Hi electricrelish,
I’m sorry to hear about your father’s illness … and my thoughts are with you in what must be a very difficult time for you.all of you.
I have talked with Alan at Dilworth and he is certainly knowledgeable and experienced and not surprisingly he is giving you reliable information and I would tend to lean towards his recommendations for the component latex mattress (a mattress where the layers can be rearranged or replaced individually) for all the reasons he mentioned. The only thing I would clarify (he may be getting inaccurate information from his supplier because it has been mentioned previously) is that blended Talalay latex is a blend of 70% synthetic and 30% natural rubber but it is a very high quality and durable material. It is also very resilient which would help with ease of movement on the mattress.
[quote]I also told the owner that I have moved back in with my parents and was sleeping on the couch. Since my father doesn’t like the single adjustable bed, I was considering ordering a Tufs and Needles mattress Twin XL for $375 to replace the Sinomax mattress. He told me that he would buid me a twin xl innerspring mattress if I preferred to put on the adjustable bed but he felt it’s duration would probably be limited to a seven year lifespan on an adjustable bed, so not sure if I should go this route or not.
Both beds would be built and he could get them to us by end of week if we let him know by Monday.[/quote]
While there is no way for me to know which one would work best for you in terms of comfort and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) between the two mattresses you are considering … the Tuft & Needle is a foam mattress that would probably be a better choice for an adjustable bed than an innerspring mattress (even if it’s made specially to bend at the flex points of the adjustable) and it also has the advantage of being able to test it in your home with little risk because of their return policy so you could see how you like it compared to the innerspring at Dilworth. If you were to try it and decide that you liked the innerspring better you would still have the option to return the T&N for a refund and purchase the innerspring.
[quote]Mattress Firm
Next we visited the chain store Mattress Firm. I told the very kind sales lady that I was looking for an adjustable bed, preferably a latex bed. She told me that they didn’t sell latex beds because that material wore down the fastest. I asked if that were true for Talalay latex and said it was which was why they didn’t carry any latex beds. This information was a disagreement of opinion compared to Dilworth Mattress Factory’s website that states that latex has been known to last 20 years before needing to be replaced. They said that certani innerspring mattresses would work fine with adjustable bed frames. In fact, the prices for a queen sized Simmons innerspring bed with a less featured adjustable frame were about the same as the latex mattress and frame at Dilworth’s.
Mattress Firm recommended that we go with a Tempur Pedic Tempur Cloud Supreme for a person who is laying in bed all day. This mattress is a little higher but in the same price range as the latex bed we were considering. I didn’t expect to like this bed, but I did; however, I think that Tempur Pedic’s Tempur Ergo Premier adjustable bed price is outrageous.
I’ve read that memory foam beds are harder to move in, which is why I didn’t really consider this one, but it didn’t seem harder to move in. The latex bed did have more bounce back than sink in when trying to push off it, but both seemed OK but neither great for moving in.
I know that the major brands are not what this board is about; but I felt that I had to at least try the Tempur Pedic bed considering that it’s supposed to be therapeutic. Plus, Mattress Firms gives you 100 days to return a mattress, which is nice. They also had all beds ready for delivery by tomorrow.[/quote]
Major brands are actually one of the most important parts of what this site is all about but the main focus is to help consumers learn why to avoid them not why to buy them because they either use much lower quality and less durable materials than most of the smaller local or regional manufacturers or in the case of the few of them that do use higher quality materials such as Tempurpedic because they are in a significantly higher budget range than other similar mattresses that use the same or better quality materials and are in significantly lower budget ranges. I would also avoid the major chain stores such as Mattress Firm (see the guidelines here). Some people are also very sensitive to the memory foam in Tempurpedic mattresses and with your father already dealing with health challenges this could be an additional reason to avoid them (see here).
Most of the information you were getting here is complete nonsense and is just a “story” that is being told to you in an effort to sell you any mattress that they can convince you to buy rather than “educate” you … regardless of whether it may be suitable for your father (especially because of the motion restriction that goes with memory foam). It certainly isn’t the type of information that I would consider to be accurate or helpful. If you have spent more than a couple of hours on this website the odds are high that you know more meaningful information about mattress materials than the majority of the salespeople in the mainstream industry that sell them. Latex is the most durable foam material in the industry and as Alan mentioned some people have slept well on a latex mattress for decades (see this article).
There is more about choosing an adjustable bed in post #3 here and the adjustable bed topic that it links to that can help you choose an adjustable bed based on price vs features comparisons and also includes some retailers that you can use as good sources of information about the features of the adjustable beds they carry and as pricing references as well (in post #6 in the main adjustable bed topic).
Finally it may also be well worth considering a wool topper. While there is no way to make specific suggestions that would be suitable for all people because each person is unique and there are so many unknowns and variables involved and so many differences between the needs and preferences of different people … wool has an amazing ability to regulate temperature and humidity and the overall microclimate of a sleeping surface and is a favorite material for many people that are more sensitive (such as many people with fibromyalgia) and can also help prevent bedsores from spending long periods of time on a mattress. There is also some good evidence that it can help people reach the deeper and more restorative levels of sleep. There is more information about wool toppers and some of the better sources I’m aware of in post #3 here.
Good luck with your choices and I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any additional comments or questions you may have along the way. When you have a knowledgeable and experienced manufacturer that has your best interests at heart that is close to you such as Dilworth … I would tend to work closely with them and put a lot of weight on their suggestions which come from many years of experience.
Phoenix