The mattress you listed has over 5" of “questionable” materials plus some fiber in the comfort layers as well. Worse yet it’s convoluted which is less durable than a solid layer of foam. This is exactly the type of construction that I would avoid unless you are able to find out the density/quality of the foam layers.
You would be much better off with a mattress that minimized the use of these types of materials and then adding a high quality topper where you can control the quality of the top layers of your sleeping system.
Some of the other mattresses you’ve mentioned earlier in this thread would be much better choices in terms of minimizing questionable or lower quality layers.
Natural and synthetic fibers will compress more than good quality foam because they are less resilient and will compress more over time. They are good for more “point specific” relief of pressure points and for improving the breathability of the surface of the mattress but they are not as good at overall pressure relief as foam materials. there is more about wool toppers in post #3 here and more about some of the different fibers in toppers in post #10 here. If you are having foam “sinking” issues then a firmer foam may be the answer. Memory foam also has more of an “in the mattress” feel than faster response foams like polyfoam and latex which have a more “on the mattress” feel. The type of foam doesn’t matter and is really a personal preference. No matter which type you prefer though choosing higher quality will make sure it doesn’t soften or break down too quickly. 4 lbs or greater with memory foam, 1.8 lbs or higher for polyfoam (1.5 lbs used with caution), or any type of latex (which is all a durable material) are all good choices.
Many of them still are … it depends on the type of innerspring and on the design of the mattress. You probably didn’t try some of the “more springy” ones (I’m guessing you mean the types of innersprings that have a helical wire such as Bonnel coils or Offset coils).
Thanks for the reply. I guess the only springy mattress that I’ve tried was that other Kingsdown I mentioned, the one with all the convoluted foam in it. Which, given your comments, I think I will have to disregard.
I discovered something else interesting about the whole mattress buying experience just now. When I went in yesterday to ask about the exchange process, my order was checked on their system and the woman I was dealing with said we’d bought a ‘Silver Belle’ mattress. I didn’t think that was quite the name we had bought, but wasn’t sure so didn’t say anything. However because the price is a bit cheaper now and they do a price guarantee I was doing some research on their website this morning, and it would appear they delivered the wrong mattress! The one we tried in store was a Silver Moss, and the one we were delivered was a Silver Belle. Granted, looking at the numbers there is not a lot of difference between the two component-wise, but I’m pretty unimpressed!
It occurred to me that maybe they’d just give us a refund now, to make up for the error, but I think this is probably wishful thinking given that I only discovered the error 30 days after it was delivered.
This process is hard enough without discovering you’ve been sold a different mattress than you expected
It appears that you’ve solved the mystery of why your mattress felt different when you received it than when you were testing it in the store.
The Silver Moss has more foam and softer foam than the Silver Belle (accounting for the difference in price as well as the difference in “feel” and performance) although both of them have far too much unknown foam in the comfort layers and would have the risk of early softening and breakdown. You would at least have an argument for replacing the mattress for the one you purchased (assuming that the one you meant to purchase is listed on your receipt) and while this may be more comfortable for you … it won’t solve the problem that there is too much lower quality foam in the comfort layers and the earlier loss of comfort and support that this can lead to.
At the very least I would pursue the argument that you should be able to start from the beginning again and that they should be willing to exchange the mattress for the one you originally ordered and start your exchange period from the beginning again. It may be better to sleep comfortably for a shorter period of time because the mattress is more suitable for your body type and sleeping positions even though there is more foam and softer foam (which is more likely to soften over time) than the mattress you have now.
I would also pursue the possibility of a refund even though this is against their policy because you won’t know if they are willing to make an exception until you try. This would be the “ideal” scenario if it was possible.
The “best” option if you are limited to an exchange (and I would insist at a minimum that the exchange period starts all over again) would be to choose a mattress with much less questionable materials in the comfort layers and then add a good quality topper even though this too would have some uncertainty and risk involved in terms of choosing the most suitable topper for the mattress you choose. There may not be any mattresses in the store where the comfort layers are disclosed or good quality. The benefit of doing this is that if you choose a suitable topper it will help improve the durability of the materials in the top layers of your mattress (the topper would be subject to most of the compression forces instead of the foam in the top layers of the mattress) and it’s also easier to replace just a topper than an entire mattress and once you know the type of topper that works best for you then you would also know what to replace it with when the time comes that it needs replacing.
Just to give an update on where we are in our mattress saga! I went back to Leons and they weren’t up for giving us a refund (no surprise there). I think they would have exchanged the Silver Belle for the Silver Moss that we’d originally wanted, but the problem was it was even softer and I didn’t think that was going to solve the problem - as you said, still far too much foam.
So we drove 1hr down the road to a bigger Leons store to try out another couple of options, and we’ve decided to go for the Simmons Pearl. It’s quite firm, without too much foam, and you feel like you’re being supported by the coils which I like. The other option was the Kingsdown Congress, which was much more like a basic UK bed with springy springs and a squashy layer on top. I did like it, but it was quite a bit cheaper (with no refund on the difference) and it did feel like it wouldn’t last as long. So I’ve phoned today and said I’d like the Simmons, so we’ll see how that goes.
The trip to the other showroom was interesting… When we went in and over to the mattress section we were accosted by a salesman almost straight away - no surprise there. I had to explain our story, which he took a bit of time to grasp, I guess it doesn’t happen often. But the funny part was when I explained that we had the Silver Belle and I couldn’t sleep on it without waking up in pain. He looked at me like I’d said I was the President of the USA… and then when I said the Silver Belle had too much foam he looked at me like I was an alien! I think he even said something along the lines of ‘too much foam…? I just don’t understand that…’ I didn’t want to launch into a big thing about how I’d read up on all the mattresses and how the Silver Belle has 6"+ of foam in it, which to me is quite a lot, because I couldn’t be bothered. It was a first hand education in how little mattress salespeople know about their mattresses though.
He did manage to redeem himself slightly later on, when we were trying out the Simmons, because he came over and said that it was a good mattress, and the pocket coils were good, and because there wasn’t much foam it meant that the coils could do their job, unlike other beds which had so much foam the coils didn’t have much to do. Yes. That was my point before! shakes head
Anyway, it’ll probably be a week or two before the replacement mattress arrives. I really hope I can sleep on it, otherwise we’re a bit stuck!
Hi again, I just wanted to pop back and let you know how things are going with the mattress exchange. It took a couple of weeks for Leons to get the mattress to us from one of their other stores. We swapped them over, and that night I (rather nervously) went to bed. I was pretty upset to wake up with a sore back! However I remembered with the other mattress I slept fine the first night and it was sore from then on, so I hoped the mattress just needed to soften a bit.
And thankfully, it did :cheer: I slept fine on it the next night, and have no problems since then and that’s been almost a month. What a relief!
The mattress we got was a Simmons Pearl. It is a pocket coil mattress, with just over an inch of foam on top. For me, that still feels like quite a lot of foam It’s definitely not too firm, so we don’t need to hunt for a mattress topper. The amount of foam there is means I sink into it a little bit and the coils do the rest.
So at last, good night’s sleep! Thanks to Phoenix and this forum for all the information that got us to the right mattress in the end.
That’s great news … and thanks for sharing the results of your exchange with the forum.
As you mentioned … with thinner foam layers the pocket coils will provide much of the contouring and pressure relief and there is less foam in your mattress to soften and break down so it seems to me that you made the best of a difficult situation.
It’s definitely not too firm, so we don’t need to hunt for a mattress topper. The amount of foam there is means I sink into it a little bit and the coils do the rest.