hi richardb,
I think you have made one important discovery which is that how each mattress feels to other people is very subjective and may have nothing to do with how a mattress feels to you. This means that your choices need to be based on your own personal testing and not on how other people describe the performance and feel of a mattress. Since your perceptions of mattresses seem to be well outside of the “averages” that most other people feel … you would do well to completely ignore any reviews or other opinions on what a mattress feels like and pay close attention to what each mattress feels like to you before you buy it.
There are two main types of mattress specs … quality specs and comfort specs. The quality specs are important because they will determine the durability and value of a mattress. The comfort specs are not as important because your own personal testing on a mattress will tell you more about how you feel on a mattress than the “specs” or descriptions about how a mattress is “supposed” to feel. Even if this is different from the majority of other people … you will still need to buy a mattress that performs and feels right for you.
If this mattress was working well, why not just replace the foundation?
This is a high quality mattress (although the price and value is poor) but no matter how high quality the mattress … it still needs to be suitable for your needs and preferences. It seems that the Rhapsody wasn’t the most suitable choice for you.
This also sounds like a high quality mattress. What some people call pushback is actually called resilience and latex is a very elastic and resilient material which is a part of the reason that so many people like it. If you were sleeping directly on Dunlop latex then what you were feeling was probably more connected to the firmness of the latex than the resilience. You may have done well to add a topper to this mattress. A Dunlop latex base with a suitable topper may have been a very good choice with the right type of topper (that feels good for you).
This too sounds like a high quality mattress but once again it appears that you didn’t make a suitable choice of the firmness of the various latex layers in terms of your needs and preferences. No matter how high quality the mattress materials may be, you need to choose the layering that fits you for PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment and Personal preferences). All materials come in a range of softness firmness levels and buying a mattress based on the quality of materials (which is a good thing) without taking into account how suitable the layering is for you can lead to lots of unsuitable purchases.
How you (or others) feel on a mattress has nothing to do with the quality of a mattress. The Cloud is a high quality mattress (although again it’s overpriced) that works well for many people with certain body types, sleeping styles, and preferences. The Cloud line is the softest of their three main lines and no matter how it may feel to any individual person … this remains the case. All memory foam is “soft” … even the layer underneath the ES. It just takes time to soften with heat so it can feel firm with movement or until it softens up. Each person has a unique body type, sleeping style, and preferences … and because of this, your perception of how a mattress feels or performs may be very different from anyone else.
While there is lots of deception in mattress makers ads … the descriptions of the softness firmness levels made by Tempurpedic is actually quite accurate and in this they do a good job. These types of descriptions though by necessity are based on averages and are relative to the other models in the lineup. Since what you feel on various mattresses is quite different from many other people … these descriptions may not apply to you or your perceptions. This doesn’t mean they are deceptive … only that you are not in the “average” range.
Once again you are forgetting that what others feel on a mattress may have nothing to do with how you feel and in the same way what you feel on a mattress may have nothing to do with how others feel. One of the advantages about latex is it’s resilience and the different levels of softness firmness that are available that along with the use of other materials if necessary can customize the feel of a mattress to each person. While everyone won’t like the properties or feel of latex or any other material, what you are calling “pushpack” is certainly not being ignored and the resilience of latex (the correct term) is actually one of it’s properties that is actually promoted and of the main reasons that so many people like it as much as they do.
If you look for the term “resilience” (what you are calling pushback) you will see that it’s one of the main features about latex that is one of its selling features and is certainly not being ignored. This doesn’t mean that everyone will like this type of resilience and some may not choose latex and some may prefer to have a thin layer of polyfoam, memory foam, quilting fiber, or wool on the top of the mattress to change the surface feel and pressure distribution properties of the mattress slightly so that it better matches their preferences.
What is clear to me though is that you are mistaking other peoples opinions as applying to you (and yours as applying to others) and because you are “outside the averages” … many of them may not apply at all. I would suggest some very careful testing on a mattress if you decide to go with another choice. Normally I suggest about 15 minutes or so completely relaxed on a mattress testing for pressure relief and alignment but in your case, both because you are struggling to find something suitable and because you are looking at memory foam which takes more time to soften, I would suggest that you spend at least 30 minutes on each mattress that you are strongly considering and work closely with an “expert” that can help you interpret what you are feeling and help you understand how a certain mattress may feel and perform over time if the Allura doesn’t work out and you decide to go with mattress number six.
More important than anything is to listen to your own body more than anything or anyone else and spend enough time on a mattress to shift the odds in your favor of making a good choice for YOU.
Phoenix