Hi, I’ve been enjoying your site. I am leery of buying a mattress on line without trying it but I hate going into retail stores and dealing with the “used car” salesmen of the mattress industry. Do you know of any GOOD mattress stores in the Baltimore area. I am looking for a quality foam or foam/spring mattress in the $600 to $1000 range.
thanks so much
Don
Hi Donnie,
The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Baltimore area that you can use as a starting point (subject to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.
I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any comments or questions you may have along the way that I can help with.
Phoenix
So this is what I’ve been thinking. I like the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme and Breeze. I don’t love them, but I like them and I feel they are the quality standard in my area as there are not a lot of quality options very close by. I was about ready to pull the trigger on the Novosbed as it looks comparable but better value, great customer support and at my $1000 price point. But I tried the Tempur Flex and I like the springiness of it. Sleeping aside, it has a bit more “action” and bounce to it. This can be helpful in certain situations involving my lovely wife and I and the lack of movement in an all foam bed is a concern for me. there is more to life than sleep, after all.
Soooo. Do you feel the coil springs are a week point compared to quality all foam ? Can you point me towards the same quality and value that I see in the Novos but in a hybrid spring/foam ( or latex) mattress for $1000 or under ?
Thanks for all your help.
Hi Donnie,
The Tempur Flex mattresses are in a completely different category from most of the other Tempurpedic mattresses because it’s a pocket coil/memory foam/polyfoam hybrid which uses memory foam and polyfoam in the comfort and transition layers on top of a pocket coil support core. This would have a different and more responsive “feel” from most of their mattresses that use a polyfoam support core with memory foam comfort and transition layers.
Memory foam really doesn’t have any “spring” (although some versions of memory foam have a faster response time than others). The pocket coil support core would be more “springy” than the polyfoam that they use in the base layers of most of their mattresses but they also have relatively thinner layers of memory foam in the top layer with a layer of more resilient polyfoam underneath the memory foam which is also the reason that even the top layers would feel more resilient or “springy” than a similar mattress that only had memory foam comfort layers.
I believe the polyfoam layer that they use underneath their memory foam is 1.6 lb density which is a little lower quality/density than I would normally like to see … especially in a mattress in it’s budget range.
There is also more about memory foam and some of the “other activities” that can take place on a mattress in post #2 here. While this is very much a preference choice … you are certainly not alone in preferring more resilient materials (either in comfort layers or in a support core) that are less motion restricting in a mattress and either reducing or in some cases even eliminating mattresses that contain memory foam comfort layers which are much less resilient than other types of materials and components such as latex, polyfoam, or microcoils.
The upper layers of a mattress are generally the weakest link of the mattress in terms of durability and are the layers where the quality/durability of the materials is particularly important. The regular deflection/compression of a foam material is what softens or breaks down foam over time and the softer upper layers of a mattress will deflect and compress more deeply and more often than the firmer deeper layers and components in a mattress so the deeper support core of a mattress underneath the comfort layers is rarely the weakest link in the mattress so having an innerspring support core vs a high quality polyfoam support core would make a difference in terms of how a mattress “feels” and responds but would make little difference for most people in terms of durability.
Assuming that the materials in a mattress you are considering are durable enough for your body type and meet the quality/durability guidelines here … the choice between different types and combinations of materials and components or different types of mattresses are more of a preference and a budget choice than a “better/worse” choice (see this article).
There is more information in post #9 here about the different ways that one mattress can “match” or “approximate” another one. Every layer and component in a mattress (including the cover) will affect the feel and performance of every other layer and component and the mattress “as a whole” so unless you are able to find another mattress that uses exactly the same materials, components, and design (which would be very unlikely) then there really isn’t a way to match one mattress to another one in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) based on the specifications of the mattress.
Mattress manufacturers generally try to differentiate their mattress from the mattresses made by other manufacturers and don’t normally try to “match” another mattress that is made by a different manufacturer so while you may find similar mattresses that use “similar” materials or designs … it’s very unlikely that you will find another mattress that is specifically designed to “match” or “approximate” the Tempur-Flex mattresses so the only way to know for certain how another mattress will compare for you in terms of how it “feels” or in terms of “comfort”, firmness or PPP would be based on your own careful testing or actual sleeping experience on both of them.
It’s much simpler to compare the quality and durability of the materials inside a mattress and mattresses as a whole once you have found out the specifics of all the materials and component inside them because durability is more objective than “comfort”, firmness, and PPP which is why dealing with a knowledgeable and transparent retailer or manufacturer that can provide you with the information you need to know about the quality and durability of the materials inside their mattresses can be so important.
I don’t keep a record of the individual mattresses or their specs that the retailers and manufacturers in the hundreds of forum lists throughout the forum carry on their floor or have available online (it would be a bigger job than anyone could possibly keep up with in a constantly changing market) but checking their websites and making some preliminary phone calls to the retailers/manufacturers that are on the lists is always a good idea before you decide on which retailers or manufacturers you wish to deal with or visit anyway. This will tell you which of them carry mattresses that would meet your specific criteria, are transparent about the materials in their mattresses, and that carry the type of mattresses that you are interested in testing that are also in the budget range you are comfortable with. Once you have checked their websites and/or talked with the ones that interest you then you will be in a much better position to decide on the ones that you are most interested in visiting or considering based on the results of your preliminary research and conversations.
In general terms … mattresses with pocket coil support cores will also tend to be more costly than mattresses that use polyfoam support cores (assuming that they both use similar comfort and transition layers and similar covers which can all affect the cost of a mattress).
If you are considering online choices then some of the lower budget options that may be worth considering are listed at the end of post #4 here and the other online lists it links to.
Phoenix
is there anyone similar to Baybed and their customizable mattress on the East coast ?
Hi Donnie,
If you tend to prefer innerspring/latex hybrid mattresses (and there are many who do … see post #13 here), some of the better innerspring/latex options I’m aware of (including a few component mattresses that use Talalay latex) are listed in post #2 here and the post it links to but you would need to check their websites or call them to see if any of them have a dealer close to you.
While there are some latex/pocket coil hybrids available in your general area (Room & Board and Ikea are two that come to mind but there may be others as well) … I don’t know of any specific latex/pocket coil component mattresses that use Talalay latex that are in your general area.
Phoenix