Hello,
I can certainly understand the confusion and frustration involved in looking for a mattress. Unfortunately much of the industry revolves around both creating and then taking advantage of that confusion and frustration both in terms of providing misleading information and advertising and in terms of selling low value mattresses for inflated prices based on “stories” that are only partly true at best.
The easiest way to “cut through” the confusion is to find a local factory direct manufacturer who produces high quality and value mattresses and who knows the different materials used in mattresses and will give you accurate and truthful information about the different materials and constructions of a mattress. A local sleep shop who does the same and sells mattresses produced by smaller and often local mattress manufacturers is another good source.
Post #4 here and post # 73 here should be helpful regarding local factory direct manufacturers in or near Phoenix. Two of our members are there and they offer exceptional quality and value in their mattresses and are very knowledgeable about mattress materials and are happy to share their knowledge with their prospective customers (which is the reason I invited them to become members of this site).
Post #6 in this thread should help you avoid most of the common traps and pitfalls in mattress shopping.
Failing that … the best “ammunition” you will have is your own research into the different materials used in mattresses and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Knowing the materials in a mattress is a far more accurate way to determine value and durability than the “brand” label that is attached to a mattress.
The 6 overviews in the mattresses section of the website … starting with this one … would be very helpful (and after reading them you will know more than many mattress salespeople). Knowing all of this is less important though if you have a local outlet that you know you can trust to give you accurate and unbiased information.
The first step I would take is to lay on a several mattresses that use different varieties of memory foam in their mattresses and several mattresses with a variety of different softnesses and types of latex in the comfort layers to see which of these two comfort layer materials you prefer. Make sure that any mattress that a salesperson says is latex has no more than an inch of polyfoam in the comfort layers according to the spec sheet of a mattress as many mattresses that are promoted as “latex” in many of the “mass market” outlets and chain stores have polyfoam over the latex so you would not be feeling the latex as much as the cheap and soft polyfoam over top of it. If they can’t or won’t show you the layer by layer specs of a mattress … either pass it by or ask on the forum. You can read about the pros and cons of memory foam here and the pros and cons of latex here to help you with a decision.
Post #4 here will give you some general guidelines about the layer thickness of the comfort layers.
I would completely avoid any mattress with more than an inch of polyfoam in the comfort layers unless your budget is extremely limited and you are looking for a “throwaway” mattress (a mattress you paid so little for that you are OK with throwing it away when the polyfoam wears out in a very few years and sometimes months). Even then I would only buy this from a local manufacturer or sleep shop that was very knowledgeable about the different grades of polyfoam.
This should give you a place to start … and since you are lucky enough to live in Phoenix you can even skip much of the research as you have experts near you that know their stuff and that can be trusted help you find a suitable and quality mattress with great value.
Phoenix