I have been conducting intense researching on a new mattress to replace my 10-year old Tempurpedic. I have read many of the postings and comparisons across many website including this excellent forum. I have tried a few mattresses in storerooms and am close to making a purchase. Based on all my research to date, the Novosbed medium or soft appears to be a great match. Reviews on this site and others have been very positive and Novosbed seems to be a very reputable company with a good product. However, I am not dead set on this choice.
I spoke yesterday with a Novosbed sales rep who confirmed what has appeared in these forums: that the best “match” to the Novosbed Medium is the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme. I tried the Cloud Supreme Breeze (liked it, perhaps a tad soft) but was unable to try the Cloud Supreme (but will today). However, as I was reading over the Consumers Report review of mattresses (Feb 2016), I noticed their rating of the Cloud Supreme was dead last. Not by a little bit, by a lot.
Now I have come to accept Consumer Report ratings with a grain of salt. I also understand that 1) mattress choice is a very personal affair, and 2) the Cloud Supreme is not the Novosbed Medium. However, it gave me considerable pause about making my intended purchase.
I have learned that lying on a bed for 15 minutes in a storeroom is different than sleeping in a bed for a week or month or year. What may seem wonderful at first try may create back pains after a full night’s sleep. (BTW I am familiar with Novosbed’s 120-day trial, their return policy, and their Comfort+ kit).
I am a combination back and side sleeper, so I need support for the back but enough softness for the side. The Tempurpedic has been a decent mattress but my older model is firmer than I would prefer today. After 10 years it has softened up but has also lost some of its contouring.
I welcome any advise people can give me on my options and choices at this point.
While other people’s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful, I would always keep in mind that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about about using other people’s experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) or review sites in general 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 most consumers have little knowledge about mattresses and mattress materials or how to assess the quality of the materials in a mattress and any 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). In other words … reviews in general certainly won’t tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or “value” of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here).
Having said that … Novosbed is one of the members of this site which means that I think highly of them and that I believe that they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency. None of their mattresses have any lower quality materials or “weak links” that would be a cause for concern in terms of durability for those that aren’t in higher than average weight ranges (more than about the lower 200’s or so).
You can see my comments about the Consumer Reports mattress ratings and recommendations in post #2 here and in this topic. While they may be a good source of information about more “objective” purchases … as you can see I would consider them to be an unreliable source of information or guidance about purchasing a mattress and they are somewhat nonsensical and meaningless. My thoughts are also shared by most of the more knowledgeable people in the industry (see post #5 here for an example).
With a local purchase for the majority of people … careful testing using the guidelines in the tutorial rather than just testing for the more subjective “comfort” of a mattress (which often won’t predict how well you will sleep on a mattress or how it will “feel” when you sleep on it at home) and some good guidance from a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer will usually result in a mattress choice that is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and will generally be “close enough” so that if any fine tuning is necessary it would be relatively minor and involve different mattress pads, sheets, mattress protectors, or perhaps even a topper if a mattress is too firm (see post #4 here and post #10 here).
Of course if you can’t test a mattress in person or if for any reason you aren’t confident that a mattress you are considering would be a suitable choice then the options you have after a purchase including the exchange or return policy would be a much more important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase.
While I can certainly help with “how” to choose … it’s not possible to make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress, manufacturers/retailers, or combinations of materials or components because 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 or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more reliable 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).
The best general advice is in the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you 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 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.
The mattress shopping tutorial also includes several links to lists of many of the better online options I’m aware of (in the optional online step) that include many different types and categories of mattresses (including memory foam mattresses) in a wide range of budgets, firmness levels, and with different return/exchange policies that may also be worth considering.
If you let me know your city or zip code I’d also be happy to let you know about any of the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in your area that may be worth considering as well.
Thank you for the detailed response. Very good advice, much of which I have read in your other posts. I recognize the limitations of published ratings and reviews when it comes to mattresses, although I have learned a lot about from reading about other people’s experiences.
I will let you know how the testing goes in zip 20862
I ordered a Novosbed soft (to replace my TempurCloud Supreme) and have been sleeping on it for about 2 weeks. The soft was recommended by Novosbed customer support. After 2 weeks, I can say that it does have a very similar feel to the TempurCloud Supreme but it is a bit firmer. This may be because the Novosbed is still very new. I slept on a TempurCloud Supreme for about 7 years and was very happy with it. My husband felt that it slept hot, but it never bothered me. We switched from a queen to a king split bed so that’s why we changed mattresses.
You may have seen these already but the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Brinklow area (subject to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines I linked in my last reply) would be in the Baltimore area list in post #2 here or the Northern VA/Washington, DC area list in post #2 here (there is quite a bit of overlap between them).