The Serta iComfort mattress ... what's the buzz

Hi schroedernd,

The first place I would start is post #1 here which is perhaps the most important post on the forum and will give you the basic information and guidelines you need to make the best possible choices.

As you may know … Dreamfoam (which is a brand name of Brooklyn Bedding is an invited manufacturing member of this site which means that I believe they are among the best quality and value in the country. They don’t have a return policy on their Amazon mattresses although they do offer a layer exchange on some of their mattresses and they do have a 10 year warranty on their mattresses.

The better options I’m aware of in the Medford, Or area are listed in post #4 here and these both of these carry latex mattresses that you can test.

Phoenix

Thank you for suggesting SleepingOrganic in Charleston. We had our appointment with Brandon yesterday and placed an order with him. He was extremely accommodating and we were able to try different configurations of layers.
We originally thought my husband and I would have different needs for each side, but we wound up doing the same on each side.
I need to mention, both of us alternate between sleeping on our backs and on our sides.
We chose:
Layer #1 N4Talalay - Soft
Layer #2 D80 Dunlop - Medium
Layer #3 D75 Dunlop - Medium
Layer #4 D85 Dunlop - Firm

We’ve been married 50 years and have never had anything but firm mattresses, more recently with pillowtops. The idea of having such a soft top is new to us, but it felt oh so comfortable. Of course, the true test will be sleeping on it. However, we have a lot of options for exchanging layers and even returning the whole mattress in 90 days.

I’ll keep you updated when it arrives and we get to sleep on it.

Hi mimi42,

Congratulations on your new mattress :slight_smile:

Latex is unusual in that it can be both very soft and supportive at the same time. Part of the reason it can feel so soft is because it is very “point elastic” which means that it can conform to the body very well and relieve pressure (as effectively as memory foam but with a different “feel” and less “in the mattress”). It is also very good at adapting to different weights and sleeping positions. This means that even softer latex can keep you in good alignment which is the real goal of what people call “support”.

Your mattress sounds great and I’m looking forward to your feedback when you’ve had the chance to sleep on it.

Phoenix

As always Phoenix, I appreciate you as a class act. I love to “stimulate” discussion, even if just for the exercise.

You’re one of the most knowledgable hosts I’ve ever read on a forum. I’ll be gracious enough to contribute if I have something worthwhile.

A good ending is also a good beginning.

Hello Phoenix,

My husband and I are currently looking to buy a memory foam mattress. We purchased a stearns and foster euro pillowtop mattress last year and we hate it, we wake up tired and in pain each day. We have been looking at mattresses at the regular retail mattress stores, and we happened to like the Serta icomfort mattresses. I wanted to do some research before we bought another mattress and end up hating it like the one we have now. That is when I stumbled upon this site and I have read many of the comments you have made about serta and other big name brand mattresses. I never thought about it before but what you say makes a lot of sense and its true, a lot of these companies charge so much money and you are not getting the quality mattress they advertise. We spent a good amount of money on the Stearns and Foster mattress we bought last year and after several months it became our worst nightmare. I have decided to take your advice and avoid buying one of the major brand mattresses, and look for a local manufacturer, but I need some help. I found a website called healthy foundations, they advertise a 10’’ memory foam mattress that seems to have some of the components you talk about, I think. Are you familiar with this site and would you recommend this would be a good purchase. Do you know of any local manufacturers in my area. I live in Atlanta Georgia. Thanks for all the helpful information, if I had not stumbled upon the site I would be sleeping on a Serta icomfort mattress right now and based on what you have said I would have been disappointed.

Hi msanchez,

Healthy Foundations offer only one mattress and there are some things I would want to know before I considered them.

The guidelines I use for a memory foam mattress are here. Healthy Foundations doesn’t say whether their memory foam is CertiPur certified but they do say it’s made in North America which is the minimum alternative I would consider. I would ask them however if their foam was CertiPur certified (NOTE ADDED: They are now on the CertiPur list and they now list their specs which are within the guidelines I would suggest using)

They meet the other qualifications that are listed.

So they meet the criteria and In terms of “value” they are certainly reasonable. I wouldn’t put them in the “best value” category though compared to some of the other options that are available to you in post #12 here.

The other difficulty I would have is that they only sell one mattress and while it has a similar construction and quality/density of materials to the old Tempur Cloud Supreme (and Cloud Supreme Breeze) in terms of foam density and layering … they say it has a different feel and performance. Before I purchased a mattress online I would want to know a little more about whether it was likely to be suitable for my personal needs and preferences in terms of PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) because there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” mattress (which they themselves acknowledge). They suggest to read the reviews to get a sense of how it feels but this is both misleading and confusing because a mattress can feel very different to different people and their reviews don’t include the body type and sleeping position of the people who bought them and include many conflicting opinions about how the mattress feels (which is typical for reviews which you can read about here). Different body types, sleeping positions, preferences, and sensitivities means that each person can perceive the same mattress very differently (which is clear from the reviews).

Without being able to test a mattress with an online purchase I would want to improve the odds that a mattress was suitable for my needs and preferences and I would have some difficulty with an online retailer who only sold one mattress (and presumably would suggest that anyone try it) and didn’t have the ability to match different models to different people or at least indicate which mattress it may approximate unless I was confident it was a good “match” for me. Outside of their trial offer … they don’t have a way to “match” different people to a mattress. Of course they do offer a return if it doesn’t work which is a good thing and reduces the risk of any online purchase but I would be much more inclined to increase the odds of making the most suitable choice possible in the first place.

So overall they are a better choice than most of the mainstream mattresses that are available in terms of quality/value but I would personally prefer a retailer or manufacturer with a little better selection and a little better overall “value”.

Some of the better options and possibilities in the Atlanta area are listed in post #2 here and I would certainly do some local testing on some good quality and value mattresses where you know the layering so that at the very least you have some reference points and at best you test a mattress that is exactly what you want and matches your “personal value equation”.

Phoenix

Phoenix,

I checked out some of the sites of the manufacturers that you suggested for the Atlanta area. My husband and I plan on visiting some of the stores closest to us tomorrow. I was a bit confused with some information I read on the original mattress factory website. It said that they use a combination of 40% natural latex and 60% synthetic latex, because a blend is best as it creates the most consistent and comfortable product. Is this true or should you only have natural latex. I was not familiar with latex until reading some of the information on here, and based on what I read about its pain relieving benefits I am considering it as an option. I also wanted to ask you for some suggestions as to what layers we should have in the mattress. I am 5’1 125 pounds and my husband is 5’7 195 pounds. While giving birth to my daughter I had to get an epidural and after that my back has never been the same. I suffer from a lot of lower back pain and although we like the feel of a soft mattress we want something that will give us proper support and spine alignment. I was thinking of getting the latex and memory foam combination, which I think was suggested here as the best thing to do for people interested in a foam mattress. Based on our height and weight do you think that would be a good ide?. As far as the latex would the talalay or the Dunlop work best?

Hi msanchez,

I tend to avoid “best and worst” when making comparisons between latex because each person may have their own reasons for preferring one over another but the blend is more consistent, a little more durable (in softer ILD’s especially) and a little more pressure relieving than the all natural as well as less costly. I think it would probably be fair to say that for most (but not all) people the blended Talalay would be better value than the all natural Talalay. with dunlop it’s the other way around. There is much more information about the different types of latex in this article and in post #6 here.

This is probably among the most commonly asked questions on the forum but unfortunately there is no “theory at a distance” or formula that can translate someone’s body type and sleeping style and turn it into the “best” mattress design out of the thousands of designs that are possible. There is some fairly detailed information in the mattresses section that can give some insights into how different types of layering and designs be used to can match different body types, sleeping styles, and preferences but these are generic and not specific to any individual. The best way to know which mattress is “best” for you is either to test as objectively as possible for PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) hopefully with the help of some good local guidance or if you are working with an online manufacturer to give them good feedback on your local testing results so they can suggest which of their mattresses they believe would have the best chance of matching what you need and prefer based on their knowledge and experience and the 'averages" of their customers that are similar to you. There are too many variables and personal preferences involved and there are usually many different layering combinations that can work equally well for people even though they may have differences in their performance and ‘feel’.

I would be very wary of any advice that suggested that there is a “better or worse” choice concerning something that is strictly a matter of personal preference. While a memory foam and latex combination can feel and perform very well for people who like it (and there are some combinations like this that I personally like as well although it’s still not my first choice) … there would also be many others who didn’t like it at all.

As you will read in the previous links … this is another choice that is strictly a matter of personal preference and one isn’t any better than another. They are just different. It’s like asking what is the best type of apple.

Phoenix

Hey Phoenix,

My wife and I found a deal where we can get the iComfort Prodigy or Renewal Refined King with the adjustable frame for 1800. Do you still think that it wouldn’t be worth getting it at that price?

Matt

Hi Matchmee,

The Motion Perfect adjustable bed sells for more than that by itself so if its new and warranty covered and one of the mattresses works for you in terms of PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) then it certainly sounds like great value to me.

Phoenix

Hey Phoenix,

We went out and checked some of the local manufactures here in Atlanta that were suggested. After trying the memory foam and latex mattresses my husband and I could not agree on one. He likes the feel of the memory foam, and although I do too I would prefer to get the latex because of its durability. The latex feels good it just doesn’t have that cradling “sleep in” feeling that you get from memory foam which we both love, but I don’t think we should sacrifice feel for durability/resiliency, or should we. After reading some of the information on here, I thought you could get a foam mattress with latex in it, but when we asked about getting a mattress like that we were told that you cannot get a foam mattress with latex, you either get a latex mattress or a foam mattress. They explained that combining the two would cause their properties to cancel out per say and you would not get the benefits for which they are intended for. They also said that you would only combine them in the comfort layers when using innersprings as the core not foam as the support layer. Is this true or can you have memory foam and latex in the comfort layers of a foam mattress. As always thanks again for all your info and help.

Hi msanchez,

The word “foam” is just a generic term and describes anything with air bubbles in it. It’s like saying “fruit”.

In mattresses there are 3 main types of foam you will encounter which are polyurethane foam (often called polyfoam), viscoeastic foam (often called memory foam),and latex foam. This would be like “citrus fruit” which is a category of fruit.

Each category has different types in each category like an orange or a lemon are both citrus fruits. All 3 main types of foam have many different varieties. In addition to this each variety has a wide range of different types (softer, firmer, higher resiliency, closed or open celled, and many other differences).

In other words … “foam” can mean almost anything with air bubbles in it.

As you can see after reading the above … this is sort of confusing. There are definitely mattresses that use more than one type of foam in their layering. Both polyfoam and latex can be used in either support layers and comfort layers and memory foam can be used in comfort layers (it doesn’t come in firm enough versions to be used in support layers). So you could have a “foam” mattress that used either polyfoam or latex in the support layers and either memory foam, polyfoam, or latex in the comfort layers. You could even have a mattress for example that used polyfoam in the bottom layer, latex in a middle layer (also called a transition layer), and memory foam in a top layer. These don’t “cancel” each other out … they just are different designs that are used to make mattresses that feel and respond differently.

The two most common types of “latex” mattresses are …

“All latex” (or at least mostly latex) which would contain latex with perhaps a thin layer of other material in the quilting and perhaps an inch or two of firmer polyfoam on the bottom.

Latex / polyfoam hybrid which typically uses a few inches of latex (perhaps again with a thin layer of quilting materials over it) and then under this would be a polyfoam support core.

You will also see so called “latex mattresses” which use a latex support core but then lower quality polyfoam on top of this which is among the worst designs for a mattress that has latex in it (you would be sleeping on polyfoam and this would usually be the weak link of the mattress)

There are also latex innerspring hybrids (latex over an innerspring) and even mattresses that use various combinations of each material. There are also thin innersprings (called microcoils) that are specially made to be used in the comfort layers of a mattress.

If you look at the comfort layers section of the site you will see the main types of materials that are used in the comfort layers and these can be used in any combination.

If you look at the support core section of the site you will see the main types of materials that are used as a support core in a mattress. Generally a mattress will only have one type of main support material although there can be “middle” or “transition” layers that are partly for comfort (pressure relief) and partly for support (spinal alignment). Almost any combination is possible.

Hopefully this will help to clarify that while the question may have been confusing … what you were told is also not correct.

Phoenix

My girlfriend just purchased the Insight icomfort bed, and we both believe its much firmer than the one we lied on in the store. Is this a common thing with memory foam? Does it need to be broken in? Seems like a weird thing if that’s true. If it wears in really fast and gets softer after the first weeks, then stops? Also, you say that it and the novafoam are not gonna be as durable as a better quality one. How long do you thing either of those would last in relation to one of better quality?

Anyways after reading everything you’ve said about icomfort, and memory foam and large retailers im curious to look into other options. We have 4 months to return the bed (which is looking like a real possibly at this point) and im trying to find smaller local shops in my area, San Jose, CA. I saw you posted some shops for someone in San Fransisco and a few of those are close enough, but was wondering if you knew of any really good quality places around. We would still be interested in memory foam, because she really likes the feel as a side sleeper, but would like to get a better value after reading your opinions on the icomfort line.

Hi hanabonetana,

Yes this is normal. All memory foam and polyfoam will go through some initial softening in the first 90 days or so and mostly in the first 30 days. There will usually be an adjustment period as well where your body will take some time to get used to a new sleeping surface that is different from what it was accustomed to which will happen at the same time.

Yes … memory foam and polyfoam will go through an initial softening period where the foam softens much more quickly. This is followed by a much more gradual softening over a longer time and then the final stages are when the foam starts to actually break down. The quality/density of a foam is the single biggest factor in durability yes but there are also many others as well.

It’s funny sometimes how the same questions sometimes happen in bunches on the forum. This thread from earlier tonight and the posts it leads to has lots more information about the durability of a mattress and all the different factors involved in how long they might last for different people and in different circumstances.

Some of the better options I’m aware of in the San Jose area are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix

Hi Phoenix,

sorry for the confusion I guess I didn’t know how to say what I was trying to say, but you still did a good job at explaining it when you said that you could get a mattress that has polyfoam as the support layer latex as a middle/transition layer and memory foam as the comfort. This is exactly what we have been looking for and as explained earlier the local manufacturers we visited which included original mattress factory, and Verlo they do not make mattresses like this. They only make either an all latex mattress or a memory foam mattress. We also visited Atlanta mattress where they sell pure latex bliss which is made of all natural latex, they did not have latex and memory foam combined. Are there any other local manufacturers that you know of in Georgia where we could find a mattress with polyfoam as support layer, latex in the middle and memory foam as the comfort layer?

Hi msanchez,

I don’t keep track of all the mattresses that are sold in each area by their material content or construction details (and manufacturers change what they make on a regular basis as well), especially to the level of specificity you are asking about, so I really don’t know.

I would suggest talking to the smaller manufacturers on the Atlanta list though to see if they make anything like what you are looking for.

Besides the manufacturers on the Atlanta list … there are also a couple of others in Georgia that may be worth calling and talking to.

http://www.thomasvillebedding.com/ Thomasville, Ga.
https://www.murmaid.com/ Dalton, Calhoun, GA.

Some wholesale manufacturers that are sold through retailers may also make similar mattresses such as the Restonic here or the Therapedic here but I don’t know which retailers in any particular area may carry these of others that are similar. Even some of the iComfort line uses a mix of memory foam and latex in the comfort layers such as here and here[/url].
ADMIN NOTE:Removed 404 page link | Archived Footprint 1: midwest-mattress.com/products/mattresses/queen-60x80.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=182&category_id=18| Archived Footprint 2:mattress.com/serta-icomfort-renewal-refined.html| Archived Footprint 3: us-mattress.com/serta-icomfort-wellbeing.html

Some of the online members of the site that sell memory foam mattresses also have mattresses with a mix of memory foam and latex in their comfort layers (or could make them).

Phoenix

Thanks to all for the helpful information. I feel as though I’ve completed a college course in about 2 days. I started out looking for reviews on the Serta iComfort and couldn’t be more thankful that I came upon The Mattress Underground and this forum. Based upon everything I’ve read, my husband and I went to a local manufacturer today to test out their mattresses. While we very much liked some of their mattresses, I did become a bit weary when I asked (based upon all of the helpful tips from Phoenix) the salesperson about the weight of foam used in the memory foam mattresses and her reply was “Don’t worry about that so much but just think about how the mattress feels.”

We are headed to Rocky Mountain Mattress next week to try out their mattresses and feel sure that we will find what we are looking for as they have made it so easy by posting all of their materials, components, etc. on their website rockymountainmattress.com, all of which I now understand thanks to this forum. And, their prices are hard to rival from what I’ve seen.

Thank you!

Hi lulu534,

I think this can be one of the most frustrating things with mattress shopping when you are an “educated consumer”.

Testing for comfort/pressure relief is of course important along with testing for support/spinal alignment and your own preferences but when you’ve done this it’s just as important to know the quality of the materials and layers inside the mattress which will bell you about the relative value and durability of the mattress. When a salesperson tells you this they could be trying to help (if they think that you aren’t testing the mattress and only “analyzing” it) but if they can’t or won’t provide you with this information once you’ve “focused on comfort and support” I would walk on by whether they were a local manufacturer of not. Without this you just wouldn’t know what you were buying. If they were implying that this information isn’t important to know then they are not providing good information to their customers in my opinion.

I certainly agree. As you know they are a member here which means that I believe they are among the best quality and value in the country but they are also knowledgeable, service oriented, can custom build, and completely transparent and will tell you anything you want to know about their mattresses. They would certainly make a great choice.

Phoenix

Greetings-

My wife and I just started shopping for a replacement mattress (queen size). She typically has a stiff/sore back recently and we were looking for a memory foam mattress this time around. My mother-in-law has a tempurpedic in the spare room we use from time to time (when visiting) and have been fairly comfortable on it. In some preliminary mattress shopping today, we saw the iComfort (Savant) and were liking it in the store.

I decided to look for reviews and found your site. In reading around here a little tonight you recommend checking out local manufacturers. We might like to do that to round out our education a bit. Where would you recommend in the Sacramento, CA area?

Also, just for kicks, which of the memory foam matresses by a “major manufacturer” would you most highly recommend if for some reason (availability, shop location, price, etc.) the “local places” are not an option? I haven’t read all the pages here, maybe you have addressed this already?

Thanks!

Hi Warhawk71,

Some of the better options or possibilities in the Sacramento area are listed in post #5 here.

A mattress is only as good as the materials that are inside it and all the major manufacturers don’t disclose this or when they do (or you can track them down through other means) it becomes very clear that the materials are lower quality than the mattresses made by the better independent manufacturers. Post #1 here and the information it links to has the steps that I would use to find a mattress that is not only suitable for your body type and sleeping positions but has the best possible quality and value based on the materials that are in it. One of the links that is in this post goes to this article with some mattress shopping guidelines and guideline #1 in this article is …

1. Avoid buying a mattress made by any of the major national brands such as Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Tempurpedic. While they are not all “bad” mattresses and some may even be good quality, … none of them have good value when compared to similar mattresses made by smaller independent manufacturers. NONE

Hope that helps.

Phoenix