Natural or organic latex mattress choices...Natura, Your Organic Bedroom, Sherwood

[rbred300]

Hi, I live in Burlington, NJ (central NJ), and I am looking for a latex mattress.

I am 5’8, 175 lbs, and I am usually a side-sleeper, with some chronic mid-back problems. I have slept on the same old spring mattress for about 10 years now…who knows how old it is though. My priorities are finding a good quality mattress that is not harmful for my health and does not smell, which is why I was gravitating towards “natural” or “organic”. I could be willing to spend up to somewhere near $3000 for a mattress, I just don’t want to feel ripped off for something I could have gotten cheaper.

I have read the intro articles, and surfed through many of the forum posts on here, and having trouble with all the different options.

These are stores I have considered:

Natura: Originally, I was thinking of going with a “Natura-World” mattress, and so I have done the naturaworld searches and read what is on here. Several posts on here say that they make quality mattresses but are too expensive compared to other brands…what other brands would those be? I was looking at either a “skye plush” which is a lower end model with some memory form and some latex (1 inch of memory foam in the comfort layer…); or something from their “organic” line which is basically 9 inches of “all natural” talalay and dunlop latex layers. The bad thing is that since their bankruptcy their website no longer lists the retailers…and so it is very difficult to find them; additionally, each retailer only carries a couple of models at the most. I can’t imagine buying a mattress that I haven’t slept on.

Your Organic Bedroom: Looking at one of the posts with places to go in NJ, I noticed Your Organic Bedroom, so I researched them. Again, several people said the same thing about high quality but low value. I like the sound of being able to customize the mattress…are there cheaper alternative brands than these (Savvy Rest, Sleep Tech, Suite Sleep…), where you are getting the same natural construction with that type of flexibility of interchanging layers? It seems like all of the mattresses at this store are at least $2000 and up.

Urban Mattress: I saw this place and their Sherwood EvoSleep BioTemp Ambiance bed briefly when I was visiting Denver, but it doesn’t look like Urban Mattress or even Sherwood has any locations or retailers in or near NJ.

Based on what I have said, do you have any recommendations? Especially about the Natura and the Your Organic Bedroom (which I think I will drive to this afternoon). Are there more affordable options in my area?

Thanks a lot.

Rob

[phoenix]

Hi rbred300,

what other brands would those be?

These would generally be other independent manufacturers or many of the online manufacturers that are listed here as well (which can be a good “value reference”). The best way to make meaningful comparisons is by looking for mattresses that use similar components and materials and have a similar design that are available to you either locally (or online if you are comfortable with this) regardless of the brand. This will vary depending on where you are and what is available to you locally but I don’t keep a list of specific mattress designs that are organized by brand (in a changing market this would be impossible to keep up with).

You may even find a Natura mattress at a particularly good price (lower than they normally sell for) that you can test in person at a particular store in which case they could also be better value than their regular selling prices or compared to what was available in your area that would normally have better value. Once you have narrowed down your choice in a particular retailer or manufacturer to one then you can make more meaningful quality and value comparisons rather than “looking for” a particular brand which may not even make a mattress that is similar to the one you are most interested in. I don’t recommend brand shopping at all but shopping based on the specifics of each mattress and the components and materials that are in them.

Generally the most effective approach to mattress shopping is to first confirm on the phone that any retailer or manufacturer you visit will disclose the specifics of what is in their mattress and has the knowledge and experience to educate you about what they mean (step 3 in the guidelines). If only some of their mattresses have this information available (either from the retailer themselves or through online research if they are not willing or able to find out and you are willing to do the time consuming work of tracking down mattress specs that may not even be available in the first place), then make sure they will identify which ones.

Once you have confirmed this then only visit the retailers or manufacturers that will provide you with this information. When you visit them then only test the mattresses where this information is available and narrow your choices down to one at each location within your budget range. If you choose to test mattresses that are outside your budget range as an “ideal design” then at the end or your testing you can compare them in terms of PPP and durability to see if they are worth the extra cost compared to other local mattresses or compare them to online options that are available to you to help you decide if the extra cost justifies an online purchase of a similar mattress based on your personal value equation. A mattress needs to be suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) or it would have little value to you no matter what it’s quality or relative value. In other words … if you test for comfort/pressure relief and support/alignment (using the suggested testing guidelines) on mattresses where you know the specs are available and are within your budget range, then you only need the specs for the ones your testing indicates are suitable for you.

Your Organic Bedroom: Looking at one of the posts with places to go in NJ, I noticed Your Organic Bedroom, so I researched them. Again, several people said the same thing about high quality but low value. I like the sound of being able to customize the mattress…are there cheaper alternative brands than these (Savvy Rest, Sleep Tech, Suite Sleep…), where you are getting the same natural construction with that type of flexibility of interchanging layers? It seems like all of the mattresses at this store are at least $2000 and up.

Again this would depend on what was available in your area or on your willingness to look at online options if this type of mattress isn’t available to you locally. There are many of the online manufacturers listed here that have “choose your own component designs” (there is a link to these in the “read first” post) but this type of mattress isn’t always available locally in which case you could be looking at paying a higher premium for this type of design if that’s this was the most important part of your criteria and online options weren’t something you would consider. Once you narrow down your first choice in each retailer or manufacturer (or perhaps to one in your budget and one regardless of budget) then these types of more specific comparisons become much easier.

You may have already read this but some of the better options I’m aware of in your general region are listed in post #4 here.

Sometimes what you would prefer in terms of design isn’t available locally in the price range you are comfortable with in which case you would need to look online or choose the “best” value available to you locally.

Phoenix