more on Essentia

[phoenix]

Hi kalm,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!

I’ve tried combing through the discussions here about Essentia (and endless other info I’ve found online), but I still have some burning questions that don’t as of yet feel answered.

There is very complete and detailed information about Essentia on this forum, so I’ll do my best to help you in your search.

I’m in my late 30s and have chemical sensitivities/autoimmune issues AND I have a lot of chronic joint pain which presents especially when I sleep, depending on what I sleep on (shoulder and hip pain - I’m a side-sleeper).

I’m sorry you have these specific conditions. This certainly would make mattress shopping a very personal experience for you.

We went with what I still believe to be among the Gold Standard, Soaring Heart. Sadly, I slept horribly on their mattress (with and without their topper).

I’m sorry their mattress didn’t work out well for you. They are a member here, and I think very highly of them, their product and their knowledge.

So then we tried a Berkeley Ergonomics. Not as transparent of a company, but I was able to lie on one at a local showroom.

I’m not sure what you mean by “not as transparent of a company”, as I find them to be incredibly informative and transparent about their products and I’ve never had a question go unanswered in any of my conversations with them.

OK, now back to Essentia. We’re considering just going back to what we know works (Essentia), but I’m still not certain it’s the right thing to do and I’m so afraid of not getting this right (yet again).

While you may have had a mattress that worked for you in the past, it is not a guarantee that the exact same mattress is currently being manufactured using the same foams and suppliers. That would be a question you’d want to address with Essentia directly and compare your old mattress to what they currently offer. And of course, even then there is no “guarantee” that this will feel exactly like your old mattress. But it could be a starting point for you.

I have searched high and low for weeks for a mattress with (safe for me) foam and/or memory foam on top, because what I’ve realized is that latex is only pressure-relieving to a point.

All foams will pressure relieve to a point, but of course not eliminate pressure. Certain foams and combinations of versions of those foams with other products will produce unique feels and characteristics, and there’s nothing wrong if one type of foam doesn’t work well for you. If you’ve found something that you like, especially with your very specific needs, then as I mentioned earlier, you have a good starting point.

not in a position financially to purchase a mattress that doesn’t come with a trial period and free returns. Essentia, of course, does not offer free returns, but with their mattress there are no unknowns regarding comfort since I’ve slept on one before.

They do offer a 60 day trial online, with a restocking fee.

My concern about Essentia is I do not know if the components of their memory foam have in the past or will with a new mattress exacerbate my autoimmune issues/chemical sensitivities.

Unfortunately, no one would be able to tell you that except yourself with careful personal testing. Of course your best option is always a visit to a showroom (should you have one nearby) to sample their new product line in person.

My search for a mattress with “natural” memory foam (where the word “natural” actually means something) has only turned up White Lotus’s Evergreen Foam, but unfortunately I’ve arrived at this discovery a little late in the game since we can’t afford to risk buying another mattress with no full refund policy (plus, I’m not even sure of how their foam compares to Essentia’s…would be curious to hear your thoughts!). If you know of another company that is cleaner than Essentia re: memory foam/foam (not a top layer of latex), I am ALL EARS.

There is no such thing as “natural” memory foam, and this has been discussed in detail on the forum previously. You can start by reading this thread and the links contained therein for more information explaining this. The White Lotus foam you mentioned is polyurethane foam. You can read more about so called “soy based” foams or other “plant based” foams in post #2 here . They replace a small percentage of the polyols that are made from petrochemicals with a chemical polyol that is derived from a plant oil. They are basically just polyfoam and in terms of quality can be compared directly with other types of polyfoam based on their density.

Do you know if it’s true that they make their own memory foam? Because if that were true, then that could potentially help me understand why they do not provide a clear list of all ingredients in their memory foam (because it’s proprietary, right?). Please correct me if my assumption is incorrect.

I’m not sure who supplies their foams (but I do think that the foam process and formula originates in Italy), and who does can change over time. The ingredients used to make a polyurethane foam are indeed proprietary, and would not be something that a mattress manufacturer would normally have access to, and if they did they wouldn’t share them with anyone as it would not be theirs to share, and even if you knew the chemicals and the process (which would be unlikely unless you were a foam chemist) having this information would be meaningless for the most part as many of the chemicals used ae used up or rendered inert during the foam curing process. Foam chemistry is an incredibly complicated subject.

Can you help me understand what there might be that could be of concern to a chemically sensitive person?

While I certainly understand (and sympathize) with your situation, asking someone else to guess out of all of the millions of chemical compounds out there to try to deduce what you may or not be chemically sensitive to would of course be impossible.

And FINALLY (finally), can you help me understand the **attached report on their VOC testing? I would love to know what it means and what their definition of “low-VOC” means. I understand that the FTC required them to eliminate their marketing language that suggested their product was “zero-VOC,” but I do not know if Essentia’s response to the FTC is true: “Our natural foams have the same VOC levels as natural foams found in other organic mattresses and latex mattresses. (since VOC’s are found in all latex foam products).”

Most people that are looking for a “natural” mattress are usually concerned more with “safety” than whether the materials have an actual organic certification. There is more information about the three different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of an organic certification in post #3 here and there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications ( like Oeko-tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold, C2C, and CertiPUR-US ) in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons or whether a “safety” certification is enough. I would only trust certifications from objective trusted third parties as I listed above and not interpretations of tests results.

My best advice to you, and for the sake of others that may be reading this there are some comments about Essentia and some of the misleading claims they make and some forum discussions with them (as well as some of the FTC issues they have had about their claims) would be to take some time and read this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here ). Some of the discussion in this topic may be helpful as well. I certainly wouldn’t treat the information on their website (or on some of the other websites I’ve seen that write about them either) as a reliable source of “fact based” information and I would also make some very careful “value” comparisons before considering any Essentia mattress because they do tend to be in a higher budget range than other mattresses that use similar materials. All of the questions you asked previously have been answered in these threads.

If you do decide to purchase one of their products, I would phone them and ask if they have a mattress exactly like the old one that you liked, as it would give you the best chance at success, based upon your past experience, if you are not able to sample a product locally.

I know this response may not contain the answers you desired, but you’re really asking questions that are incredibly personal and are in fact unanswerable by nobody except yourself. All I can do is help to offer advice on some of the other topics you brought up and then you can use that information to come up with your own conclusions.

Good luck.

Phoenix