Hello, i’m needing a recommendation for a mattress replacement through Sams Club. I will be returning a queen size Serta Knollcrest pillowtop soon due to sagging hills and valleys.
Our foundation has been a platform style captains bed with storage drawers underneath. This bed was very high off the ground thus no box spring.
We will be getting rid of this bed and going to traditional box spring with new mattress.
The problem with Serta Knollcrest besides the sagging has been the “sleeping hot” in the middle of the night due to the pillowtop I would suspect.
My dilema is that with the ok by Sams Club to return this mattress (no receipt!) I will be limited in selection to what they have in store.
In store they have the Serta line which includes Kendell firm, Knollcrest pillowtop, Edgebrooke (sp?) eurotop, Roma Trump memory bed and Serta 10" memory bed in box.
Our instincts with limited selection are to try the Kendall firm (double sided flip) and no pillow top for cooler sleeping?
Any thoughts? Perhaps the platform style (plywood bottom) contributed to the heating up?
I work at Sam’s and we can look up you purchase on our computer and give you a complete refund. This would allow you to expand your search to include a good mattress company. If you want to settle it is you choice but realize that the beds we sell do not stack up well and you likely unhappey.
That’s an interesting offer made by Pierre and the two of you can use the private messaging system if you need to communicate off the forum. If this was possible … it would certainly be ideal because cash in hand always provides more options than a store credit.
Part of the difficulty with a major brand of course is that the layering and materials aren’t known so they can’t provide a point of reference for what may be a better choice for you. It only says that the mattress is “soft” which usually indicates that soft polyfoam is a big part of what is over the coils. The latex that they mention is likely to be a minor layer and not that significant.
Sleeping hot can come from many different factors and one of these is how deeply you sink into the foam (foam is more insulating than breathable fibers). So a mattress with thicker softer layers will be warmer than something simiar where the softer layers are thinner. Some of the many parts of how cool a mattress sleeps are in post # here and includes the layers in the mattress itself (especially the upper layers) , the ticking and quilting materials, the mattress protector, the sheets on the mattress, and the bedding and any other layers between your skin and the mattress not to mention the natural variations in each person. While there are many “cooling technologies” used in mattresses … the most important is to make sure that the humidity levels are low because humidity is a big part of how the body responds to temperature and lower humidity allows the body’s own cooling functions to work more effectively. Higher temperatures with lower humidity can actually feel cooler than lower temperatures with higher humidity.
While the platform would lower the breathability of the mattress to some degree … with an innerspring which already allows for lots of airflow, the platform would not be as significant a part of sleeping temperature.
Are you able to choose any of the mattresses that is listed on the Sams Club website or are you limited to only some of these that are actually “in store”?
If you aren’t able to get a refund … then your “better” choices would depend on what was available to you. Sams Club website usually has some better choices besides any of the Serta lineup. If you are limited to the Serta range (or whatever else is available to you that doesn’t list the layers) … then it becomes much more difficult because they don’t provide enough information about most of them to really know what you are buying or exchanging for. In this case I would tend towards the one with the thinnest and firmest polyfoam comfort layer and then make adjustments for pressure relief and temperature regulation with a topper.
I should mention too that the Kendall is not double sided (which would be a durability “bonus”) and is only the second firmest mattress they carry. The Senna firm has the same innerspring but has 3" less of the “undesirable” material in it (the polyfoam which is subject to softening) and may make an even better choice. This way you would basically have a firm support base with less polyfoam in it and you could focus on adding a topper which was more durable, breathable, and tailored to what you need and prefer for pressure relief and temperature regulation. The topper would also increase the durability of the upper layers of foam in the Serta mattress base. It would also give you the ability to change just the topper (the upper layers wear faster than deeper layers all else being equal) without having to buy a whole new mattress because support layers tend to last longer than the comfort layers.
Phoenix
PS: To give you some sense of the quality/density of the 3" of foam that would be eliminated by choosing the Senna over the Kendall … the difference in shipping weight between them in a queen is 9 lbs. 3" of foam in a queen size is 8.333 cubic feet. This means that the foam would likely be in the range of 1.1 lb density (9 / 8.333 lbs assuming that this is the only difference between the two mattresses) which is very low density/quality foam and would be subject to softening much more quickly than higher density/quality polyfoam.
Thanks to all for the valuable information. My wife and I spoke with a manager last night and there is a chance we may get the refund in cash vs. store credit. They have been very helpful as well. One question that remains is that if we get cash refund and lets say we purchase the Ultimate Dreams Latex, should we keep our platform style bed and would we notice less “hills and valleys” with this type of mattress? (the captains bed has the drawers underneath and plywood over slats)
Also the manager @ Sams said if only store credit was allowed that it would come in the form of a “gift card” and we could use it on the Sams or Walmart website. Any recommendations for a similar mattress to Ult. Dreams that I might look for?
My personal preference with a foam mattress when all other things are equal would be either a base with a grid surface or slats that are no more than 3" apart but this is only because I prefer as much ventilation as possible so I would choose this if there were no other tradeoffs involved. In my own case for example … I have an adjustable bed so I had to choose a solid surface with the options that were available to me so I “traded off” the slatted base for the sake of having an adjustable.
So since you already have the platform bed … I don’t think the difference in ventilation (or any additional risk) would be enough to justify a complete new bed just for the sake of slats. As long as the surface under the mattress is flat and non flexing then it would likely be fine in most environments. If you wanted an extra safety margin of ventilation between the plywood and the mattress you could use a product like the bed rug here or one of the slat conversions here (which has no flex at all) or even one of the Ikea slatted bed bases here (which has some flex which may change how the mattress feels and performs) which could also increase ventilation under the mattress for those who have a solid surface under their mattress.
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If the “hills and valleys” are coming from the softening and compression of the polyfoam in your mattress … then yes it would be less. Latex is much more durable than polyfoam and is much less subject to early softening and body impressions.
The only “roughly” comparable mattress at either WalMart or Sams Club I could see is the Innomax here which has 3" of talalay over a polyfoam support core. I have no idea how they would compare in terms of feel, pressure relief and support (and with the Ultimate dreams you can customize the latex comfort layer so any comparison would only be with one possible version of the Ultimate dreams) but they have a similar construction in terms of materials used in the mattress.
Thanks for the information. To update, I visited with the manager again and with a bank statement showing purchase they found the product purchase on their computer from March of 2010. She agreed to the “cash” credit and was very helpful. Thanks to Pierre as well for the Sams Club information on getting the cash credit. I probably would not have pursued this given the fact I couldn’t find my receipt.
At this point we will pursue the “Ultimate Dreams” option as a replacement. Can you recommend a topper/pad, sheets, pillow etc…that would promote a “cooler” sleeping experience? I believe a lot of the problem has been not so much the platform style bed (like you stated earlier) but perhaps the material we have used between us and the mattress.
The choice of a mattress protector, mattress pad, sheets, and bedding depends on many individual factors that are based on the preferences of each individual and on a series of tradeoffs that have different levels of importance for each individual. Because of this (and because I haven’t tested most of the thousands of different bedding products that are available) … my recommendations are based more on the choice of materials and combinations than on specific brands or products.
The last part of post #4 here talks about the different “technologies” that are used to help with temperature regulation and on the importance of ventilation and the control of humidity against the skin regardless of actual sleeping temperature.
Post #10 here includes lots of information about the choice between different types of protectors, pads, and toppers and some good links which may help you “predict” which may be best for you. There is also more information and some specific links in the second half of post #15 here.
Post #7 here and post #26 here include some good information on sheets and bedding and “sleeping cool” and some links to some good information sources and outlets as well.
So for “maximum cooling” overall I would tend to go with more breathable foams in the upper layer of your mattress (quilting foam and latex both tend to be quite breathable) natural fibers and fabrics in the ticking/quilting of your mattress (wool, cotton, or viscose which isn’t really natural but is a popular “in between” choice between natural and synthetic fibers), with a wool or knit cotton mattress pad or protector (unless you need extra "softness in which case a pad may be better but this can always be added afterwards independent of a protector) along with cotton, viscose or viscose blends, or linen for your sheets.
