I am so at my wits end here in Midland, MI after a recent move from Dallas, TX . I have one last chance to buy a real mattress. I am on my 3rd mattress since 2009. I bought the second to last one in an effort to get away from the bad experience I had with a latex Springfree mattress. It must be so that all latex is not alike as that was an all latex mattress. I was trying to get away from the horrible sagging of the Beauty Rest Black, I had purchased in late 2008. 15 months ago, I purchased the Stearns and Foster that is out to kill me, it is hard as a rock. It has two inches of memory foam in it, I thought that would be a good thing, but it has not been at all. I went back to Stearns and Foster, because one we had purchased in 1999 was wonderful I thought, but my ex-husband has that.
The current Stearns and Foster is fortunately able to go in my guest room. I talked to Jeff Schermer in Shelby, MI, he helped me understand a little of what has gone on with these companies, but I am 2 hours away from his store and they do not deliver.
I recently spoke to Art Van in Saginaw, and although the manager was forthcoming, and a nice guy, I think he really believes his computer can pick out a mattress for someone. I just don’t believe that and by this point I am so demoralized all I want to do is hide under the covers and keep researching. But hiding under the covers is painful as I mentioned!
During my discussion with Art Van, he said Kingsdown is the manufacturer of their sleep to live line. He also mentioned an all latex King Koil. I did a little research on those companies and what I found wasn’t really very good.
I am wondering at this point where I should go? I don’t really like the idea of the mattress discounters you mentioned because here in Michigan they can sell used beds.
I wondered if you had any suggestions as to locations to shop not too far from Midland, MI.
The most effective way to find the best possible quality/value mattress that I know of is to follow the step by step guidelines in this post.
These would have helped you avoid the Sealy Springfree for example (and all other major brand mattresses) which not only uses lower quality synthetic latex … but has several inches of polyfoam in the upper layers which will soften and break down much faster than latex (as you discovered). They are anything but a 100% latex mattress and a mattress is only as good as it’s weakest line (which is this case is the foam over the synthetic latex). You can read more about the different types of latex in this article. Your other two choices (the Beautyrest black and the Stearns & Foster) have the same issues with the use of lower quality materials in the critical upper layers. All of these are poor value.
In most cases … these computerized systems are meant to sell you a lower quality/value mattress and are used as a selling tool for specific mattresses than they are an accurate assessment of your needs and preferences. I would tend to avoid anyone that relied on them in place of good judgement, knowledge and experience.
Kingsdown is one of the reasons that these types of systems should be completely avoided unless you are OK with purchasing a mattress that is ridiculously overpriced and used lower quality materials. A forum search on “Kingsdown” along with sites like this should give you all you need to avoid them completely.
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I am wondering at this point where I should go? I don’t really like the idea of the mattress discounters you mentioned because here in Michigan they can sell used beds
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I’m not sure what you mean here … I certainly don’t recommend mattress discounters or liquidators unless they are selling new mattresses and are factory authorized.
The closest choices to you are listed in post #5 here and while most of them are fairly far away … there are two factory direct manufacturer right in Saginaw (Sanitary Mattress and Denver Mattress).
Here are the results of some local research. The local manufacturers that are close to you are (these were listed in the post I linked but I thought I’d include everything close to Midland, MI. in this post for future reference) …
http://www.sanitarymattress.com/ Saginaw, MI. Local factory direct manufacturer who makes a range of mattresses including latex, memory foam, and innersprings. They are a small “mom and pop” manufacturer with 3 employees. Dennis is the owner.
Furniture Row® Store Locations - Store Hours & Addresses Saginaw, MI. Regional factory direct manufacturer who makes innerspring and two mostly latex mattresses (NOTE: these have been replaced with a mostly latex mattress that can be purchased with or without a latex topper).
There are also some local retailers (within 30 miles or so) that may have some possibilities. These will require some phone calls and research first along the lines of this article to make sure they will provide good information about their mattresses and to get a sense of the level of knowledge and service you can expect if you visit them. I’ve listed the brands I would focus on at each outlet.