Hi Ruth44,
The tutorial post will help you make a better quality/value purchase and know how and why to avoid the worst choices no matter what type of mattress you are looking for or what budget range you may be in. I would guess that more than 90% of the members of this forum didn’t buy a custom mattress (they bought a mattress that they tested on a showroom floor) and latex is only one of many high quality materials that each person may prefer in their mattress. No matter what type of mattress you prefer and no matter what your budget range … the goal is always to find a mattress that is a good match for you in terms of PPP and that doesn’t have any weak links in the mattress so you have a reasonable expectation that the mattress will last a reasonable length of time relative to what you paid for it.
I would avoid the major brands or any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the quality of the materials inside it no matter what your budget range.
The Serta iSeries Dawning is a good example of the type of mattress to avoid. The Sears website says that the mattress includes the following materials …
Pillo-Fill®, This is a synthetic fiber that will compress faster than foam materials
1" Serta® PillowSoft™Foam This is low quality/density polyfoam
½" Serta® PillowSoft™ Foam This is a low quality/density polyfoam
1" Serta® Support Foam This is a low quality/density polyfoam.
Cool Action™ Dual Effects™ Gel Memory Foam They don’t provide the thickness or density of the gel memory foam but it’s probably a mid to higher quality material (although I would want to confirm this).
The innerspring of a mattress isn’t the weak link in a mattress so this wouldn’t matter in terms of durability or the useful life of the mattress (although the type of innerspring does make a difference in how a mattress feels).
Overall … and assuming that the pillo-fill is only 1/2" … this mattress has 3" of lower quality materials in the upper layers which is a significant weak link in the mattress. These types of materials will soften, compress, and break down much too quickly for a mattress that is listed in the $2400 range (for a queen) and don’t belong in a mattress that was selling for less than half the price.
Most retailers will tell you “it’s fine” because the mattress has a long warranty but warranties don’t cover the softening or breakdown of the foam in the comfort layers or the loss of comfort and support that are the result of premature softening or breakdown of the foam and they have nothing to do with the useful life of a mattress. Warranties only cover defects in the construction and materials … not how long you will sleep well on a mattress or even how long you will be able to “tolerate” it before you need to replace it (see post #174 here).
The quality of some of the materials in this mattress would make it a poor choice in any budget range but would be a particularly poor choice in the budget range that it sells for.
I would avoid the major brands or any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the quality of the materials inside it. A “blind” mattress purchase is a recipe for buyers remorse. You are looking at spending far too much money to consider a mattress that uses this much low quality materials when there are so many better choices available.
Phoenix