Hi folks,
I lurked here and then got the 5 % discount when I placed my order for the Aloe Alexis about a month ago, so I figure the least I could do is a review, now that we’ve been sleeping on it for ~3 weeks.
First Things First
We (wife and I) came to this bed from coil. We have never had any other foam, latex, memory, water, air, or other type of non-traditional mattress. This is our very first foray into the wild side. I did about two months of web research, and let me tell you, it was super-frustrating. The more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know.
Honestly, it got to a point where I wanted to just go out and buy another coil mattress and put an end to the pain. But for unknown reasons, I kept soldiering on, studying and learning and trying to make sense out of what should be one of the easier things in life - picking out something soft to sleep on - but which ended up being one of the most complex and frustrating. It is like when you see one of those slightly out-of-it 70-somethings in a Starbucks, going up to the counter and saying “Coffee please,” in a tired, weak voice, and the barista pummels the old soul: “Soy milk or 1 percent or half and half? How many shots of espresso? Decaf, half caf? Foam? Fair trade coffee? Sumatra or Columbian? Grande or vente or small or trente? Sugar or nutrasweet or sugar free vanilla or …” I felt like that old guy, just wanting a simple solution to a problem and having to deal with the modern world’s tyranny of choices.
In the end, we eliminated water, air and some other funky solutions, and narrowed it down to memory foam or latex. We ruled out memory foam, because I am very sensitive to heat and I’d read various complaints about even the highest-end gel-infused memory foam mattresses. My take was: no matter what the manufacturers claim, there is a fundamental, inherent aspect of sleeping on memory foam which causes body heat to get trapped and makes you hot. So we decided on latex.
From there it was a pretty easy choice. One day I stumbled onto Brooklyn Bedding, took one look at the Aloe Alexis product, and knew it was for us. Two layers of 3" latex. Two additional inches of some sort of Aloe-whatever padding on top, which sounded soft. Bunch of supportive foam on the bottom. 14" of thick mattress in all, an impressive archaeological strata of sleeping technologies stacked one on top of the other. The price seemed reasonable. The $1600-ish wasn’t much more than a decent coil mattress, way, way, way cheaper than a high-end tempurpedic, and cheaper than most comparable latex mattresses. It was, really, at least for us, a no brainer.
Ordering
I ordered the Aloe Alexis via web chat from the Brooklyn Bedding page, working with Mario, who is one of their two online sales guys (the other is Jason). He was very helpful. I knew, from reading here and elsewhere, that the task at hand would be to pick the firmness level. The Aloe comes in various firmnesses, but for most people, it’s gonna boil down to a 5 (which is 28 over 32 and could be called Medium Firm), a 6 (24 over 28, i.e. medium soft) and an 8 (19/24, plush). Only sleeping extremists of one sort or another would fall outside the 5 to 8 range, basically. He asked me a bunch of questions to establish the correct level. The essence of the discussion was: my wife and I are chubby side-sleepers who are used to sleeping on a plush coil mattress. Unfortunately, those data points pull in different directions. Chubsters need firm mattresses, because their weight makes them sink in further. Side sleepers generally need softer mattresses, as do people with a long-time preference for plush mattresses. Working with Mario, we picked a 5 - the medium, or medium-firm 28 over 32. We also ordered the freebie pillows, basically pieces of foam stuffed into a pillow case.
Experiencing
The mattress arrived about a week later. It was very heavy. Those Youtube videos of smiling ,happy 105 pound girls pushing their mattresses up staircases? Um, no. Forget that. This was hard work. But we got it done. Watching the thing expand on the bed was lots of fun, and it seemed to reach the target height in a few minutes. It had a faint smell of coconut or something tropical, but was not annoying or toxic-smelling in any way.
The first night was TERRIBLE. My wife and I tossed and turned all night, complaining till sunrise that it was like sleeping on a piece of granite. She complained bitterly that it was so much less than her expectations and that I needed to do something to fix the problem STAT. I gave her the school solution, which is that it takes a little while to get used to latex and for the latex to loosen up or whatever, and that we needed to tough it out for a while. Of course, anyone who’s married already knows how much good that approach does. The next morning I was on the site chatting with Jason about doing the one-time hardness exchange. We set it up to receive the level 6, in trade for the level 5: changing out from medium-firm to medium-soft. Basically that means keeping the 28, and turning in the 32 for a 24 – you’re going from 28/32 to 24/28. It took a week for it to arrive, during which time the bed did loosen up to some degree, and we kind of got used to it. But I wouldn’t say we liked it, exactly.
Putting in the Level 6 (24/28) made a world of difference. Instantly, the bed was transformed into a very comfortable mattress, supportive but also soft and comfortable. We slept like logs. We then slept like logs for the next 5 nights. Whoa. With the right hardness level, this whole latex thing really rocks. Our travails with the level 5 vs 6 brings me to an important point. We larger, big-boned, heavy-set folks are told to go firmer because otherwise we’ll sink in too much. Maybe that’s true, but like anything, sometimes the conventional wisdom applies on an individual basis, and sometimes it doesn’t. In our case, it didn’t. We like the 6 a LOT and there might even be an 8 in our future. You can be chunky and like the plush feel. You don’t have to go firm just because a bunch of forums say to do so.
Now, let’s talk about heat. As noted earlier, one of the things we were really concerned about was potential heat. I am ultra-uber-sensitive to heat; I need the A/C pumping all night to keep it 67 degrees to sleep at all, and that’s without blankets. That is why we wrote off the memory foam options. We’d heard that latex does not have that problem. Well, that’s not exactly true. With the Level 5 firmness (28/32) there was a little heat but nothing extreme. With the Level 6 (24/28) things do heat up. You’re sinking into the softer mattress and your body heat does get trapped a little. It’s not intolerable, but it is also not as cool-sleeping as a coil. I don’t think it’s a show-stopper, but an honest review has to take account of the heat level with the softer latex toppers. Latex is not as cool as a coil mattress, period, end of story.
Just for giggles and grins, after a week of sleeping on the Level 6, we switched back to the 5 for a night, prior to shipping it back to Brooklyn Bedding. it was even worse than we remembered it. After a week of plushy 6 log-sleeping, the Level 5 was like being sent to a Supermax prison where you sleep on a steel inmate bunkbed … where they’ve forgotten to issue you the grimy foam mattress to put on it. Oh sweet Baby (diety of choice), it was hard. Ah well, back to the Level 6, and the 5 is on its way back to Brooklyn Bedding in, curiously, Arizona.
Incidentally, those freebie pillows are awesome. We ordered two more. Anything that’s free is usually not very good, but I love these pillows. They’re full of little chunks of foam. You can ball them up or shape them around your head, or whatever you feel like doing with them. Best pillows I’ve ever used.
Final Observations
The Aloe Alexis is a well-made product. The comfort layer is well-stitched, everything comes apart easily when it’s time to change out toppers, and zips up securely. It does seem, look and feel like a high quality product. My sense is that it’s a lotta mattress for the buck at $1,600, and I am very glad we got it. We plan to use it for years and years. I do think it is crucial to get the hardness level right. Even one level can make the difference between insanely uncomfortably insomnia and deep, restful sleep. For us, 5 sucked, and 6 rocked. For someone else, the numbers will be different, of course. It’s all a matter of personal taste. Just keep in mind, if you’re a potential buyer, that you may need to fuss and fidget with the hardness level like we did, changing it out and paying the $75 shipping fee to do an exchange. I’d say also to keep in mind that if you get it and don’t like it, a big reason may have to do with the hardness level, which can be changed. Having gone through the whole experience, I just think that’s a super-important detail to keep in mind. The guys at Brooklyn Bedding are very helpful and customer-focused and make this painful process of mattress-buying as easy and painless as possible. The prices are fair, and service is very good. All in all, I’d give it an A.
Overall, we’re extremely happy with this product, and very thankful to be done with the learning phase and on to the sleeping phase.
