Hi Frustrated Mattress Shopper,
[quote]The bed is a pillow top, non flippable mattress, with enhanced heavy innerspring support core made from 12.5 gauge steel and the comfort layers consists of micro-coils plus a top layer of 1.5" of Talalay latex although the salesman was unable today to get me the ILD of the latex. Overall the feel was medium firm.
Our concern, since we have bought one mattress that was too firm and one that was too soft, is that we are now trying to gauge this right this time before making a third purchase. The XL is a least a full step firmer than the pillow top from Lebeda. The manufacturer puts it at a 5 on a scale of 1-10 and states it is their most popular mattress and they have been making it for years. The feel in the store has us leaning towards the Lebeda and we are concerned about the overall firmness after hours on the XL that it might not be as comfortable overnight as it initially feels in the store. We have spent no more than 90 minutes on it in the store. We definitely need good support but pressure relief is equally important and has had us up many nights on a prior mattress that was too firm.[/quote]
ILD is a “comfort spec” not a “quality spec” so if you are making a local purchase then knowing the ILD of the layers makes little difference because your body and careful and objective testing will tell you more about whether the mattress is a good “match” in terms of PPP than the specs.
Microcoils and latex are both very durable comfort layers (more durable than polyfoam) and wouldn’t be a weak link in the mattress.
I would agree that smaller local manufacturers are generally much more responsive to customers and their local reputation than larger manufacturers and they can often make adjustments or repairs to a mattress at a local level quite quickly.
Past the fist few years when actual defects tend to show up … warranties aren’t particularly meaningful and have little to do with the useful life of a mattress (see post #174 here). They only cover manufacturing defects not the loss of comfort and support that comes from foam softening or the compression and breakdown of materials unless they are more than the warranty exclusions which is not the norm.
While I don’t have the details of all the layers and components in the Lebeda mattress outside of 1.5" Talalay latex, microcoils, and a 12.5 gauge (strong) innerspring … if there are no missing layers that could be a weak link in the mattress I would give the durability edge to the Lebeda although neither of them have any obvious weak links and PPP or some of the other factors that are important parts of your personal value equation could also make a difference in your final choice.
Phoenix