So I’m in the market for a new mattress. I’m located in Central Texas around the Fort Hood area. I’m currently debating between a memory foam and maybe a latex mattress. A little background information, I got injured in Afghanistan a few years ago and I have a herniated L5/S1 with sciatic nerve aggravation. The first bed I purchased after my injury was an iComfort something and it was a firm mattress. Cost me around 1200 bucks and then I also got the elevating platform. I purchased from Factory Mattress and after about 10 months I couldn’t take it anymore, my back hurt every single day from waking up. Luckily Factory Mattress had a 1 year satisfaction policy, and they let me bring it back in for a full refund/reallocation. They happened to have a Tempurpedic Cloud Elite I believe it was. They took off an additional 600 since it was a “return” but it was still brand new in the plastic. Got the bed home and I have to say it was the best mattress I ever slept on. Unfortunately my ex and I split up and she kept it since I was moving a few hours away and I didn’t wanna deal with the hassle of moving it and messing it up and voiding the warranty somehow. Also I wanted to potentially upgrade. So she gave me the cost for the bed and I am now in search of a new mattress. Honestly, I have no issues spending the money on a tempurpedic if they are the best, but from reading on here I am thinking I can get just as good if not better for cheaper, which is a win in my book. My primary concern is quality of sleep and rest. In my search I ran across Christeli, and I like what I have seen with them, but not being able to test them out physically is a minor concern. Are they really just as good/better? I’m not set on them as a brand, but so far they have caught my interest the most. However I have read a few reviews where people say after a few years the mattress was no good or wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable. I do want something that can last me at a minimum 10 years. My other question would be regarding the latex mattresses how are they in comparison for quality of support for back injuries? I’ve read the differences in how they hug and everything else. The soft beds feel good to me as long as that support is there and I don’t wake up hurting in the morning. I’ve read about Loom and Leaf by Saatva and it sounds good, but how many of those reviews are legit is a question. But i’m more than willing to go with another brand if the latex is a better option for me, even if it is more expensive. I did happen to go to a furniture store that had the Tempurpedic Cloud-Luxe Breeze and it felt great and amazing. But for 4800 it is pricey. If i could get equal quality to that for cheaper, i’d be good with that. Before I registered on here I found a post where Phoenix recommended some online retailers and Christeli was among the list, but for the life of me I cannot find it anymore. I’ll be needing the mattress within the next two weeks so I’m looking to make a purchase soon. I appreciate any help that I can get and I know I could do more research to find more on my own, but with my time crunch on needing to do this on top of everything else in life, I figured I could ask, so I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge and research.
I’m a newbie to this site, and I know that Phoenix will reply to your post soon, but in the meantime, in regard to the Loom and Leaf you’re considering, I advise caution. I returned one a few weeks ago after sleeping on it for about sixteen nights, and I spent most of those sixteen nights in a good bit of lower and mid back pain. I don’t think you should take my word for anything of course, because you might have a totally different response to the mattress than I had. But knowing that you’ve experienced injuries and battle resulting pain made me feel I had to offer my two cents’ worth, nonetheless.
I hope you hear back from Phoenix soon. Take care!
Hi d62917,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum! 
You have quite a few different questions in your post, but I’m going to narrow it down to the few that I feel are germane to your task.
I’m sorry to hear about your low back injury.
Without getting into detail about your comments regarding your previous mattress and your shopping experiences, when you have a very specific condition such a low back injury and you’ve found something that works for it, I would tend to stick with the same or similar item, as finding what works for such a specific and personal ailment can be incredibly difficult.
In the past you had good relief from a memory foam product. You had asked about your previous Tempurpedic and their level of quality. Tempurpedic mattresses use good quality materials but as you know they are in much higher budget ranges and for most people they certainly wouldn’t be in the best “value” range compared to many other smaller manufacturers that use similar (or in some cases better) quality materials that are in much lower budget ranges. You can read more about Tempurpedic in general in posts #1 and #2 here. However, as you are in such a specific situation, if you know there is a certain model that works well for your injury, I’d certainly tell you to consider that model, because finding what provides relief for your back injury would of course would be a very large part of your personal value equation.
You had mentioned you were looking for a post about other memory foam items, and it may have been this:
Off the top of my head … Novosbed (in their medium firmness level), and Rocky Mountain Mattress, and Tempflow, and Foamorder, and Christeli all make at least one or more mattresses that use 5 lb or higher memory foam but you would need to check their websites or talk to them to find out how they compared to any of the Tempurpedic mattresses.
It also may have been this:
In addition to the online members of the site listed in post #21 here… post #12 here has some of the better online memory foam options for those who are looking for a memory foam mattress.
You’ve mentioned reviews a few times, and even Leesee here on the site offered up an opinion, but … I would always keep in mind that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about using anyone else’s suggestions, experiences or reviews on a specific mattress (either positive or negative) or review sites in general as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you. In many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (especially with your very specific needs). In other words … reviews or other people’s experiences in general won’t tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or “value” of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).
I know that you are in a rush, but I would strongly suggest that you read through the mattress shopping tutorial which will have good information about learning about mattress componentry and what to look for in a quality mattress. Don’t try to memorize things there, but use it as a reference. Specifically, make sure that you find out the information listed here so you can compare the quality of the materials and components to the durability guidelines here to make sure there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress that would be a cause for concern relative to the durability and useful life of a mattress before making any purchase.
As you’re near Austin and have mentioned that it may be best for you to test something out should you decide to try a different mattress, subject to first confirming that any retailer or manufacturer on the list that you wish to visit is completely transparent ( see this article) and to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here … some of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around San Antonio and Austin is in post #2 here.
Hopefully that gives you a good start and I’ve tried to simplify things by focusing on what has worked well for you in the past and suggesting you search for the same or similar products as opposed to introducing new variables into your equation.
Phoenix