Hi,
I live in Montreal and am currently shopping for a mattress to replace our old queen mattress. I was set on getting a Casper or similar at first, but then I discovered TMU and changed my mind.
I’m not sure where to post this, so I’m posting this here. It would be great if the admins can move it to its own thread.
I read through many of the articles and tutorials here and went through a lot of the threads before starting my shopping and I thought I would both share my experience and get some advice from the experts here. The prices will all be for queen mattresses, tax in.
We are shopping for a queen mattress, potentially a king.
I am 6’2", ~210lbs, back + side sleeper.
My wife is 5’6", ~135lbs, stomack + side sleeper.
I visited 3 manufacturers in Laval, just north of the Montreal island:
- Matelas Dauphin
- Matelas Excellence
- Matelas Beau-Reve
My wife only went with me to matelas Dauphin.
Matelas Dauphin:
While matelas Dauphin is a manufacturer, the people in the store are salesmen. The guy that was helping us seemed knowledgeable overall and wasn’t pushy, but that’s not true for everybody. There were some details I missed, so I attempted to call some other Dauphin stores and the answer was often “Oh I have no idea! I would have to call the factory and call you back”. I wasn’t a fan of the fact that they couldn’t answer a bunch of questions, especially when it came to memory foam density.
Apparently all their polyfoam is between 2lbs and 3lbs density.
They say their latex is all 100% natural Talalay, with 4.5-5lbs density (does density matter for latex?)
We liked 3 mattresses there:
Hevea Aurora (this is not on their website):
8.5" thick.
Top layer is wool + organic cotton.
2" Talalay latex ILD 19.
2" Aurora foam transition. I was told it’s same density as the support layer, but I’m not so sure.
4" polyfoam support layer, 2.5 lbs density.
$1700
Ceiba (Ceiba firm Mattress - Matelas Dauphin)
12" thick.
Top layer is wool + organic cotton
2" Polyfoam, 2.5lbs density.
1" Talalay latex ILD 19.
2" polyfoam 2.5 lbs density.
6" pocketed coil, 14-15 gage, 660 count for queen.
Lateral support of high-density foam. I’m given a range of 2.5 to 3 lbs.
$1570
London (Bed in) (London headboard for Reflexx platform - Matelas Dauphin)
Bed in a box
10" thick.
2" Gel-infused memory foam. Nobody managed to tell me the density for the memory foam.
6" Pocketed coil, 14-15 gage, 660 count for queen.
2" Polyfoam. They didn’t have the spec for density, but would tell me 2 to 3 lbs.
Lateral support of high-density foam. I’m given a range of 2.5 to 3 lbs.
Price for London in store is $1700 as opposed to the $2900 you see on the website.
All 3 felt good as far as comfort and pressure relief. I prefer the Hevea and Ceiba over the London personally. My wife prefers the London over the other 2.
Matelas Excellence:
A small manufacturer in Laval. There’s no show-room. The owner puts different layers topped with a cover on a foundation, and you try it out like that. You can customize as you wish, but the owner has his own recommendations.
The owner recommends we avoid memory foam. He says it feels good at the beginning, but it doesn’t last very long.
He uses Talalay Latex as well. The top layer they add seems to be either cotton, or synthetic, but he doesn’t have much more info about that.
Here’s what I liked.
All-Latex bed:
2" ILD 28 Talalay w/ 3.8 lbs density
6" ILD 44 Talalay w/ 5.1 lbs density
Zippered cover, so we can reverse a layer easily.
This mattress felt very nice as far as comfort and pressure relief are concerned. Dauphin only had 1 all-latex mattress w/ ILD 19 and we felt we sunk in too much.
$2070
All-foam bed:
2" polyfoam comfort layer, 3 lbs density.
4" polyfoam for support, firm, 2.7lbs density.
2" polyfoam comfort layer, 3 lbs density.
Reversible mattress.
$1120
Mattress felt very nice as far as comfort and pressure relief. It’s also half the price of the latex mattress! Owner says it obviously won’t last as long as the latex mattress though.
Owner doesn’t recommend going hybrid w/ a foam support and latex top since the foam will last less than the latex.
What he suggests in that case is to make a 6" polyform support mattress, and then have a 2" Talalay topper on top (no cover). This way, we can potentially just replace one or the other. Price jumps up to $1265 for that option.
Matelas Beau-Reve:
A small manufacturer in Laval. They have a small show-room, but they also manufacture their mattresses right there. Owner is a very straight forward guy. They make mattresses with pocketed coils (I think, I’m unsure), polyfoam, and Talalay latex. Owner doesn’t recommend memory foam either for the same reason as mentioned before. He also doesn’t recommend the pocketed coils for the weight difference between my wife and I as I will end up rolling to the middle. All the mattresses they make are reversible, and they ask you to flip them every 4 months.
I tried Latex and polyfoam mattresses.
Latex Mattress:
Approximately 10-11" thick.
Reversible.
3" ILD 28/34 Talalay
2" polyfoam, 2.9lbs density.
3" ILD 28/34 Talalay.
The added coating will fill the rest. Cotton cover.
Mattress is reinforced on the side with polyfoam, I believe 2.9lbs as well, probably firm.
$1880
Foam Mattress:
Approximately 10-11" thick as well.
Reversible.
All 2.9lbs foam. Apparently it’s all one 8" piece.
THe coating has a 1" layer of polyfoam I believe called “Coquille d’oeuf”. That translates to “egg shell” in english, but I think the actual term to use here is “egg crate”?
Reinforced on the sides. I think it’s also 2.9lbs or maybe 3.4lbs firm. I don’t remember the exact detail here.
$1390
Both mattresses were available in firm and semi-firm options. The owner showed me different density pieces and showed me how 2 pieces of same density can have different firmness levels, so that was cool. He also showed me all the densities he has: 1.6, 1.9, 2.35, 2.9, 3.4, and told me how he wouldn’t recommend anything below 2.35 in my case.
For latex mattress: I like both semi-firm and firm options, with a slight preference to the firm one as far as comfort and pressure relief are concerned. I like the fact that it’s reversible but it sounds like a hassle doing it every 4 months, especially that it can invalidate the warranty if you don’t do it.
For polyfoam: I liked both semi-firm and firm options. I have a slight preference for the semi-firm, but the owner says I have to be careful with that one due to my weight. Anything above the low 200s, and i will start to sink in too much. Even though my wife likes firm mattresses, he says the firm polyfoam option could create pressure points and inhibit circulation for her, so the polyfoam option doesn’t seem to be ideal unless we go with a split king where we can have 2 different comfort layers.
Obviously, my wife will have to come and try the mattresses at these shops.
From what I see, there doesn’t seem to be any durability issues with any of the mattresses. What do you guys think? Are there any glaring issues you see?
I personally prefer Beau-Reve and Excellence to Dauphin, simply because I’m dealing with the owners directly and they seem to be more straightforward and knowledgeable concerning the materials and the different densities.
My favourite mattresses are the Latex ones. I like both the ones from Beau-Reve and Excellence, but they are expensive.
The polyfoam mattress from Excellence seems like it’s potentially the best value for the money at that price.
Matelas dauphin has a 100 or 120 night comfort waranty. They charge 75$ to pick up the mattress in that case. On the other hand, I’m not sure how a replacement would work in that case and what price difference I would have to pay.
The hybrid mattresses are 20 year warranty but after the first 10 it’s pro-rated.
The Bed in mattress is 15 year warranty but after the first 5 it’s pro-rated.
The other 2 small manufacturers provide a warranty against manufacturing defects and premature sagging of 2" or more.
Are these options a good value for the quality? (especially considering I’m in Canada)
Are there any glaring issues with any of the mattresses or manufacturers that you can see from my description?
Any questions I should ask the manufacturers? Any advice or suggestions for me?
Thank you.