are many people who also prefer latex/innerspring hybrids (see post #13 here) if you are open to considering a mattress without a microcoil then some of the better innerspring/latex options I’m aware of are listed in post #2 here and the post it links to but if you wish to test any of them in person you would need to check their websites or call them to see if any of them have a dealer close to you.

Phoenix

Hi Phoenix,

Many thanks for your very quick response. Regarding your comment on using restrictive criteria (which I agree with!), since there are so many choices in configurations and lying on a mattress for 10 minutes in a store doesn’t tell you long term affects on PPP, I generally fine most of them comfy. So I thought it would be prudent to select the configuration (innerspring with latex on top) that many people on this site has had good experiences with. I did not mean to imply that I was only looking at mattresses with microcoils :slight_smile:

The all latex options (at least locally) seem to be very expensive (approx $3K soup to nuts), which is why I thought the innerspring with top latex layer (the so-called hybrids) would be a very good choice. As my post suggests below, I 'm also finding that this option locally is also pricey.

I also recently visited Sholvin in NJ, and while really enjoyed meeting them and their expertise (including the owner), their mattresses too are on the pricey side. One thing that was interesting was that they were going to include a separate (removable) pillow-top on either their Nirvana latex mattress or hybrid “sweet dreams” (innerspring with 3" talalay latex). I would have thought that sleeping directly on say a 24 IDL latex top would be preferred, so would love your thoughts on adding the pillow-top.

So it seems from the NY/NJ area such mattresses (from Urban Natural, Sholvin, or Scott Jordan) are all in $2K+ range (with the foundation). But reviewing other of your member vendors, it seems that similar offerings can be a lot less expensive. For example, Oklahoma Mattress seems to offer a innerspring mattress with a 3" talalay top (similar to the hybrid from Sholvin) but in the mid-$1000 range.

Hi GIGmatty,

A separate topper can “act” a little more independently and “feel” a little softer outside a cover than it will by having the same layer inside the cover (see posts #3 and #4 here and the first page of posts in this topic).

It would also have the advantage of being able to replace just the topper without replacing the entire mattress if it softens or breaks down before the upper layers in the mattress (which is likely because a sleeping system will tend to soften or break down from the top layers down) or if your needs or preferences change over time and a topper can also help extend the useful life of a mattress underneath it as well.

Phoenix

Hi Phoenix,

The pillow-top is not a thick topper per se, but actually relatively thin (you could pinch it flat between your thumb and pointer) and made of foam (not latex) weaved in a soft fabric. The salesperson stated that since it was thin that it would not affect the Posture and alignment or Pressure relief characteristics of the bed (either the hybrid or latex). Does this make sense?

Also, any insight on why similar beds from a recommended dealer like Oklahoma Mattress appears significantly less expensive apples-to-apples than these NY/NJ dealers?

Hi GIGmatty,

Yes this makes sense. Thinner toppers will generally affect the “feel” and the comfort/pressure relief of a mattress and the primary or “deep” support in a mattress comes from the deeper layers in the mattress.

“Support” is often misunderstood because the goal of a “supportive” mattress is to keep the spine and joints in good alignment and this requires the type of contouring support that allows some parts of the body to sink in more (softer) and some parts of the body to sink in less (firmer) and this will vary on an individual basis. While it may be more than you want to know … there is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support/alignment” and “comfort/pressure relief” and “feel” and how they interact together.

There is more information about some of the many factors or variables that can affect the price of a mattress relative to different manufacturers or retailers in post #14 here.

Phoenix