Mattress help for older child and guests

[phoenix]

Hi sbm,

You are certainly looking at some very good options and none of the mattresses you are considering have any lower quality materials or weak links in their designs.

Is there anything about the design of the Berkely mattress that would make the construction superior over My Green Mattress to warrant the additional cost for 1 sided vs. 2 sided?

The Berkeley Ergonomics mattress uses a European pocket coil which is a more contouring, motion isolating, and costly spring system while I believe that the Pure Echo uses an innerspring that has helical coils (they don’t specify the specific type on the site). There is more about the different types of coils in this article. There is also more about the pros and cons of a two sided mattress in post #3 here but if you flip and turn a two sided mattress on a regular basis it will be more durable and have a longer useful life than an equivalent one sided mattress.

Another thought would be to purchase the mattress without the talalay component but buy the blended talalay 2" topper for guests and to “grow into”. Cost of doing this would be between the two mattresses.

This would certainly be a good option because it would give you a choice between a firmer mattress and a softer mattress so your guests (and your son) would have some firmness choices. You would have the same option with the SleepEz special and the Spindle Abscond where you could choose the thinner 6" version for each of them and then add a topper either for guests that prefer a softer mattress or for when your son’s sleeping experience or comments indicated that he needed it.

For children, any advantage for growth and comfort to go all latex?

There is more about the differences between an innerspring and a latex support core in post #28 here but it’s really a matter of preference.

Assuming that you have had a more detailed conversation on the phone with each of them so they can share their thoughts and insights about each of your choices (which is one of the most important parts of any online purchase) … then you are down to a final choice between “good and good” and if there are no clear winners between them based on your conversations then your final choice (see post #2 here) will really be a matter of “best judgement” based on your preferences and budget and on all the objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

There are certainly no unsuitable or “bad” choices in your list of finalists

Phoenix