I’m a newbie Matress shipper. My wife and I bought a bed a few years ago, and it has turned in to a horrific piece of furniture. We want to make sure that we make a good, knowledgeable purchase this time around. However, I’ve become a bit more unsure of what to do after reading through this site. I’d like to know what I should be looking.
I weigh 320 lbs, am a side sleeper, and enjoy the medium comfort level bed.
My wife weighs 120 lbs, is a side sleeper, enjoys the soft comfort level bed, and prefers coiled beds.
Our budget can be up to $5000.
We were thinking of a Sleep Number, but after reading about air beds on this site, we have become apprehensive.
The first place to start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists (based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you).
[quote]I weigh 320 lbs, am a side sleeper, and enjoy the medium comfort level bed.
My wife weighs 120 lbs, is a side sleeper, enjoys the soft comfort level bed, and prefers coiled beds.
Any suggestions based on our profiles? [/quote]
The first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), any specific health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
There is also more information in post #3 here and the posts it links to that would be helpful for those that are in higher weight ranges or for a couple that are in different weight ranges and have different needs and preferences. While the process of how to choose a mattress would be the same … most people in higher weight ranges will generally need or prefer firmer mattresses (firmer materials will feel softer than they would for those that are lighter because you will sink into them more) and materials and components that are higher quality and more durable (the materials and components in a mattress will soften and break down faster for those in higher weight ranges than they will for someone that is in a lower weight range that doesn’t compress the mattress as much).
Your budget is certainly more than you would need to be able to purchase a very high quality mattress (see this article)
You can see my thoughts about airbeds in general this article. While any mattress can be a good match for a specific person because each person’s needs and preferences or the criteria that are most important to them can be very different … in general terms I would tend to avoid them unless there is a very compelling reason that an airbed would be a better choice for you in “real life” (outside of the many “marketing stories” that you will hear about them) than the many other options or types of mattresses that are available to you.
If you are committed to an airbed and you are convinced that there are no other types of mattresses that will meet your criteria then there are some other airbed options available to you that are listed in post #3 here that may be in a much better quality/value range than Sleep Number/Select Comfort.
There is more information about Saatva mattresses along with some of the other simplified choice online mattresses in post #2 in this topic and in post #1 here and the rest of the topic and a forum search on Saatva (you can just click the link) will bring up more comments and feedback about them as well. As you can see I would be cautious with this mattress (especially in your weight range) because it wouldn’t be in the same “quality/value” range as many of the other options that that are available to you that use higher quality and more durable materials.
If you are looking at online options then the tutorial also includes several links to lists of the better online options I’m aware of (in the optional online step) that include many different types and categories of mattresses in a wide range of budgets and firmness levels that would be well worth considering.
If you let me know your city or zip code I’d also be happy to let you know about the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area as well.
I’d agree with the comments from Phoenix that I would recommend something using higher foam densities than the Saatva for your weight range. Personally I wouldn’t want you to use anything less than 1.8# density with a polyurethane foam, and a good quality latex foam layer would also be durable.
Will also be trying Pure Latex Bliss models tomorrow at a local store. Due to my weight, I’m concerned the Berkely Ergonomics 6" mattress core might not be enough, and I read the Pure Latex Bliss has a 10" core.
The better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Agoura Hills area (subject to making sure any mattress you are considering meets that quality/value guidelines that are linked in the next part of this reply) are listed in the Ventura/Santa Barbara list here or in the list for the Los Angeles region that it also links to.
There is more information about the 3 most important parts of “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).
I would also keep in mind that while other people’s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful … I would be very cautious about about using other people’s experiences or reviews on a specific mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on even if they are in a similar weight range or have similar sleeping positions (see post #13 here).
Having said that … I do think highly of Berkeley Ergonomics because they make a wide range of component mattresses that all use high quality materials and there are no lower quality materials or weak links that would compromise the durability or useful life of the mattress in any of their mattresses. A forum search on Berkeley Ergonomics (you can just click the link) will bring up many more comments and feedback about them as well.
They are both very different mattresses (the Linden is an all Talalay latex mattress while the Wysteria uses a pocket coil support core with a microcoil and latex comfort layer) so they will have a very different “feel” and response but if you have done some careful testing on both of them (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) and you are confident that either the Wysteria or the Linden would be a good match for you in terms of PPP and that you will sleep well on either one of them then they would certainly be well worth considering.
There is also more about some of the differences between a latex support core and an innerspring support core in post #2 here but the choice between them would really be a preference and/or a budget choice rather than a “better/worse” choice.
[quote]Due to my weight, I’m concerned the Berkely Ergonomics 6" mattress core might not be enough, and I read the Pure Latex Bliss has a 10" core.
Are my concerns valid? [/quote]
The Berkeley Ergonomics Linden has 8" of latex (not 6") and Pure Latex Bliss makes a range of mattresses that vary from 8" to 12". The thickest individual latex core you will find will be 6" because that is the thickness of the mold (all the PLB mattresses also use a 6" latex core as the bottom layer). Thinner layers would be slit from the 6" core but most latex mattresses use multiple layers not just a single core.
While the thickness of a mattress can make a difference … I would be very cautious about choosing a mattress based on its thickness alone because the thickness of a mattress or any individual layers inside it is really just a side effect of the design and the design goals of a mattress and is also only one of many variables that can affect the feel and performance of a mattress relative to any particular person and by itself isn’t particularly meaningful (see post #2 here). In some cases higher weight ranges will sometimes do better with a mattress that is thicker than lower weight ranges (see post #14 here for more about the effect of thickness) but even this depends more on the specific design and combination of materials in the mattress and on how well your testing or personal experience indicates the mattress “as a whole” matches your specific needs and preferences in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) than anything else.
I would be very cautious about choosing the Worlds Best Bed in your weight range. It’s their softest mattress and has thicker layers of very soft latex than their other mattresses (see post #2 here) which means it could be a risky choice both in terms of durability and suitability/PPP. It may be worthwhile rereading the information about higher weight ranges and couples that are in very different weight ranges that I linked in my first reply.
It would depend on which BE mattress you are referring to and on the thickness and firmness of the comfort layers but even with a 2" topper the BE mattresses you were mentioning previously would still have thinner and firmer latex comfort layers than the WBB.
Having said that … in your weight range I would be very cautious about choosing any very soft mattress.
We went with the Berkeley Ergonomics Full Latex w/a 2" topper. I went with a soft latex core on my side of the bed. They will replace it with a firm latex core free of charge should I need it.
