I am nearly sold on a mattress I laid on today at Six Day mattress store in Redmond, WA. The Northwest Bedding XL300. The sales staff (Bob was out of the office) wasn’t sure what the mattress was constructed out of, so they told me to contact NW Bedding myself. I called their showroom and was told that they manufacture this mattress for other retailers, but it’s not one of their beds. I am going to call the factory Monday morning, but if possible I’d like to find answers to my questions before hand.
Questions:
I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with this mattress or Northwest Bedding’s reputation for building lasting mattresses (6-8 yrs).
Does anyone know the construction of this mattress? Specifically:
Are the 380 -12 3/4 inch double offset coils made with tempered steel?
I was told this mattress has memory foam in it, but the sales person didn’t know where exactly. Maybe comfort layer? What is the density rating?
Is there any poly foam in the mattress? If so, HD or HR? and what is the lb rating?
Is there latex on top of the memory foam How much latex?
Overall, we were pretty happy with this mattress, but are curious about the finer points of construction.
Thanks a lot for your help. I’ve learned so much from this forum that’s made me a better and more educated consumer.
You can see my thoughts about Northwest Bedding in post #10 here and I do believe that they are committed to making higher quality mattresses than the more common mainstream choices.
It’s great to see you are tracking down the specs for the mattress although it’'s actually the job of the retailer to do this for their customers. If you are doing it yourself though I would always make sure you get this directly from the manufacturer (or from the retailer calling the manufacturer) so that you know it’s accurate because mattress specs can change over time and the most accurate source is always the manufacturer themselves. I don’t know the specifics of their mattresses outside of what is on their site…
I believe that they get all their springs from Leggett & Platt so they would be tempered yes. Again though it’s always best to confirm this type of information directly with the manufacturer.
Unfortunately the rest of the specs will need to wait till you call them but once you have them I’d certainly be happy to share my thoughts about them or help identify any potential “weak links” if you list them on the forum.
I talked to Bob at Northwest Mattress this morning and he said:
The springs are made of double tempered steel.
The mattress is single sided.
There is an inch of foam under the springs and in the quilt layer made from 1.8 lb poly foam. I remember you saying this is the cheapest quality foam. I’m wondering how much it’s placement in the mattress will affect the quality/durability of the mattress? Would this be a deal breaker for you?
Do you know of any ways to mitigate the stress on the poly foam?
There’s roughly 3" of latex on top of the springs.
There is no memory foam in this mattress, so that’s no longer a consideration.
There is a foam encased spring unit that runs along the sides of the mattress.
This is actually the beginning of what I consider to be high quality foam and is higher quality than most of the major manufacturers use in their mattresses. 1.8 lbs density polyfoam or better is the density I would be looking for … not avoiding. Layers that are deeper in the mattress are less subject to the compression forces of sleeping and in some cases you could even “get away” with lower density as a budget compromise in deeper layers. Having “around an inch or so” of lower quality /density polyfoam in a quilting layer also wouldn’t have a meaningful affect durability but 1.8 lb foam used here is also higher quality/density polyfoam than would typically be used in a quilting foam so even a thicker quilting layer of this density would be OK.
I’m not quite sure what you mean here but if a layer is in the top of a mattress then a topper will absorb some of the compression forces before they “reach” the layers immediately under the topper. For a firm “shock absorbing” layer under the innersprings it wouldn’t be an issue. Other than that no because the foam layers and their position is part of the design of the mattress.
I certainly wouldn’t consider an inch or so of 1.8 lb polyfoam either in a quilting layer or as a layer under an innerspring as a weak link of a mattress.
Reviving an old thread and not sure if Smccormick22 still lurks around - if so, did you end up going with the XL300? How is it holding up a year later?
I stopped by the 6 day mattress store recently and did like the specs of the XL300 - still the same as you listed above. nwbedding apparently still hasn’t shared the details of the latex comfort layers i.e. ILD info - it is made by Latex International though. It seems though that the quilting polyfoam interfered with the latex feel i.e. it didn’t seem to contour enough - of course this was with about 10-15 mins of being on the mattress. I intend to go again and spend more time.
Also I’m still trying to get a sense for a fair value/cost - the XL300 is at $2000 with foundation - does that sound about right?
I’m not Smccormick22 of course and hopefully they will see your post and be able to make some comments but in the meantime I can make a few comments as well.
How a mattress is holding up in only a year for any particular person won’t tell you much about the durability of the materials in a mattress that is designed to last much longer than that and you would need a large number of reviews after 5 - 10 years that included specific information about the body type and sleeping style of the people sleeping on the mattress (durability is relative to the person sleeping on a mattress … see post #2 here) to be able to see any meaningful patterns about the durability of any mattress that doesn’t have any weak links in the design.
There are much more reliable ways to assess the durability of a mattress or whether it has any weak links in its design than using reviews (see this article and the quality/durability guidelines that it links to). There is also more detailed information about the many variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to different people in post #4 here and the posts it links to.
ILD is a “comfort spec” and not a “quality spec” and isn’t really important to know when you are testing a mattress in person because your body will tell you whether a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP much more than knowing the ILD of the layers. Most people wouldn’t have the knowledge or experience to know how different combinations of ILD would work for them with different types of latex anyway (and ILD alone isn’t the only spec that will make a difference in how the mattress feels and performs) so for most people, knowing the ILD of the layers would have no practical use and may be more confusing than helpful. There are many manufacturers that treat the ILD of their mattresses as proprietary (see post #10 here)
There are a number of reasons for using a polyfoam quilting layer over latex. One of them is usually for some additional softness/plushness but this can also vary depending on the quilting pattern and the foam used because it can also be used to create a firmer sleeping surface. Another is that latex is a very resilient material and there are many people that prefer a less resilient and more “relaxed” sleeping surface vs sleeping directly on the latex. There are other reasons as well and there is more about the pros and cons of different types of quilting layers and materials in post #12 here and the posts it links to. The type, firmness, and thickness of the quilting layers and the latex layers as well as the body type and sleeping positions of the person will also affect how the mattress contours to the shape of the body.
When you are comparing mattresses it’s always a good idea to make “mattresses to mattress” comparisons and then you can compare the “value” of the different foundation options you have available separately. There isn’t a formula that can be used to assess the “value” of a mattress based on the “commodity cost” of the materials or components inside it (there are too many unknowns and variables involved) and the “value” of a mattress is also relative to how it compares to your other finalists or to other mattresses that are available to you. A mattress that is “good value” for one person or in one area may be “poor value” for someone else that has different needs and preferences or that lives in a different area that has different mattresses available to them.
There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more meaningful comparisons with other mattresses based on criteria that are based on more “real life” considerations than the raw material cost of the materials and components in a mattress. Post #2 here also includes some other latex/innerspring hybrids that you can use for comparison purposes (some would be more and some would be less). There are also other variables that can affect the cost of similar mattresses made by different manufacturers in post #14 here and the type of innerspring and the amount, type, and blend of the latex and any other materials and components in each mattress you are comparing (including the cover) and many other factors will all have an effect on the cost of manufacturing a mattress and on making “apples to apples” comparisons based on materials alone so it’s very difficult to assess the relative value of a mattress based only on the materials and components inside it unless all the materials and components in two mattresses you are comparing are very similar or identical.
- if so, did you end up going with the XL300? How is it holding up a year later?