Hi mrsloveless,
I personally wouldn’t recommend any of the iComfort mattresses but of course if you receive a substantial discount then it may be more in line with reasonable value or a more attractive option. My thoughts about some of the all foam line are in post #11 here. If you are committed to the iSeries or the iComfort I would make my choice based on your own personal experience and which provided the best PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and your Personal Preferences of overall feel, motion isolation etc).
The choice between an innerspring and a foam core is really about personal preference and I would choose the comfort layer based on the quality of materials in it and on how well they performed for your specific body type and sleeping positions. Part of the problem with Serta (and the other major manufacturers) is that they don’t release meaningful information about the materials in their mattress so it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to really know the quality of the mattress you are buying compared to other choices you may have.
I would take a careful look at the specs of the materials in the mattress that you were most attracted to and as much as possible avoid the use of polyfoam (or what they call comfort foam or support foam) in the upper layers of the mattress unless they can tell you the density and you know the difference between better quality and lower quality polyfoam. I would look for the best quality foam materials possible. I would also tend to avoid the models with the thickest softest comfort layers unless you have tested and know for certain that you are in good alignment in all your sleeping positions and that when the foam softens you will still be OK.
An good analogy would be buying furniture that uses different materials and where you can’t find out whether it uses cheap particle board, MDF, or real wood and the type and quality of the wood or whether various parts were glued, stapled, nailed, screwed or dovetailed together. All of them may look similar but the veneer on the particle board is only the cover and you know it will likely fall apart much sooner than higher quality materials and construction methods even though they may look and even perform similarly … for a while. Better materials and construction methods means better durability and the original performance wll be maintained for much longer.
Mattressmartohio was recently sold and I have talked with the new owner Ken Hoffman who impressed me with his desire to make some positive changes there. The improvements in their website have certainly been noticeable.
I would suggest that you take a look at some of the mattresses that they manufacture at their factory in Plains city which you can see here. Normally a local brand will have better value than a national brand and use higher quality materials in a similar budget range. While I don’t know the details of their mattresses other than what is on the website, it would surprise me if their own mattresses didn’t have better quality and value than any of the Serta’s that they carry. UPDATE: has an outlet in Reynoldsburg which is the closest one to you.
They were also making a line of latex mattresses that were sold only at their Tuttle Crossing outlet but when I last talked with Frank there (on May 12th) they were in the process of “redefining” this line after the sale so I’m not sure what the current status of this line is. It was a very high quality line of latex and latex hybrid mattresses and a substantial discount on these would make them very good value (if they are still making them).
UPDATE: They used to make their own mattresses but unfortunately they no longer do and the they now only carry major brands (which I would avoid) along with Restonic and Solstice which are the only two manufacturers I would consider here but make sure that they can provide you with the foam specs before you make a purchase here.
Just as a reference point … some of the better outlets or possibilities in the Columbus area are in post #2 here. It may be worthwhile looking at some of your alternatives at either OMF or Design Sleep just to see how they compare.
Phoenix