New Mattress Decision, down to three options (IKEA, Sleep EZ, Innerspring)!

[arx]

Hi Phoenix,

Thank you for your reply.

I am certainly not included in “everybody” and some of the most knowledgeable people I know in the industry that could sleep on anything they wanted to sleep on an innerspring mattress … by choice. The “weak link” of a mattress is generally in the comfort layers not the support layers of a mattress and a good quality innerspring can be a very durable component. A mattress will normally soften and break down from the top down and an innerspring is not normally the weak link of a mattress and are not nearly as common an issue as the quality of the comfort layers above it.

I agree with you here, it seems like this opinion is born from the low quality of comfort layers on the Sealy, S&F, & etc mattresses (I would think this is what most consumers experience). There are many verified reviews that support this claim.

There are certainly some people who believe this but there are also many who believe that anything that includes any synthetic materials must “by definition” be toxic which is of course nonsense. There are also many types of memory foam with different chemical formulations that have different degrees of offgassing and VOC’s but since all materials will have VOC’s the real issue is whether they are harmful more than whether they exist. For the most part if a memory foam is certified by CertiPur (or a similar testing protocol) then by most people’s standards it would be “safe enough” although there are also a minority with greater sensitivity who may be more sensitive than the testing standards or sensitive to odors that aren’t harmful and there is also a vocal minority who for personal reasons will only sleep on natural materials and believe anything else is unhealthy. Either way … all of this is a personal preference and each person may answer the question of “how safe is safe enough for me?” in different ways.

Again I agree here, just because something is synthetic does not make it toxic, coming from a chemical/engineering background I always find this argument absurd. However in the case of VOCs it is plausible and some studies do support it, and I do not want to take this risk. As I said asbestos was once thought of as harmless, and look at it now. But this is a personal preference, I recognize that I may very well be over-paranoid.

Reviews are among the worst ways to choose a mattress or to know it’s quality or durability but if you know the materials inside a mattress you will have a much more meaningful idea of its durability. You can read more about mattress reviews in post #13 here. Regardless of which mattress manufacturer uses it … it’s not the brand or model name of the mattress that gives it its durability … it’s the materials inside the mattress. Latex itself is the oldest of all the foam materials used in mattresses and has been used for many decades. You can see a latex mattress in the video here that was slept on for almost 50 years.

In the case of SleepEz there are many reviews around the internet and a forum search on SleepEz here (you can just click this) will also bring up many comments and feedback about them although once again reviews won’t tell you anything about how suitable a mattress will be for you or how long it may last you (you can read more about the factors involved in the relative durability of a mattress in post #4 here).

I agree about reviews being the wrong tool to choose a mattress, to an extent. They certainly can’t predict comfort and an individuals reaction to the material (sensitivity to materials of construction). One could also argue that the longevity of a mattress can’t be predicted based on a small sample size of reviews, since who knows how that individual mattress was treated or maybe it was defective.

However with a large sample size of reviews one could probably get a good idea of the longevity of a mattress (with the assumption that most people treat a mattress in a similar fashion), purchase experience and subsequent customer service.

I also believe VERIFIED reviews are an absolute must for on-line only purchases. They provide real feedback and in the internet age where some estimate 42% of online reviews are faked (it’s a rather pessimistic view, but certainly an effective marketing strategy).

That is by far my biggest gripe with the latex mattress industry, almost none of the reviews are verified! Yes, there are reviews, but they are on forums and some rather sketchy looking testimonials. The only company I have found somewhat verified reviews are from Savvy Rest and Dream Foam bedding. I think it would go a long way if some of the latex mattress companies established a presence on Amazon or asked consumers to post reviews on third party verified sites (it would certainly increase consumer confidence).

I think another issue with latex mattresses is such a small sample size of users, it’s really unfortunate and a catch 22. Not enough people buy latex mattresses, which leads to not enough reviews, which leads to diminished consumer confidence (lower demand), this leads to lower supply of the product, leading to higher prices for those who do demand such a mattress, but at the same time the price keeps away potential new adopters. Add the fact that a lot of mattress reviews are initial impressions and not long term reviews, this further gives consumers incorrect product information. Factor in general consumer apathy toward product research and one can see how easy it is for the big box mattress stores and others to easily prey on consumers.

With that said I do remain optimistically skeptical about latex mattresses. I do however find it odd that I have found no negative reviews about Sleep EZ (though I did find a few negative about Savvy Rest) and I also remain skeptical about a lot of the claims of latex (the old adage, if it’s too good to be true it probably is), but I certainly hope that the claims are true.

Out of the mattresses you mentioned … Ikea and SleepEz have no obvious weak links in terms of quality and durability and both could make a good choice if the design was suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences).

The “generic innerspring” would depend entirely on knowing the specifics of all the layers but if you are looking at a major brand then the odds are very high that there are significant amounts of lower quality polyfoam in the comfort layers. there are some very good quality “generic innerspring” mattresses available but in general they are made by smaller independent manufacturers that use higher quality versions of polyfoam in their comfort layers and/or make their mattresses two sided. As you can see in some of the links in the basic tutorial post here … you would need to know the exact materials in a specific mattress to make any meaningful comments about its quality or durability but if it’s made by a major brand I would tend to avoid it.

If you let me know your city or zip code I’d be happy to let you know of any of the better local options or possibilities I’m aware of and the tutorial post has a link to the online members here that make latex mattresses in a wide range of designs … all of which are good quality/value and well worth a phone call.

With regards to the choices, I think I will eliminate the IKEA mattress, only because I think my frame of 6’3’’ and 200-240 lbs will not get enough support from the 7’’ of latex.

This leaves me with an innerspring and a thicker 100% latex. An innerspring with a latex comfort layer might be the best solution.

I think therefore Sleep EZ and possibly Dreamfoam bedding (many verified reviews on Amazon) are a good choice now. However I would like to hear about other latex choices.

I would be very very happy to hear about local options too. I live in the Metro Detroit area near Ann Arbor (I have actually found one place that showed Savvy Rest, but not much more).

Thank you for taking the time to read this (despite all my skepticism).

Arx

PS: I would also like to add that Sleep EZ would benefit a great deal from a better designed web site. Along with that a list of latex manufacturers, MSDS, and a material analysis of the latex would give, at least me, a great deal of confidence in a purchase.