SOS! I am in so much pain. Exhausted. Desperately need to choose a good mattress! Severe Rheumatoid

[phoenix]

Hi Bcgirl,

We drove to Vancouver and visited quite a few mattress stores as well as the discount foam store. The most success we had was first at the Discount Foam And Furniture. After much changing and exchanging different foam layers, it seemed the best comfort was found with a 6" naturally latex base with a 2 inch medium soft middle and a two inch soft latex topper. That was all 100% natural unbleached foam. There seem to be just that last little bit of comfort missing though and the price for all that because of the 6 inch latex base was well over $2100. The man who helped us there was very thorough and the good thing there is that they don’t glue their layers together so the mattress ultimately can be unzipped and flipped.

I don’t know what “100% natural unbleached foam” is and it isn’t a type of latex. When you are looking at a latex mattress then the type and blend of latex (Dunlop or Talalay and whether each layer is 100% natural or a blend of natural or synthetic … or in some cases organic latex which is more costly) is the information you would need to make meaningful comparisons between latex mattresses. Regardless of the type though … a mattress that has 10" of latex (and nothing else) would be good quality and would have no “weak links”.

Do you have any input regarding any of these mattresses I’ve mentioned, Phoenix? I still am sleeping very poorly every night because of pain so any further input you have would be appreciated. I did read the tutorials you suggested and would appreciate some further guidance.

As you know from reading the tutorials … outside of how good a match a mattress is in terms of PPP … a mattress is only as good as its construction and the quality of the materials inside it so to make meaningful comments about any of the mattresses or identify any possible weak links I would need to know the specifics of what is inside them.

I can make a few comments about some of the mattresses you’ve mentioned though …

So we carried onto some other stores and were disappointed that Bedcetera in Vancouver only sells bunkbeds. Their other beds are all online so we couldn’t really try anything there.

I didn’t realize that they no longer carried any mattresses on their floor (at one point they did) so I’ve removed them from the list … thanks for the heads up

The other store we found disappointing was Mr. Mattress. It seems like a great website and a great idea that you can still have a mattress that can be flipped but the warehouse itself was quite dingy and dirty. I don’t think I feel comfortable buying anything from there but they do have some good deals on their coil spring air mattresses.

Again … a “good deal” would depend entirely on the materials inside the mattress and how it compared to other mattresses that used similar materials. They sell Spring Air mattresses made by Restwell in Surrey (who is the local Spring air licensee factory) and unfortunately they don’t disclose the quality of the foam in their mattresses and tend to use lower quality foams. I wouldn’t consider any mattress … two sided or otherwise … where you aren’t able to find out the quality of the materials inside it.

We didn’t find anything even close to wanting to lay down on at the High Sun mattress store either. But again it’s another place that has some awesome prices if you have a body that can sleep on just any mattress!

It’s easy to have awesome prices when you use cheap low quality materials. All their mattresses are imported from Asia and there isn’t anything here that I would consider in terms of quality.

As is Ikea!

Ikea has some good quality and value mattresses available but it depends on which mattress you are considering. There are more comments about some of the Ikea mattresses in post #3 here.

We visited Essentia as well as it is highly rated and reviews in Vancouver but there were only memory foam beds so that didn’t work for us. It is very expensive as well there. At least $4000.

You can read more about Essentia mattresses in this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here. The information and claims on their website are misleading and they are another manufacturer that I would be very cautious about considering.

We then went to the Majestic Sit and sleep store and found a bed called Lucarno which was 8 inch certified Organic Dunlop latex foam but with the layers glued together. With a wool topper it was quite comfortable but retailed around $2100 on sale.

As you probably know I think highly of the people at Majestic Sit and Sleep and they are knowledgeable about teir mattresses and transparent about what is in them so you can make meaningful comparisons with other mattresses. A mattress that uses 8" of Certified organic Dunlop and includes a wool topper is a high quality mattress with no weak links.

There is a local store which carries some Restonic mattresses and I tried one called Tempagel. I can’t seem to find many reviews on that bed It is a 1 inch Talalay latex topper with a 2 1/2 pound Tampa gel 5 pound foam and a 2 inch 4 pound foam Visco memory and then A 6 inch high density poly core. Everything is through Certapur. Cost was $2100. Again it’s one I can’t find a lot of reviews on this specific type of bed.

Once again I would need to know the specifics of all the layers to make meaningful comments but the Tempagel is a type of memory foam (gel memory foam) that is usually 4 lbs and the memory foam they use under this is often 5 lbs (they may have the densities mixed up) but they are both good quality materials. The density of the polyfoam core is missing though. Restonic is typically “better than average” value compared to most mainstream manufacturers but these materials are not in the same value range as latex in terms of cost. Restonic is a licensee group and the mattresses they make vary in different parts of North America so the specifics and design of the mattresses can vary from region to region. In general though … reviews are not particularly meaningful because they don’t generally provide any meaningful information about a mattress and knowing the materials inside a mattress is a much more effective way of evaluating a mattress than using reviews (see post #13 here for more about the difference between reading mattress reviews and mattress research). The support core of a mattress is not generally the weak link of a mattress though and the comfort layers of this mattress are good quality so it’s not likely to have any weak links although I wouldn’t put it in the same quality, cost, or “value” range as an all latex mattress unless it was a significantly better match for you in terms of PPP that would justify the higher price and lower cost/quality materials.

The other bed I’ve tried and liked was the Dr. Breus Sleep Doctor bed but that line does seem to have a lot of negative reviews. And I wonder if the"celebrity" status of the bed line influences the price. “Special introductory price” $2800 for a queen set. At that store we also tried Novapure Aberdeen Falls which wasn’t bad. " Dunlop Ultra Trizone" latex pure.

The Dr Breus is also a “partly latex” mattress that tends to be overpriced compared to others that use the same or better quality materials and they also don’t provide any information about the quality of all the layers in the mattress. If you look on the law tag you will see that there is generally more polyfoam in these mattresses than latex. Novopure is made by Restwell in Surrey as well but once again you would need to know the specifics of all the layers and components in this mattress and they don’t tend to provide this to their retailers or customers (outside of the latex).

Overall … I would tend to make some phone calls first before visiting any store (see this article) to make sure that they can provide you with the information you need about a mattress you are considering to make informed choices (the thickness of every layer and component, the type of material in each layer, and the density of any polyfoam or memory foam and the type and blend of any latex) so that you don’t spend time testing mattresses that ends up being wasted because it would be a “blind purchase” at best and a lower quality or value purchase at worst that loses its comfort and support too quickly over the months or years you sleep on it.

I would probably focus on retailers and manufacturers that are more transparent and use high quality materials such as Majestic or Discount Foam and Furniture and some of the others on the list.

And thanks again for the heads up about Bedcetera

Phoenix