I went to their shop over the weekend and I have narrowed down my choices. This place is awesome and Kathy really knows her shit! I am very glad I happened to visit this site and learn about this hidden gem. I really learned a lot there. It is interesting as I didn’t really have an idea of whether or not I was sinking until Kathy told me that my hips sank on some of the softer pillowtop mattresses. This was really eye opening to me as I didn’t recognize the feeling until then but I had been sinking in my firm, old, ikea mattress for years! Apparently I can’t go too soft or else my alignment will be off so I’m pretty much stuck at medium firm+. However, I do prefer the feeling of softness and comfort so it is kind of hard for me to find an ideal bed since I need something more firm.
Phoenix, I don’t know if you can explain this but I happened to sink on their everlast mattress (with latex comfort layer / innerspring) while I was perfectly fine on their organic dreams latex mattress with the same material. Also, I didn’t sink on their Katherine Innerspring Mattress with Memory Foam Gel Comfort layer but I experienced some sinking on their memory foam bed with the same material. Do I have a crazy weird body or can you make sense of this?
The beds I am considering are the Organic Dreams and the Katherine with Gel Memory Foam Pillowtop (https://qualitysleepshop.squarespace.com/katherine-pillowtop/). These provided me with the correct alignment and I think they cradled my body well but to be honest I’m still a little confused between spinal alignment and pressure relief even after reading your entire site. I don’t think I ever felt pressure on any of my points on either of these beds as the pocketspring and latex seemed to contour my body. As far as preferences go I love the springiness of springs and that’s what made me like the Latex as well. It really seemed like it had the best of memory foam and innerspring. I just couldn’t get over the sinking / dead feeling of memory foam in comparison to the other two but that might be because I wasn’t used to it.
I’m not sure how to compare the two as far as durability and other factors go so I was hoping you could help me out. The gel memory foam is 4 lb and the polyfoam used in the Katherine is #8 density. I see you mentioned the gel foam used by Quality Sleep Shops was different in a post along time ago. I wonder if you still feel the same way today? Will the latex bed last me twice as long? If so, then I think it justifies the extra cost (it’s twice the price) based on durability and cost over lifetime alone.
Also, I’m not sure why I prefer the Katherine to the Emily and Everlast when I liked the latex bed and not the memory foam mattress. They didn’t have a firmer Everlast pillowtop than medium on site so I don’t know if the firm version will be better and not cause me to sink but I felt like the Emily should at least be better in terms of specs right? I’m just trying to make sense of my preferences. I also tended to like the breeze mattresses from tempurpedic and not the regular ones so maybe it was the cool gel material which may be superficial?
This would be because of differences in the type and firmness of the support layers or components in each one (which has a big effect on your alignment) in combination with the firmness and thickness of the comfort layers and any differences in the cover (which can affect how much different parts of your body sink down before they are “stopped” by the firmer support layers.
There is no way to objectively predict how long a mattress will last for any particular person because there are too many variables involved (see post #4 here).
Having said that I would estimate (and they will have more experience with their specific designs than I do) that because the Organic Dreams is two sided and uses latex comfort layers which are more durable than memory foam that assuming you are in the same “comfort and support range” in each one (see post #2 here) that it would last significantly longer than the Katherine which is one sided and uses memory foam and polyfoam in the comfort layers which are less durable materials than latex.
It may also be worth considering that you may also sleep “significantly better” on one vs the other which could also be just as important (or perhaps even more important) a part of the value of each one vs the other although of course it’s also not really possible to quantify how well you sleep either.
You can see some more recent comments about their gel memory foam in post #2 here except that what they are using now is a little higher density than it was at the time of the post you linked :).
Preferences are not always possible to explain and “better” is always relative to your own personal experience in terms of PPP in combination with the quality/durability of the materials and the other parts of your personal value equation that are important to you. Different combinations of materials or slight differences in design or layer thicknesses can have a significant effect on how one mattress feels and performs compared to another that “seems” to be somewhat similar. I would tend to avoid overemphasizing the specs of a mattress or trying to explain the “why” behind why one works better for you than another (which is as much an art as a science) once you know they are suitable for you and there are no obvious weak links in either one. You are certainly not the only one that would prefer one over the other or where one is a better “match” than the other and of course that’s why they make a range of mattresses (outside of just budget reasons).
PPP is not an effective way to evaluate the quality or durability of a mattress and knowing the specs of a mattress is not an effective way to evaluate PPP. They are independent of each other and go hand in hand.
In any case … thanks for taking the time to share your experiences and my “best” advice would be to “trust” your body and the guidance you received while you were testing them in terms of PPP and then use your “best judgement” about which one would be the best “value” for you. Based on your descriptions I don’t think that either one would be a mistake and it seems that both would make a good quality and value choice for you.
Thank you so much Phoenix! I think I’m going to go for the Katherine. I have never slept long term on a latex mattress but I have on some nice spring mattresses in the past and I think the Katherine is similar but probably even better than those! To be honest, I really like the latex because it’s the best and like they say, with quality you only cry once. However, I think they’re both great beds and I’m pretty young so it might be nice to try multiple types of beds in my lifetime anyway :D. Oh, and what do you think about flame retardants / natural upgrade? I think it’s like ~$200 to upgrade to natural but to be honest, I never really care about organic hype and I am wondering if I should. And would adding a mattress protector change the bed too much? I just want to protect my mattress but I don’t want to loose anything in terms of comfort or support. Unfortunately, QSS doesn’t have any mattress protectors they would recommend.
I’ll post updates and pics when the bed arrives. Thanks!
Congratulations on your new mattress … I think you made a thoughtful and great quality/value choice
I hope you have the chance to share your feedback when you’ve received it and had the chance to sleep on it for a bit.
You can read a little more about fire retardants in this article and in post #2 here. I’m not so sure I would be considering a natural fire barrier for its own sake in a mattress that contains memory foam and polyfoam which are not natural materials but of course it would depend on the specifics and the fire barrier that the “regular” Katherine uses and what they would be replacing it with and the overall effect it would have on the mattress.
Post #89 here has more about the pros and cons of different types of mattress protectors.
