Mattress Agony

Thank goodness I found you, Mattress Underground! I recently moved to the Seattle area, and, sadly, on a day when I had had it with sleeping on my air mattress, I set out to buy a bed and mattress come hell or high water. I won’t go into the grim details, but after returning the first mattress (excruciating pain within days), I ended up spending more money on an upgrade and… you guessed it, no pain relief. The mattress is is a Restonic Comfort Care. The retailer is the devil incarnate, and they pull all the tricks in the book, and I am now stuck with a $750 piece of garbage (already sagging after less than 4 months’ usage), AND I need to buy another mattress or I will end up crippled if I continue to sleep on this one. Since I’ve already blown $750, I need a reliable budget-friendly mattress and have decided to go with memory foam. In addition to pouring over the information on your site (overwhelming and excellent!!!), I wondered if you had some recommendations of mattresses I should try out. Also, three affordable brands I’ve been seeing here are Easy-Rest, Emerald (The Moonlight 10"), and Enso.

Specs on the Emerald: Cooling Mesh along bottom perimeter 1" of Cooling Gel-infused visco memory foam (4lb.) 2" of Cooling, Open Cell visco memory foam with Air Flow Holes (3lb.) 2" of PU Foam for Comfort (1.875lb.) 5" of PU Foam for Support (2lb.) Great sleep with 15 year non-prorated warranty.

Specs on Easy-Rest: 1" Luxury cooling Gel Infused memory foam, 3" of ER5 5 lb. memory foam, 6 " of 2 lb. HD base foam. Luxury zip off, removable, washable cover. Firm support with soft contouring top layers.

I’m only looking at gel-infused MF mattresses. I’ve tested 12" and 10", and on the mattresses I tested, it seems like the 10" is better for me. I’m a back sleeper, 5’5" and 125 - 128 lbs.

Your insights and wisdom would be so appreciated. Hoping to end this nightmare soon :S

Hi cado212,

I’m glad you found us as well :slight_smile:

I’m sorry to hear about your unfortunate experiences and hopefully this time the site can help you make a much higher quality and more suitable choice.

Just in case you haven’t seen it yet … the tutorial post here has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

I’m happy to help with “how” to choose but there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone to recommend a specific mattress for someone else based on specs, brand, or “theory at a distance” (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

[quote]Also, three affordable brands I’ve been seeing here are Easy-Rest, Emerald (The Moonlight 10"), and Enso.

Specs on the Emerald: Cooling Mesh along bottom perimeter 1" of Cooling Gel-infused visco memory foam (4lb.) 2" of Cooling, Open Cell visco memory foam with Air Flow Holes (3lb.) 2" of PU Foam for Comfort (1.875lb.) 5" of PU Foam for Support (2lb.) Great sleep with 15 year non-prorated warranty.

Specs on Easy-Rest: 1" Luxury cooling Gel Infused memory foam, 3" of ER5 5 lb. memory foam, 6 " of 2 lb. HD base foam. Luxury zip off, removable, washable cover. Firm support with soft contouring top layers.

I’m only looking at gel-infused MF mattresses. I’ve tested 12" and 10", and on the mattresses I tested, it seems like the 10" is better for me. I’m a back sleeper, 5’5" and 125 - 128 lbs.[/quote]

Outside of testing a mattress for PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) hopefully using the testing guidelines that are linked in step 4 of the tutorial … the most important part of choosing a mattress is making sure you know the quality of the materials inside it so you can identify any possible weak links and make more meaningful comparisons with other mattresses.

I would be cautious with both the Emerald and the Enso because they may have lower quality materials than I would be comfortable with. The Emerald you listed for example includes 2" of 3 lb memory foam which is on the edge of being a weak link in the mattress (see the guidelines here) although your lighter weight and the layer of medium quality 4 lb memory foam above the 3 lb layer would make it a little less risky than if the 3 lb layer was right on top.

The specs you listed for the Easy-Rest indicate that it uses all good quality materials with only an inch of memory foam that doesn’t show the density (which is inside the guidelines I would suggest are OK) and there are no obvious weak links in the mattress so assuming that your testing indicates that it’s a good match for you in terms of PPP (because the quality of the materials have very little to do with whether the mattress is a suitable design for you) … it would be well worth considering.

I would also be aware that not all gel memory foam is cooler than some of the “regular” memory foam that is on the market and that the cover of the mattress, your mattress protector, and the sheets you use may have more of an effect on your sleeping temperature than whether the top layer of memory foam includes gel. There is more about all the factors that can affect sleeping temperature in post #2 here and there is more about the various methods that can be used for cooling down memory foam in post #6 here.

also just in case you haven’t seen it yet … the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the Seattle area are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix

Thank you SO much :slight_smile: I’m going to read all the links and do some more testing. I am certain I will have some more questions for you. Just as an aside, people should not assume that an A+ rating from the BBB is a reliable measure of how good or ethical a company is. And forget about Yelp! This is the place to be. Thanks again.