Sealy posturpedic satisfied ii extra firm suckssssss. DIY help, I'm complicated.

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
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~will edit later, need to sleep now. Hopefully it’s enough info. Feel free to link any similar posts instead, or a better place to ask.

Okay, so the sealy is 6 months old, tons of problems:

  • some fingers went numb (pinched nerve, healed with down topper… only had it for 24h though),
  • the bed’s XF gives me a “firmness headache”. Not sure how to describe it. It feels like the firmness of the bed turns my brain to rocks. And joint pain everywhere. Some cheap pink MFoam topper and the 3" soft latex did fine on those, no support though.
  • No headache pain from down alternative or numb fingers, from 1 night of sleep. Tiny waking back pain though. (seems silly, it’s like .5" thick)
  • After laying on only one spot for 2-3 weeks, the indent is like 2-3", basically have to rotate top/left/bottom/right constantly. Hoping for warranty coverage… But I have near 0 hope

Budget very little, but can earn it and wanted to research now. ($80 cover, $300-500 for mid + cushion layers… ish)

Diy mattress, pocket coil base… Hiow do I add layers that will feel soft-ish, but still give my back tonsss of support?

1 My best bet seems to be to use my pocket coils base, add meduim/firm latex (probably dunlop), then 1.5" talay or maybe 1"/1.5" memory foam. Maybe add a lower back zone of 1" medium / firm dunlop to keep my back straight.
Also considering HD36-HQ or lux-HQ as a mid layer, then 2" talay… medium? If that’s not comfy can just buy a comfort layer.

2 Or maybe buy 2" medium dunlop to see how it feels, then try to guess how much comfort I’d need… Blegh. Hopefully stores will have a good selection of latex to help decide.

All mattresses had the correction foundation
Old, best mattress:
Think the latex had a foam core, then layers of latex to be ~medium firm. The tag said like 60% polyester and %40 latex… which seems odd for “pure latex bliss” as a company… Maybe tag was wrong. Or maybe talay is awesome and that bed was a liar.

The sealy: It has pocket coil base, some shit foam top layers.

  • I’ve tried 3" duinlop soft (IED 19/26 ?)
  • 3 inch memory foam, 4.5lb density. A thin-ish down altenative pad is working ok for now… but everything worked okay in the beginning. Especially when I’d rotate bed every 1-2 weeks. Buit evventually it made my left thumb numb and lost all back support quickly.

My problem is the mattress is firm enough to get rid of my back pain, but every topper brings back the lower back pain after 2-4 weeks. I tried the same model in medium firm. Comffy-ish, but 6 weeks and then back problems.

I’m just so tired of beds killing me and spending $1,300-$2,200 every 2-3 years.I feel like I’m left with no options except DIY, that I’m sure to run into trouble with… Hopefully something works out, I really hate returning used layers…

Tips/questions/advice appreciated.

I’ll try out some latex mattress to see if any feel right… but the sealy XF felt great in store (and was even recommended from the bed test analyzer/suggestion.). Yet it just sucks ass after 2 months.

Can’t return because, “fuck you” - mattressworld:

  • paid $1,300, return will get me about $300. So return is pointless.
    “Free” frame", is -350 cuz no refund on that, 10% restocking fee and %20 of cost to return, $100 pickup. = $jack shit.
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I laughed so hard reading this…probably because I’ve already been down this exact same road and I know just how maddening it is to get bent over at one of the big box mattress stores. This is just what sent me down the DIY path to creating my own mattress because I’d had enough with the false promises and shell games they play with refunds/exchanges. The big name mattresses don’t use anywhere near the quality of materials they used just a decade or two ago. My suggestion is to cut your losses now because you’re going to spend alot of money fixing something that isn’t worth fixing honestly. I tried multiple times to use parts of my old $2,500 mattress only to realize it was a total lost cause because the quality was complete junk. Not sure about your height/weight/sleeping positions/body shape/etc but if you wanted to provide those we could probably help steer you towards something that would actually give you a good night’s sleep without breaking the bank.

3

Well at least laughing about it is somewhat cathartic. Still makes my blood boil.

I’m 6’, 165lb, side sleeper. I read on my back a decent amount. My lower back is pretty messed up.
I tried every mattress at boxmart and only liked 7-9/10 firmness. The mattress finding machine suggested the sealy xfirm,, turns out it was wrong. The sealy medium (rated by box store as “firm”) was too soft after ~2 months.
This is the first coil mattress I’ve had in like 15 years. My tempurpedic lasted 2 years, then back pain (other sleepers got back pain from it too). So I got a medium-firm PureLatex Bliss 9"? It lasted 3-4 years, then same problem, lower back didn’t have enough support (happens to every single mattress and topper I’ve tried).

I posted before and was suggested to get a 2-3" soft latex topper, got 3" dunlop from latexforless. It failed in support and comfort. I still felt joint pain from firm mattress, no support back pain. Then I got a 3-4" memory foam, 4.5lb density. It was great, until I slept on each quadrant for awhile and finally realized it was done for.

I now have a polyfill topper. It’s bearable. But hopefully now to a solution…

My bed’s foam is definitely trash. It has like a 3" height difference in the foam already. I assume the pocket coils can work as a base layer though.
So I’m thinking ^ pocket coil base…
Foamfactory’s firm foam, hd36-hq, 2"/3" over the coils. It says it will last ~15 years, and it’s cheap.
I think a medium dunlop latex on top of that, though latexforless’s soft topper has me worried about dunlop latex now.
Top layer I’d really like a tempurpedic topper, since their memory foam is dense/comfy/responsive… but a talalay latex would last longer. I just hope soft talalay will work out…

On the other hand, I’ve seen sites with DIY layered beds that have ~20 year comfort guarantee, and the cost of my DIY layers aren’t going to be much cheaper…

free coils, hd36-hq queen is like $50. Dunlop is ~$150. Talalay is ~$350. Plus a cover, $80? So around $650 total… Maybe I can skip the dunlop,… just 3" hd36 foam then 3" talalay…? No clue if that’d be supportive enough for my back or comfy.

Please help. I know I’m gonna get it wrong and I know you can only make educated guesses… but I’m defeated by mattresses.

Thank you for taking the time to reply before and every moment you spend helping us <3

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That didn’t come across well. I was laughing at how you described your situation (probably because I’ve been there too) not your misfortune.

Do not go the foam factory route, it’s not at all what they claim it is and many have had issues with trying it (good quality polyfoam is not cheap). It sounds like the issue you are going to run into now is that your back is basically strained already from sleeping in a bed that doesn’t work for you so you’re going to have to really get the support just right so your muscles/tendons can relaz at night and allow your back to heal again. I have no idea what off the shelf mattress might be able to work for you (if any) but I can help you to design a DIY setup that would work. Again your biggest issue will be alignment since if you sleep on your side and your lower back hurts it means the spine in that arear is not aligned while sleeping. You didn’t mention your body shape (esp if you are curvy or bony which can make conformity issues more pronounced…this often dictates what type of latex foam works best dunlop/talalay for a given situation).

I would suggest starting with something like this in all talalay (assuming conformity is an issue for supporting your lower back):
2-3" Soft (19-22ILD) Comfort Layer (use thinner layer for firmer feel)
3" Med (28 ILD) - Support Layer
3" Firm (32 ILD) - Support Layer
3" XFirm (36 ILD) - Support Layer

Don’t get a mattress cover until you have come up with a design that finally works for you (since mattress height could change). The above configuration will allow you to change things around and see what works best for your back. Now it’s possible you might eventually need to add zoning to your mattress to make it work perfectly for you but this should get you alot closer anyway.

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Everything I wrote was eaten by the void :frowning:
But nah I laughed too, sorry I misspoke. It was nice to laugh at knowing someone else knows this hell. Luckily I assume you’re as set as can be with your bed.

Short version: I like your DIY setup, but it’s nearly the same as the PureLatex Bliss I had a few years ago. It was super comfy + supportive, but only lasted 3 years. No idea why.

What I’m going to do is buy a medium talalay 3" and hope it helps my bed. Then eventually take my sealy apart so I can use the encased coils as my DIY base layer.

Think 3" medium talalay will be okay to sleep on? I got a LatexForLess Dunlop 3" soft and it didn’t provide support or comfort… so hopefully talalay or medium does.

6

Doh… “Think 3” medium talalay will be okay to sleep on? " I mean on top of a mattress. or maybe I’ll try by itself. Getting to know the materials better should help thiis whole DIY thing.

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Okay so I did more research…

Major questions: Do I need anything on top of pocket coils to act as a transition to the middle layer? Like a wool pad or 1" medium-firm foam? Is there any benefit to adding a layer on top of pocket coils?
My pocket coil system seems to be 1072 count, 15 gauge. Sealy response pro HD. Any reason this system would benefit from adding a thin layer to go between the ~medium *foam mid layer layer?
(it doesn’t say zoned, not sure if all Pro HD are zoned or if adding pocket zoned is something new)

My current DIY plan: even though I know I’ll need to trial and error to find what works, any info on things I’m overlooking/ignorant about definitely helps.

**A huge problem is my lack of money… so I can’t afford A or B, for a while. I think all I can do right now is buy 2-3" talalay and hope it’s an improvement until I get the rest of the setup.

Option A and example: Coil system - > 3" dunlop ILD28-33 → then 2" natural talalay ILD16? 24?
6" 1072 response pro HD pocket coil, 15 gauge (1" foam is already on the bottom of it)
Medium dunlop, 2"
3" talalay *maybe 1" + 2" with slightly different softness

Option B:
Pocket coil system
Some kind of thin layer on top of the coils. Like a wool pad, 1" high density foam, or anything that’s needed, if it’s I do need something between coils → latex
2" /3" Medium dunlop. I was going to try a medium-firm foam from foambymail… but I see now why it’s discouraged.
3" natural, soft talalay

Maybe memory foam as top layer, if I can find a good price on some that feels similar quality to tempurpedic. So 1" talalay, 2" memory foam (ish?)

I guess option C is:
pocket coil 6"
3" ~24ILD talalay.

I may need to add some zoning… but I’ll worry about that once I have a good setup.

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Given the serious budget constraints I would start with a 28ILD talalay first, then add more from my suggestion above as you can afford them (don’t cheap out on the materials, you’ll regret it later). Now you may end up tossing the original mattress but doing it this way will at least allow you to use what you have to temporarily make it work until you can build what you really want. You don’t really need anything on top of the coils but I suspect that the coils may be too firm for you (try lying right on the coils directly and check your alignment). If you sink into the coils and your alignment is good then it may work but if it’s rock hard then there’s not much you can do to correct it. Doing this simple test will at least give you some idea what you’re working with as you build something that works for you.