Been lurking and trying to absorb much of the superb info here, but in my quest for a natural bed with zero/negligent VOC content, I’m not able to get to the testing stage!
Here in Vancouver, BC there are very few companies supplying organic/free from beds.
We tried Essentia, but came to the conclusion that 100% latex wasn’t what we wanted. So, TMASC look to be our only option for sourcing a free from mattress.
We currently sleep on an innerspring mattress (Sertapeadic Seymour) that was not new to us, but it looks like we acquired it 3 years after manufacture. Its now 10 years old.
Its an innerspring mattress with a 1" or so pillowtop. feels supportive but with a nice comfort layer on top.
We weigh 185 and 115lbs and mostly side sleep rolling towards stomach.
The latex beds whilst fine instore just didn’t feel great. Having never comfortably slept on a 100% latex bed, I think its best avoided.
So, B.E offer their Oslo mattress that has 2 spring layers and 1" latex on top.
Seems to be what we are looking for as the most comfortable bed we’ve tried so far was a Posturepedic Foxbury bed (pocket coil plus comfort layer) Good firmness with a forgiving top layer. relatively low coil count I believe.
The Oslo whilst referred to as soft on the TMAC site is now being supplied in their firm spring version.
Available at the top end of our price point, but importantly, we are unable to try it.
I appreciate that 2 spring layers may make this quiet different to a single layer pocket coil bed, but I’m wondering if anyone may have any feedback as to how the B.E beds feel?
Is there any need to explore 2 coil layer model, or is this by design, moving us towards a bed that feels more like a latex mattress?
TMASC were very helpful over email, but I’m looking for consumer experience/opinion
Hopefully you’ve had the chance to read the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice.
Post #2 here and the more detailed posts and information it links to have more information about safe, natural, organic, “chemical free”, and “green” mattresses and mattress materials that can help you sort through some of the marketing information and terminology that you will encounter in the industry and can help you differentiate between them and answer “how safe is safe enough for me” so you can decide on the types of materials or components you are most comfortable with having in your mattress. These types of issues are complex and are generally specific to each person and their individual sensitivities, circumstances, criteria, and lifestyle choices.
I certainly think highly of TMASC and they are exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful and are a member of this site but there are also some local options that may be worth including in your research as well. The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Greater Vancouver area (subject to the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.
Essentia isn’t an “all latex mattress” so hopefully you aren’t excluding an entire category of mattresses based on your experience with one mattress that includes memory foam in the top layer. You can read some of my thoughts about Essentia and some of the misleading claims they make and some forum discussions with them in this thread and this thread and posts #3 and #4 here). Needless to say I would be very cautious here.
I would be very cautious about using other people’s reviews or experiences on a mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how suitable a mattress may be for you or the durability of a mattress and in many cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on or vice versa (see post #13 here).
There is also no “standard” definition or consensus of opinion for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that is firm for one can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. This is all relative and is as much an art as a science. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress (see post #15 here).
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation (I would avoid email for anything more than single sentence or “yes or no” questions … see here) with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specific options they have available based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or even to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
There is also more about the different ways to choose a mattress (either locally or online) that is the most suitable “match” for your specific needs and preferences and how to identify and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for that are involved in each of them in post #2 here.
Edited this title as its still me looking for a mattress but widening my choices.
As we weren’t able to try the BE, we expanded our search and tried looking for chemical free mattresses in Vancouver that we could actually try.
Quite the needle in a haystack challenge.
Anyway, based on Pheonix’s suggestion of not excluding all latex due to essentia’s rather ‘meh’ in store trial, we stopped by Form and Function to see what they might have from Royal Pedic. Having store trialed their medium firm tufted latex mattress, I appreciate no that not all latex is equal! This was one amazing feeling bed… but at $7200…I guess it should be. I would describe this mattress as having “substance” and being very supportive, but not hard.
They also sell OMI, which was are customizable, but very ‘Essentia’ by comparison. However, they are also in the process of starting to stock Sprout mattresses and hopefully will have store product in next week.
Sprout have both pocket coil and tufted latex options, so hopefully we will find something suitable here. The price point is hopefully more palatable than the Royal Pedic beds
As Sprout is a new player to the market, I wondered if there is any hands on experience with these beds at all?
Any feedback? Sprout Sleep
Or, now that I appreciate that there are impressive natural/talay latex options out there, who else is offering natural latex mattresses that have some real “substance” to them like the Royal Pedic beds rather than the Essentia and OMI (Organicpedic) beds that I would suggest are more of a wet noodle in comparison.
It is entirely possible that I just ruined the possibilities of mattress satisfaction though by having the Royal Pedic as a benchmark :oops:
Is the tufting process a significant step in how Royal Pedic achieve that substance?
Sprout has been around for a few years now so they aren’t all that new. One of the members of the site (The Mattress and Sleep Company) used to carry them a few years ago. They use good quality and durable materials but they are also in a more premium price range compared to other similar mattresses so I would make some careful value comparisons. A forum search on “sprout” (you can just click the link) will bring up a few more comments about them (although you will need to skip over some of the results that include “sprout” that are referring to a different mattress)
Outside of PPP … a mattress is only as good as its construction and the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufactrurer. There is nothing particularly special about Royal-Pedic mattresses compared to other mattresses that use the same or very similar components or type and blend of latex (100% natural Dunlop) in the same firmness level and that sell for considerably less although their sleeping systems do use a real box spring, use zoned latex, and they are also hand tufted which pre-compresses the materials and helps to avoid shifting or bunching of the materials and adds to their firmness.
If you are looking at more premium mattresses (such as OMI, Royal-Pedic, or even Sprout Sleep) I would make sure you make some very careful value comparisons to make sure that there is a compelling and clearly identifiable reason that they are “better” for you in some way that is important to you that would justify the significantly higher prices compared to the many other similar mattresses that use the same or similar materials and components that may be just as suitable, just as durable, and are in much lower budget ranges.
