Memory Foam in Minneapolis Area

[phoenix]

Hi Tracieknits,

I will say that I think for myself, I would like something softer. I still awoke in the night nearly as often as I do on my current mattress, and the mattress just felt harder than I would like. I keep going back to how much i liked how the Chattam & Wells or the select Tempurpedic felt, but I have no interest in spending that much money on mattresses that get such poor reviews.

An “8” would be on the soft side for most people but latex is a very different material from memory foam (or its variant gel memory foam) and it can have a firm/soft more resilient feeling that can take some getting used to because it is a combination of soft (at least in the softer versions) and resilient and supportive at the same time. I can imagine your 12 year old being thrilled with it though

A single night would not really be a good indicator for most people that hadn’t slept on or tested latex … especially if they are used to memory foam or softer polyfoam (which can both generally feel softer than latex).

I went back to Metro Mattress and looked at the Chattam & Wells again. The top layer looks like talalay latex. Then there are two layers of memory foam - one seems extremely light weight and the other feels much more substantial - they called it gel memory foam. These three layers were over a foam core.

Any foam can have holes punched in it but this would be where any similarities begin and end in terms of how they look, feel, and respond if the foam you are looking at is gel memory foam.

Lower density memory foams can feel softer than higher density memory foam or soft latex but they are much less durable than either higher density memory foam or latex. Gel memory foam is basically memory foam which has different forms of gel added to it. The gel can either increase or decrease the durability of the memory foam that it’s added to. You can read more about the different types of gel foams in post #2 here. In the end … the choice between memory foam (or its variant gel memory foam) is a matter of preference but either way the quality/density of the material is the most important part of its durability and of course value (higher density foams are more costly than lower density and quality foams).

So I am thinking that I do want to get a customizable bed, one with a zipper in the cover so I can swap out layers to my heart’s content. I think I want to start with a six or seven inch foam core, a two-three inch layer of 5 lb memory form and a 2 to 3 inch layer of medium/soft talalay latex.

Designing your own mattress generally takes a great deal of knowledge and experience about all the different types of foam, layering, and design and can risky … and costly if you make mistakes (and can’t exchange or return a layer that you purchased that turns out not to be suitable). I personally would suggest working with a manufacturer that already offers a mattress that is similar to what you are looking for rather than buying separate layers that you put together yourself unless you have already tested a similar mattress that has known layering and know exactly what you want and have sources for similar materials (although I suspect from your later comments this is the direction you are looking at rather than a complete DIY mattres where you buy individual components based on your own design). In putting your own mattress together the critical part can often be in the details (such as knowing the layer thicknesses or ILD that you want and knowing how the specific layers you are looking at will interact together). There are many more variables than most people would suspect and it’s generally much less risky to work with a manufacturer that offers layer exchanges that can provide you with some help and guidance about what type of layering may be suitable for you.

If you do decide to go in the direction of memory foam then post #12 here has some of the better online options and a list of all the members here that sell mattresses online are in post #21 here.

I made my husband lie down on beds at Metro Mattress. he did not like the feeling of being trapped in the memory foam either. He liked the feel of the chattam & wells. He likes my son’s mattress and would be happy to just have that too. He then said he really doesn’t care much, that he’s happy with nearly anything. Of course this is a man who slept underneath the catapult of an aircraft carrier for a few years on a garbage Navy mattress He can sleep anywhere.

I think the feeling of “movement restriction” is probably one of the biggest reasons that some people don’t like memory foam and this is quite common. Having said that … there are different versions of memory foam that can be more or less temperature sensitive and responsive.

The Chattam and Wells is probably an example of this (a faster response memory foam) because from your description it also seems to be a memory foam mattress (gel memory foam on top with layers of “regular” memory foam underneath this which would still be more motion restricting than a fast response foam like polyfoam or latex but less so than slower response memory foams).

In the end though … the choices of materials is personal preference although it’s always important to make sure that no matter what type of material that you prefer that its quality is good (all types of material have lower and higher quality versions which will be more or less durable).

There is s also a lot to be said about a local purchase that you have tested in person but once again without knowing the specifics of what is in a particular mattress I wouldn’t consider it at all … either local or online. This means that I wouldn’t consider the Chattam & Wells unless you knew the quality/density of every layer in the mattress. Without this there is just no way to know the quality of your mattress or make meaningful value or design comparisons with other mattresses or even use it as a guideline for a mattress purchase.

I am going to email Chuck at Dreamfoam and see if they can do anything like what I am contemplating. I will also check out the other companies that offer custom configurations in a zip up cover.

I think this is a great idea but I would strongly caution against using email which is generally not a nuanced enough form of communication to really know the differences between your many options and deal with all the “it depends” type of answers that are so common in mattress design. Conversations with manufacturers or other knowledgeable people can be very helpful in making your best possible online choices but again if you plan to use the Chattam & Wells as a model you would need to know every detail of what is in it. Your conversations in combination with your own personal testing on mattresses that have known layering can certainly increase your odds of ending up with what you really want rather than a “surprise” that had different materials, feel, or response than what you were expecting. eamil communications are normally too “linear” to deal with more complex subjects such as mattress layering or design.

The key though is always to know exactly what is in every mattress you are either testing or considering for a purchase and the more personal reference points you have about what each material or combination feels like to you, the more effective you can be in making a good online choice.

Phoenix