Seeking advice on offset coil + latex mattress

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

First of all, thanks for all the great information on this site.

I live in the Vancouver area. Some time ago I purchased a fairly expensive Restwell pocketed-coil mattress with a latex and silk topper. 9 months later, the thing feels like a bloody hammock - I had to put a slat right under where my spine goes to provide a modicum of support. I’m having it inspected for warranty, but even if they were to give me a new one I wouldn’t want to keep it. I never had such bad back pain as with this bed.

Following the advice of several posts here, I checked out several of the local recommended stores, including Majestic, Discount Foam, and Northwest Sleep.

I’m a back sleeper. After trying several latex mattresses, I always came away with the impression that the combination of support and comfort layers was not right for me. There was always tension in the small of my back. At Northwest the firm mattresses were too firm, and the soft mattresses were too soft. At Majestic the feeling was just plain weird - I seemed to sink right through the top layers, regardless of their classification. The Discount Foam combination of a 6" 2lbs high-denisity foam topped with an egg crate felt about right. The best feel, support, and alignment, however, was in the RC-11 Irvington Mattress at Northwest. It is an offset coil mattress, with 3/4 inches of high density foam, and 2 inches of talalay latex on top. The Queen size has 638 coils - I understand this is not a high number, but I also understand that the number of coils can be offset by better quality steel. It claims “3 zones” - whatever that means. The sales rep said the coils were american high-carbon steel of a low gauge, but I couldn’t find more specifics. A spec sheet on a similar mattress read 14.5 gauge steel.

Since I have been burned with the Restwell pocketed coils, my question is if I can expect the offset coils of the Northwest mattress to be significantly more durable. Also, are there other things I should be aware of? I don’t mind the motion transfer or the springy behavior.

The mattress’ full description is here: http://www.northwestsleep.ca/photo-gallery/the-irvington.aspx
Its price is $660 for a queen size.

For reference, I find memory foam mattresses unbearable - lots of back pain with them. I found the Essentia Beausommet (they claim “plant-based memory foam”, but feels a lot like latex) mattress very nice to lie on, but I don’t have 5K to drop on it.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

2

Hi VAn23,

In most cases the weak link of a mattress isn’t the innerspring but the foam on top of them that can soften and break down prematurely. This is why it’s so important to make sure that you deal with transparent manufacturers and retailers that will provide you with the specific layers and components inside any mattress you are considering (especially in the comfort layers). Offset coils are certainly a suitable support component and the number of coils in your mattress is fine as long as you are OK with the greater motion transfer that is typical of innersprings with helicals. A 3 zone innerspring means that the coils in the center of the mattress are firmer to provide better support under the heavier pelvis and lower back area. This can be helpful to provide better alignment. There is more about innersprings in this article and in post #10 here.

Outside of careful and objective testing for PPP … the next most important part of a mattress purchase is to make sure you know materials and components inside the mattress (see this article) so you can make sure there are no potential weak links in the mattress (see post #4 here) and so you can make more meaningful comparisons with other mattresses based on the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

If you can provide the specifics of all the layers and components in the Irvington and post them on the forum I’d be happy to make some comments about the mattress. The innerspring, The Talalay latex, and the cotton felt are all good quality materials and components but the description you linked doesn’t include the thickness and density of the High Density Support foam or the order of the layers. The mattresses at Northwest Sleep are made by Parklane which is one of the members of this site which means that I think highly of them and in general they would make good quality/value choices.

You can read some of my thoughts about Essentia and their claims and some forum discussions with them in this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here.

Phoenix