After researching on your site, and determining that latex will most likely best suit our needs, we visited Parklane Mattresses in Portland, Oregon. We narrowed our top choices to two mattresses. The Macadam has a 6" 32 ILD Talalay core, with two one-inch 28 ILD Talalay comfort layers. The Powell has a 6" soy based foam core (1.8#, 36 density, 25% natural, 75% polyetherol) and two one-inch 19 ILD comfort layers (85% natural, 15% synthetic). We liked the feel of both mattresses, but the Powell is $800 less than the Macadam.
My concerns about the foam core bed are: Off-gassing, and durability of the core (1.8# is less than what your site refers to as “high density”). Our plan is to purchase an adjustable base because we’d both benefit from being back-sleepers (myself for acid reflux, my husband for lower back pain). My husband is 6’4", 185#, I’m 5’4" 115#.
When I got onto your site to enter this post, I happened upon the post about mattresses.net and their customizable latex beds, so now I’m wondering if we should consider that option. I don’t want to over think this, and we’d like to get something soon. We’ve been searching for mattresses for over a month now, and we’re anxious to make a decision, but want to make a good choice.
1.8 lb polyfoam would be HD (high density) by any definition and in many cases 1.5 lb (and sometimes even lower) is also referred to as HD. While the support layer of a mattress is not usually the weak link of a mattress, 1.8 lb density polyfoam would be a durable material in a support layer and wouldn’t be a weak link in the mattress. I’m not sure where you were reading that 1.8 lb polyfoam wan’t a high density polyfoam material and if you post a link I will correct it. The foams they use are made in North America (and almost all North American foam manufacturers are CertiPur certified) so I personally would have no issue with the “safety” of the foams they use. Neither of these mattresses would have any obvious weak links in terms of quality or durability but you can also read more about a latex hybrid vs an all latex mattress in post #2 here. Any difference in durability between a 1.8 lb polyfoam core and a latex core would be more evident if you were heavy enough to sink into the layers below the top layers of latex in which case the durability of the deeper layers would play a more significant role and with a 2" latex comfort layer you would likely sink into the foam layers below the latex comfort layer. Latex will also be more durable used on an adjustable bed.
I really can’t answer this kind of “should” question because it’s a preference and really depends on how comfortable you are with an online purchase and how any specific mattress compares to the ones you are already considering in terms of your personal value equation. It would certainly be an additional option though. Both of them are members of this site which means that I believe they are both among the manufacturers thhat compete well with the best in the industry and you would be making final choices between “good and good”.
I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase a mattress from either one if you were confident that it was a good match in terms of PPP.