Mattress Shopping in Ottawa

[phoenix]

Hi orange260z,

In the last few days, we’ve visited two local manufacturers - Obasan and Lapensee Mattress. They seem to have very different philosophies about what makes a good bed; and although they both seem to have strong conviction in their opinions, they are at complete contrast to each other.

You will find this is very common in the industry where good manufacturers have completely different opinions about what makes the “best” mattress based on a different set of experiences.This is part of what makes the industry so interesting

We are considering Lapensee’s top “Luxurious” model. According to them, pocket coils make the best cores and soy-based foam is far superior to any latex in durability. They are willing to make a mattress with latex in the comfort layers, and even in the core… but don’t have any display models with this. They are also willing to adjust the firmness of the of the comfort layers for the two sides, but that will impact the ability to rotate this 2-sided mattress (will only be able to flip longitudinally). They claim that we can expect 12-15 years of comfort from this mattress, if not the full 20 years of their warranty. The salesman today told me that if in year 15 we were unhappy with the comfort they would work with us to address it. The price of this is approximately $3600-3800.

You would find a great deal of conflicting opinions from other manufacturers but in the end the choice between different types of support systems is a matter of personal preference and not a “better / worse” issue. Some people tend to prefer innersprings with high quality comfort layers and others tend to prefer latex or other types of support components or materials. There is more about latex/polyfoam hybrids vs an all latex mattress in post #2 here and there is more about innersprings vs latex support cores in post #2 here.

So called “soy based” or “plant based” polyfoam is just polyfoam that has replaced a small percentage of one of the two main petrochemicals that are used to make it (the polyol) with a chemical that is derived from a plant oil (see post #2 here). It is directly comparable to any other type of polyfoam. Latex is also a more durable material than most polyfoam although the support core of a mattress isn’t usually the weakest link of a mattress in terms of durability regardless of the type of material used and the quality of the comfort layers is a much more significant factor in the durability and useful life of a mattress. There is more about the many factors that can affect durability and the useful life of a mattress relative to different people in post #4 here and the posts it links to.

There is also more about the pros and cons of a two sided mattress in post #3 here and the posts it links to.

We are also considering Obasan’s Acadia 4.0, which provides a 4" soft rubber top, a 4" 3 zone per side customizable layer, and a 4" medium base layer. They would customize our two sides as soft/firm/medium for my top layer, and soft/medium/firm for my wife’s side. According to Obasan, the latex rubber changes very little with use and the comfort life expectancy of this mattress should be in the 20-30 year range. This mattress felt amazing in the store, but the price is approximately $5500 with a couple of accessories thrown in (pillows, mattress protector).

Component latex mattresses have some significant advantages including the ability to adjust the comfort and support both before and after a purchase, to replace individual layers if one layer softens or breaks down before the others, and in many cases to choose a “side to side” split where each side of a mattress can be layered differently for the different needs and preferences of a couple. Having said that … this is a very high price compared to other mattresses with a similar design so I would make some very careful value comparisons. There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here and if there is a compelling reason that makes this mattress so much better than anything else that is available to you based on your own personal criteria that the much higher cost compared to other similar latex mattresses is justified, then it may be “good value” for you even if most other people may not agree with you because it wouldn’t be better value for them.

If you do have any less expensive alternatives we should consider that would deliver the same value to us (comfort and durability) that would be great!

I would also make sure that you’ve read the mattress shopping tutorial which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices for you. It also includes this link to a list of some of the better online options that are available to Canadians that if nothing else you can use as “value” reference points.

The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Ottawa area (Including Sleeptek and Mattress Lapensee) are listed in posts #2 and #3 here.

Phoenix