Hi Sleepyone,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum! … and I’m glad you took the time to register and share your experiences.
You certainly made a high quality mattress choice but of course no matter what the quality of a mattress the most important part of a purchase is that it’s a good match for you in terms of PPP and that you sleep well on it.
I’m not sure how long you’ve been sleeping on your mattress but if it’s still very new then your mattress may need to break in to some degree and you will also go through an adjustment period with any new sleeping surface that is different from what you were used to sleeping on. There is more about the break in and adjustment period and some other suggestions that may be helpful in post #2 here. I would also talk with Sleepmasters because they will likely have some suggestions and may have some options available that will be helpful as well. I would also wait for a few weeks (if possible) before making any changes to your mattress.
While this is now “history” since you have cut open your mattress … I’m surprised that Metro Mattress didn’t look after the warranty issue for you since the retailer normally be your contact point for a warranty claim. At least you had 9 years with your mattress(es) which is longer than a mattress purchase ends up lasting for most people that buy a mainstream mattress.
[quote]Went to look at the organics at sleepmaster, made locally. Bought the Archetype, thinking the firmness would be a good thing. It was not. Both my wife and I did not get any sleep that night. The Archetype is a conventional, but very firm, coil spring mattress, with a separate dunlop latex 3" topper. I went down to the store on Erie Blvd, and they bent ovr backwards to make sure we would be happy, and replaced it a week later with the “Cazenovian”, a 6" latex mattress with a 3 inch topper.
Still too firm! Luckily, I was into this site, and became a mattress nerd, and before the delivery of the first one, I cut open the metromattress (kingcoil) to see if there were any layers of latex in there “just in case”. For a mattress that has a law tag stating something like 22% latex (it must be by mass?), there was one layer, that was convoluted. It must have been about 2" to begin with, but they cut it with a wave cut to get two out of the same piece. Regardless, it is now on top of the new latex mattress making it much better. I would actually feel embarrassed to go back to the store, I can not really expect them to do any more by us, and I can and will recommend them to anyone in the market. We may just be tough nuts to get comfortable. I go about 260 and my wife maybe 160, both side sleepers.[/quote]
As you discovered … too firm is certainly not better and can lead to comfort and alignment issues just as much as a mattress that is too soft which can have it’s own set of issues that come from sleeping on it. The ideal is to always choose a mattress that is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences).
The law tag lists the percentage of the materials by weight and since latex is heavier than most other materials it will generally have a higher percentage than it would be if it was based on the thickness of the layers. There is also more about convoluted layers in post #2 here.
You also have a fairly large weight differential so that can make a mattress choice that “fits” both of you more challenging as well (see the first part of post #2 here) because higher body weights tend to do better with firmer materials in both the comfort and support layers than lower body weights although of course each person may be different from what works “on average” for others that have a similar body type and sleeping style.
Post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to has more information that can help you use your sleeping experience as a reference point and guideline to help you choose the thickness and firmness of a topper that would have the best chance of success and also links to a list of some of the better sources for toppers that I’m aware of as well.
It can take some careful and objective testing in a store to be able to closely approximate and come close to predicting your actual sleeping experience (I generally suggest the testing guidelines in the tutorial post) and it’s not uncommon for many people to find that testing in a store can be different from your experience when you sleep on it at home.
I hope you have the chance to share your feedback about the results of any fine tuning or toppers that you decide to try and hopefully you will find a combination that is a “perfect” match for both of you.
Phoenix