I have an old waterbed frame and want to buy a memory or gel foam mattress in California King medium firm. I’d love to find one under $1000 that has low VOC’s and made in the USA as I have Asthma and try to be healthy and avoid toxins. I also want one that doesn’t get hot. Is the Eco-Lux good? http://www.allmodern.com/filters/Mattresses-l46-c365873-O418~California+King-O535~Medium.html?itemsperpage=100 thanks for any help… Kim
Hi KiminTN,
The first place i would start is post #1 here which will give you the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices.
I would also do some local testing to see which materials you prefer in your comfort layers because the first mattress you linked is memory foam but the others are either all polyfoam or latex hybrids (latex and polyfoam) and choosing the materials you prefer is one of the first things you will need to decide to narrow down your options.
I would also be aware that the Boyd mattresses (the Eco-lux) use what they call “engineered latex” which isn’t latex at all but polyfoam that “feels” a little like latex (and is a much lower quality material than latex) so again it’s important to know what is really inside a mattress so you can make meaningful apples to apples comparisons with other similar mattresses before you buy it…
A mattress is also only as good as the materials inside it so you would also need to know the density of any memory foam or polyfoam in a mattress along with the type and blend of any latex to make any meaningful quality and value comparisons with other mattresses. The brand name is only a label and the construction and materials inside the mattress are always the most important part.
I would also be quite wary about buying a mattress online from a retailer who may not be able to help you know which mattress is most likely to be the most suitable for your body type and sleeping style because no matter what the quality or value of a mattress if you make the wrong choice in terms of suitability or PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, or Personal preferences) then the mattress would have little value to you. The knowledge and experience of who you buy from and their ability to give you some good guidance can be just as important a part of a successful mattress purchase as the quality and value of the mattress itself.
If you do decide to go in the direction of memory foam … then the criteria I use for memory foam mattresses are listed in post #10 here and some of the better memory foam options I’m aware of are listed in post #12 here. If you are concerned about VOC’s then i would make sure that all the foam in your mattress was Certipur certified although memory foam is the most likely of the three types of foam to have issues with smells and offgassing for those who are more sensitive.
Phoenix