New to the site and looking for pointers

[phoenix]

Hi Oneiros,

The tutorial post here and the links inside it will answer most of your questions and has the basic information, steps, and guidelines I would suggest to make the best possible choice.

Outside of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences), knowing the construction and the quality of the materials inside a mattress are one of the most important parts of a mattress purchase because without knowing the quality of all the layers there is no way to identify any weak links in a mattress in terms of durability or make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses.

As you will see … I would generally suggest avoiding any of the major brands because they tend to use lower quality materials in every budget range than many other options made by smaller manufacturers across the country and they often don’t disclose the specific information you would need to make an informed buying decision.

You can read a little more about the Sealy Optimum line (including the Radiance) in post #48 here. The Radiance has a 6" 1.5 lb density polyfoam core (not memory foam) and then 4" of 4 lb memory foam in the comfort layers.

Amerisleep and the Revere mattress in particular. They say that their plant-based memory foams emit far less VOC’s and that their mattresses sleep cooler. However, I am skeptical of them because they seem to run a crazy deal on their mattresses every day.

You are wise to be skeptical about marketing information that implies that a mattresses uses a “special” material that is unique to them. You can see some of my thoughts about Amerisleep at the end of both post #4 here and post #4 here and a forum search on Amerisleep (you can just click this) will bring up more information about them as well. There is also a link to a list of some of the better online memory foam retailers and manufacturers I’m aware of in the tutorial post.

I took a look at Sleep Number as well because their air mattresses seem to be good for your back and motion transfer but I have heard some negative things about their parts breaking down.

You can see my thoughts about airbeds in general in this article.

Intellibed caught my eye as well because the editor of mattressreviewguru.com has listed it as his number one mattress.

A forum search on Intellibed (you can just click this) will bring up more information about them as well.

I apologize for the long post but I hope that helps you narrow down the mattress of our dreams. By the way, we live in Orlando, FL if you know of any great retailers close by that may or may not be the chain retailers.

If you do some initial reading and then follow the steps in the tutorial post one by one you will end up with a good quality/value choice. When you get to step 3 … the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Orlando area are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix