Novosbed Sonata / Carpenter

Hi. After extensive shopping locally (not the best area to look for independent shops - Long Island NY), we both decided we liked the feel of the iComfort Genius. With that in mind, we ordered a Sonata from Novosbed and received it yesterday. Our first night of sleep on it met our expectations, and we are aware that there will be another 30 days of so for the foam to break in.

One thing I noticed was that the mattress was manufactured by Carpenter. I was curious what the opinions are of the quality of Carpenter foam? From what I could gather, it seems they manufacture mattresses for several brands, and I was wondering what type of longevity we should approximately expect. I’m 5’7" 200lbs and a combo side/stomach sleeper, and she’s 4’10" 150 and a side sleeper. We both prefer firm over squishy.

This site has been extremely helpful in our research and there was no way we were paying the $1700 retail price of a similarly (if not inferior) constructed mattress.

Thanks
Rick

Hi RickNY,

You may have seen this already and it would be a moot point for you since you’ve already purchased a mattress but for the sake of others that may read this … the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Long Island area (subject to the guidelines here) are listed in post #4 here.

It will be interesting to hear your feedback because the Sonata is designed to “approximate” the Sealy Optimum Destiny rather than the Genius but both the Destiny and the iComfort Genius are in a similar firmness range so based on extrapolating the firmness of one for the firmness of the other you probably made a suitable firmness choice although the “feel” (which is much more subjective0 may be different between them.

All foam manufacturers make high quality and low quality foam so it would depend on the specific foam you are considering. Like all the other foam manufacturers … Carpenter provides foam for many mattress manufacturers that is used in both low quality and high quality mattresses.

The most important single factor in the durability of polyfoam and memory foam is its density (regardless of who manufactures it) but there are also many other variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress besides just foam density that are discussed in post #4 here and the other posts it links to. As you can also see in post #2 here … the useful life of a mattress is also relative to the person. A mattress that is “on the edge” of being too soft for someone may only last a relatively short time before they cross the thresholds from sleeping well on it to sleeping OK to “tolerating” the mattress to finally deciding to replace it so there is no way to quantify how long a mattress will be suitable and “sleep well” for any particular person.

In more general terms … you can make meaningful durability comparisons between two mattresses based on “this one is likely to last longer than that one” based on the quality of the materials but it’s not possible to quantify how long either of them would last for any particular person. Having said that … none of the Novosbed mattresses have any obvious weak links in their design and assuming that it is well inside the range of a mattress that is suitable for you in terms of PPP … it would be reasonable to expect that for most people that aren’t in higher weight ranges that it would “sleep well” for somewhere between 5 and 10 years. There is also more about the general foam quality guidelines I would generally suggest using in post #4 here.

Most importantly of all … congratulations on your new mattress :slight_smile:

I think you made a good quality/value choice and I’m looking forward to your feedback after you’ve had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.

Phoenix

Thanks Phoenix… I’ll post a followup after a suitable amount of break-in time… Unfortunately, we were distance and time limited for our shopping experience locally due to a cranky youngster, but we did the best we could given the circumstances… I had read the LI post you referenced prior to purchase… We both felt we got a reasonable compromise between cost and quality for our budget – and based upon what we’ve read in regards to anyone that has dealt with Novosbed on either quality or comfort issues, we felt that they would be least likely to give us a problem down the road should an issue arise.

I did want to add two things to my post since I originally left it…

  1. After two nights of sleep – the Novosbed exhibited absolutely no sign of outgassing from the foam. This was a huge relief for us because we experimented with a topper prior to the purchase to see if we would like memory foam, and the topper smelled so bad we just threw it out - even after days of letting it ventilate outside. The Novosbed just smelled, well, like a mattress with fabric on it… We expected some outgassing, and experienced NONE.

  2. One of the pillows they include with the queen and king mattresses did not expand on one side… They were extremely courteous and told us to wait 48 hours to see if the situation changed (it didn’t), and when I contacted them, they told us we would receive a replacement the next day.

So, from a customer service standpoint, we’re happy with our decision… Additionally, the 2nd night of sleep was heavenly… We understand there is still a break-in period involved, so its too early to tell if comfort will remain high… Time will be the determining factor as to whether we would shop there again.

Hi RickNY,

So far so good … and your experience sounds very promising :slight_smile:

Phoenix

Some additional comments I would like to add about our purchase… First and foremost – the customer service at Novosbed has been tremendously helpful. We received one pillow that was over-compressed within the mattress and never recovered, and the replacement is arriving today, after asking us to wait 48 hours after unpacking to see if the pillow would fully expand.

The other thing I wanted to say is that even though we are less than a week into the new mattress (5 nights to be exact), we are both waking up with lower back pain, and I am waking up with hip pain (alas, something I now remember having to contend with about 10 years ago when I had a mattress that was too firm).

You may recall that initially, we tried the iComfort Genius and were happy with its feel. As Phoenix pointed out, it was interesting that we went with the Sonata, since it is approximated to the Optimum Destiny… Yesterday, just for comparison purposes, we went out to find an Optimum Destiny somewhere (Sears had them – although you could tell from the lack of staffing at Sears mattress department that their days were numbered). We tested the Destiny in the store for about 15 minutes. Initial thoughts were that while rated as a firm mattress, it is definitely more plush than the Sonata. For comparison, we also re-tested the Genius (albeit in the Sears store, which was not where we tested it initially) – and that was a little more plush than the Destiny.

There is break-in at play here with the Sonata that we have to take into account. I’m sure mattresses at a major department store get a good amount of break-in, that is likely accelerated by the fact that people are constantly getting in and out of them all day long. The folks at Novosbed have been quite helpful with suggestions on how to accelerate the break-in - and we’re doing, or have done them all:

  • 15-20 minute “white sock treatment” – we did that yesterday
  • keeping room temperature between 70-72 degrees (we’re on heat now, and we have the thermostat set to 72)
  • using a heavy duvet to retain heat in the mattress when we’re not using it (this we already knew, since we use a heavy natural down duvet in the fall/winter, and know that making the bed every morning prevents crawling into a chilly bed at night (good in summer, not so much in cooler months)
  • Using a heating pad to soften the firm – that one isn’t an option for us

In hindsight, we think we should have went with the Aria instead of the Sonata, since the comfort level of the Aria is more middle of the road, while the Sonata is pegged at “Firm”. Yesterday, we also took the opportunity to try two separate TempurPedic TempurCloud Supremes (what the Aria is compared to according to Novosbed), and were quite happy with them (although it does have a longer response time for rebound, that we didn’t mind) The Novosbed Harmony wasn’t an option because it was pegged at the other side of the spectrum. (One of our suggestions to Novosbed was that they make more options available in their gel line - and the chat representative said that there were changes coming)

So, some points for anyone considering Novosbed:

  • customer service is excellent
  • if you truly want an extremely firm mattress – the Sonata is an excellent choice
  • As far as the Sonata goes – no outgassing. This would probably not have bothered us if we experienced it, but I know there are members that are sensitive to it – so it definitely is a plus for Novosbed)
  • very fast shipping - we ordered on a Sunday, and if not for the fact that FedEx screwed up, we would have received it Tuesday (we are 1 business day ground shipping time from PA) – specifically, they shipped the same day we placed the order.

We’ll let the mattress continue to break-in for at least 3 more weeks, and if it continues to be an issue for us in regards to firmness, we’ll move it into an unused guest room until it is eligible for exchange (we still have our old mattress)

Rick

Hi RickNY,

Thanks for sharing another update … and for the comparisons that you did. I appreciate it :slight_smile:

As you mentioned there will be some break in at work here (both for your mattress and for the mattresses in the store) which can change how they compare to each other so it will be interesting to find out how things are working out for you in another few weeks.

Phoenix