Hi Phoenix and others,
My wife and I acted on impulse and purchased a new Sherwood “Harbor PT” pillow top mattress. It was the most comfortable mattress either of us have ever been on and we’re very excited about it. It’s set to be delivered in a week; however, I have several concerns because there’s literally no reviews and very little info about this mattress anywhere online. It’s a little unnerving to spend so much money on a mattress without being able to research it. I was hoping that there’s someone/ some people here that could help me with my concerns.
Here are my questions :
The label says it has 19% latex and a lot of poly foam. I was assured that most of the foam is soy based natural foam and the latex is natural Talalay (in the pillowtop) and Dunlop (in the base). Other less comfortable and more expensive mattresses have around 65-80% latex. Should I be concerned that I’m buying a mattress with so much foam?
Sherwood seems to be getting a good reputation and the guys at Urban Mattress and a few other places swear by them, but I can’t find any info at all about this “Harbor PT” model. Do you think Sherwood’s short history selling mattresses is sufficient to imply this mattress is probably good quality?
I’ve heard horror stories about pillow tops wearing out/ flattening out faster than the rest of the mattress and then you’re screwed into buying another one. I was told this pillow top is primarily high quality talalay latex. Should I be concerned about the longevity of the pillow top or would you recommend I buy the slightly less comfortable non-pillow top variation just to be safe?
has anyone heard anything about this “harbor” model?
While the quality and value of any mattress can only really be known if you know the details of all the layers … I can say that Sherwood tends towards making higher quality mattresses than many major mattress manufacturers.
I can also tell you that I have had nothing but good dealings with Urban Mattress and they have always gone out of their way to provide me with any information I ask for to the best of their ability and within the limits of the information that they themselves are given.
Having said all that … I don’t know the details of the layers in the Sherwood Harbor PT so there is little I can say about it specifically. A mattress is only as good as it’s construction and the materials that are inside it so without knowing this I wouldn’t buy a mattress based on the brand regardless of who it was.
I can say though that the issue with a pillowtop is not so much the type of construction but the materials in the pillowtop. Most of the “pillowtop issues” that you read about are because of the use of soft and lower density/quality polyfoam in the pillowtop … not because of the pillowtop construction itself. Latex is the most durable type of foam no matter what type of construction it is used in. If the top layers of the mattress are mainly latex … there would be much less reason for concern than if they were lower quality polyfoam.
Sherwood itself is fairly new but the people who own and run it have a great deal of experience and have previously built a company into a top 10 manufacturer and are a 3rd generation “mattress family” so they are not new to the industry.
So overall … the odds are good that you made a better quality/value choice than you would have made by choosing a mainstream brand or buying from a mass market outlet but I would still want to know more details of the layering and fill in any important “unknown” gaps so I could identify any possible weak link in the mattress and make more meaningful assessments or comparisons. If you do a forum search on Sherwood (you can just click this) you will find more information about Sherwood and some of the materials they use in other models and some good feedback from some members about their mattresses and Urban Sleep but there is nothing specific about the Harbor PT unfortunately.