My husband and I (and our 5 cats) sleep an 8 year old full size Flobed vZone with split cores on a Noyo adjustable base. We love the bed, but hate the split cores; which is ironic since we had to special order the bed (since they don’t usually offer the split cores in a full size mattress). Our problem with the split cores is that they move and shift over several days, regularly leaving us with a small canyon in the middle of the bed. The top egg crate layer, which is the only continuous layer in the mattress, has split as a consequence of the shifting lower layers. We re-glued it (several times) only to have it rip open in a new place on the other side of the glue. The gap between the cores also means that we have edge weakness on both sides of the cores–at the bed edge and in the middle–until we have time to remove all of the linens, unzip the cover, readjust the cores, and then put everything back together.
With this history in mind, we have two quandaries: 1) what to get now that we are upgrading to a king size mattress (hallelujah), and 2) what to do to fix the old one. We paid a fortune for this mattress and base and hope to be able to use it in the guest room for my elderly parents, but not with a gap in the middle of the bed. Certainly we can continue to use the base. (By the way, do adjustable bases degrade over time?) As for the mattress itself, I hate to think that the only option is buying a new one. I just don’t know how to solve the problem with the shifting cores.
As for the new king bed, we are very curious to hear if anyone else uses split cores with an adjustable base and what their experience has been. We use the adjustable bed feature multiple times a day, so our mattress gets a workout. I am wondering if the movement and shifting is because of how small the split cores are in a full size mattress, whether it’s because split cores are naturally prone to shifting on adjustable bases, or whether the shifting cores we have are some kind of fluke.
For me, I like having the flexibility of swapping out cores due to my weight fluctuations. I’m 5’6" and I’ve gone from 220 lbs to 160 lbs and back up to 185 lbs in the 8 years that we’ve had the mattress. It’s been nice to be able to swap the the two base layers as my weight fluctuates. We started with M/M on DH’s side and F/F on my side, and changed to M/F on his side and F/M on my side after I lost 60 lbs. I’ve recently switched to M/F after I found that I kept waking up on DH’s side of the bed whenever he was out of town. Still, I do NOT want to spend another $3000 on a matress that’s going to end up with a canyon in the middle. Moving and adjusting cores in a full size mattress is a beast. I can only imagine trying this in a king mattress.
I know that I want the option to be able to open up the matress, remove and clean the cover, and swap out cores if needed (whether split or continuous). Besides Flobeds and SleepEZ, who else offers this feature? Also, does anybody besides flobeds offer a zoned layer? I have a long history of neck and back issues, and I know that my Flobed has been a life-saver in that regard. I have no idea how much of a role the vzone played, because I have nothing to compare it with, as this is our first latex mattress. What I do know is that despite the shifting cores, our bed is far better than any guest bed or hotel bed that either of us have slept in over the past 8 years, and I am a little wary of buying a bed without a zoned core.
But then again, I am here on this forum for a reason, and that’s to figure out and weigh all of our options.
One final issue that I should mention is that I sleep VERY hot on my Flobed. DH has no issues with this, but for me some nights it’s bad enough that I keep getting drawn in by the intense marketing by the Purple matress people and their claim for a cooler sleep experience. I just wish the rest of the foam layers in the Purple matress were latex rather than some random polyurethane.