Hi spur0701,
I’m guessing you’ve read this but just in case I would start with the mattress shopping tutorial which has the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices all in one place. Make sure you read it like you would a good book and not “study” it like you would a school textbook. You need “just enough” information to be able to recognize a knowledgeable, experienced, and transparent retailer or manufacturer who already knows what you would otherwise need to learn. Too much information and too little information can both lead to poor choices.
Once you get to step 3 … then the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Washington, DC area are listed in post #2 here.
I wouldn’t put very much stock in anything that Consumer reports has to say about mattresses and it’s clear that they don’t know a great deal about either the industry or mattresses and I think their reports do more harm than good. Quite frankly … their suggestions are a joke in the more knowledgeable parts of the industry (you can see a video here that is still being “kind”). While you can certainly buy a good quality/value mattress for under $1000 … their suggested budget also puts you outside the range of many of the better quality specialty mattresses and materials such as good quality memory foam and latex.
If you are looking at innerspring/natural fiber mattresses (such as wool, cotton, horsehair etc) then most of these would be in significantly higher budget ranges as well (and in some cases in 5 figure price ranges).
If you are looking for a two sided innerspring with polyfoam comfort layers (which are the ones you will see most often) then it may be worth talking with a Winndom retailer. Therapedic and Eclipse also make some two sided mattresses but I would call the retailers on the list to see which ones have two sided mattresses available.
Phoenix
ADDED: In their latest report that was released in 2014 they “tested” only 25 mattresses that included some of the worst quality/value and least transparent manufacturers in the industry and for the most part ignored the many thousands of mattresses that are better quality/value made by dozens of smaller independent manufacturers across the country that are completely transparent and will tell you everything you need to know about the quality of the materials in their mattresses. They also didn’t seem to realize or understand that a mattress that is suitable for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on so their “recommendations” do much more harm than good by encouraging consumers to believe that their recommendation is all that they need to find a suitable and good quality/value mattress. They don’t provide any specific information about how to assess the quality of the materials inside a mattress, much of the information in their buying guide is incomplete and misleading at best and harmful at worst, and in essence they do more to perpetuate the “status quo” of the industry than anything else. Strangely enough … they even consider latex to be a variation of memory foam …
[quote]Memory foam:
Basically polyurethane with additional ingredients, memory foam has been a favorite of respondents to our surveys who suffer from pain. A variation is latex foam, claimed to be hypoallergenic.[/quote]
I think that their intentions were good … but their knowledge of mattresses and mattress materials and their execution was awful.