Prana vs Temperpedic vs traditional innerspring

[phoenix]

Hi jmb0070,

Hello. First time posting. Just wondering about the Prana mattress line at City Mattress. We currently have a four year old Sterns and Foster that was supposed to be a really good quality mattress that has been rotten since the first weeks we owned it. It is the most uncomfortable, unsupportive mattress we have owned. The company is willing to give us a small credit towards the purchase of a new mattress at their store.

Unfortunately your experience with your Stearns & Foster is unfortunately fairly common because of the type and quality of the materials they use in their mattress (in the comfort layers especially).

It sounds like you may have read this already but you can read more about the previous versions (up to version 4) of Pranasleep in post #3 here and in post #2 here and in post #3 here and in posts #1 and #2 here and a forum search on Prana (you can just click this) will also bring up more information and feedback about them as well.

It sounds like you have also read about this as well but fortunately they changed the design in version 5 and the top layers of polyfoam are now higher density and are no longer what I would consider to be a weak link in the mattress in terms of durability but they are still in a significantly higher budget range than other similar mattresses and the top layers are still polyfoam so you would still be feeling and sleeping on polyfoam more than latex. There is more about the new version 5 in post #19 here.

The company is willing to give us a small credit towards the purchase of a new mattress at their store. I just don’t think traditional innerspring is going to work for us for a number of reasons.

There are many thousands of innerspring mattresses that are very different from each other both in terms of the type of innerspring they use and the type and quality/durability of the layers and materials that are used above the innerspring so it would be very unlikely that there wouldn’t be any that would be a good match for someone in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preference). I would consider the type of materials and components in a mattress to be a preference choice not a “better/worse” choice and I would be hesitant to exclude any type of mattress or material from your options unless you know for certain that they aren’t what you prefer regardless of the many differences between them … especially in the types of materials used above the springs. Don’t forget that the upper layers of a mattress are the weakest link of a mattress … not the layers above the springs.

Has anyone had a version 4 Prana model of the above for at least 2-3 years and still really likes it? It has been hard to gauge whether in the long run this mattress will hold up. The sales person says that the Vinyessa will not support a heavier person over the long run, and recommended 1 of the other versions. I get that all mattresses will get body impressions but I really need a good mattress that will support a heavier person who is a side sleeper who has some lower back pain.

I would be very cautious about using other people’s experience as a reliable source of information about the durability or useful life of any mattress. A mattress will last for different lengths of time for different people and a mattress that one person sleeps well on for many years may only last a few years or sometimes even less for someone else (and vice versa). Outside of comfort and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) a mattress is only as good as the quality of the materials inside it and it’s much more effective to use the guidelines here to help you assess the durability and useful life of a mattress than to use other people’s experiences that may not (and probably won’t) reflect your own.

It may not make a lot of sense to make a choice based on receiving a “small credit” towards a mattress that is in a “much” higher budget range than other similar mattresses. Your mattress is worthless to them so any discount you are receiving would be more of a “tactic” to convince you to buy from them again.

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 between mattresses and I would make some VERY careful value comparisons between other mattresses that are available to you (and I would say the same thing about Tempurpedic) to make sure that you have a compelling reason to buy a mattress in that budget range and I certainly wouldn’t consider a version of their mattress prior to version 5 which uses the lower quality polyfoam and would be a much more risky choice … especially with a floor model that may not have a warranty.

There is also more information about buying a mattress for those that are in higher weight ranges in post #3 here and the posts it links to and making sure that there are no weak links in a mattress would be even more important in higher weight ranges.

I would also make sure that you’ve read the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

Phoenix