Mattress in Portland, Oregon

[phoenix]

Hi Dazer,

BTW, Bay Bed will also make the mattress without the foam edge support; Dan said he would just put in a stronger coil around the edges.

Like many custom manufacturers … they have many options that aren’t listed on their site and like you I also prefer steel edge support vs polyfoam (see post #2 here) although for different reasons because I have no personal concerns about the “safety” of polyfoam that is US made or CertiPUR certified.

On the other hand, it seems to me (correctly or not) that a bed fully assembled will be more solid and durable than one I pack into a cover myself.

There would be no meaningful difference in durability if both mattresses have a suitable tight fitting cover.

What has me torn is whether to place more of a premium on all the “ingredients” rather than the finished product. Not sure which of your links/articles was most helpful in this regard (there are so many egg hunts to go on here! but one mentioned this pitfall.

As you can read in the previous link … the three most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase are …

1. Testing to make sure that a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP (or that you are comfortable with the return/exchange options and any costs involved if you can’t test it in person).

2. Checking to make sure that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in the mattress that would compromise the durability of the mattress.

3. Comparing with your other finalists for “value” based on #1 and #2 and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Once you have narrowed down your options to a list of finalists that are all choices between “good and good” and none of them have any lower quality materials or “weak links” in their design (which they don’t) and if there are no clear winners between them (which is usually a good indication that you have done some very good research) then you are in the fortunate position that either of them would likely be a suitable choice and post #2 here can help you make a final choice based on your local testing or mattresses you have slept well on, your more detailed conversations with each of them, your confidence about PPP and the suitability of each one, their prices, your preferences for different types of materials, the options you have after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange or return the mattress or individual layers, any additional extras that are part of each purchase, and on “informed best judgement” based on all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

Lastly, we’ll have to agree to disagree on Parklane. I found their website to be lacking in important details. For example, it tells you there is a “layer” of latex but not what kind or how thick. The only one that came close to what I’m looking for is the Pettygrove, but only through talking to the helpful sales rep on the company phone did I learn it is only 1" of latex AND there is a foam support core, which neither the website or the two different salesmen mentioned. In any event, it was also way too firm and nothing else appealed to me. The stores are very clean and well laid out, and I like their eco friendly products, but soy foam is still a big glob of petrochemical foam to me.

Parklane is a local manufacturer and you will rarely find the detailed specs of a mattress on any local manufacturers website so this is completely normal. What’s always important is that they are transparent and the specs (see here) are available to you on request when you visit them to test their mattresses or talk to them on the phone so that you can confirm that there aren’t any lower quality materials that would be a weak link in a mattress you are considering.

There is more about soy foam or other plant based foams in post #2 here. Their polyfoam materials are good quality/density materials and are CertiPUR certified and US made so by most people’s criteria they would certainly be a “safe enough” material. While it’s true that different people may have different criteria and a there are a minority of people that may be more comfortable with more “natural” materials … this is a preference choice that is specific to each person based on their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.

Phoenix