Firstly, LOVE your site! Thanks so much for some unbiased REAL information! My husband and I are in DESPERATE need of a new mattress, but like many people, are on a budget and want to get the most for our money. I have a few questions. Thanks for any help/advice!!
Background info: We tried a few different brands at some local box stores and narrowed it down to the Serta iComfort Insight or the iComfort Savant. My husband liked the firmer Insight, and I liked the Squishier Savant. No store had the Prodigy in stock, but from what I can see online, it may be something in between (but naturally is even more expensive!). Our MAIN issue (other than comfort, obviously) is temperature, because Florida is HOT. (*A preliminary search through your list and a few other sites has led me multiple times to Brooklyn Bedding aka Dreamfoam Bedding, so that is ONE of the top contenders if we decide to order online, but I am obviously open to suggestions!)
Firstly, my husband is VERY wary about ordering a mattress we are not able to test out in a store. As I have seen in other threads, there are not many of your recommended stores in central Florida, so what are your suggestions for this and how can I convince my hubby to risk an online order?
Secondly, we also like the idea of going to a box store because of the ease of dealing with warranty issues and the big-name mattresses come with 20-25 year warranties, plus it seems that all the ones we went to sell some sort of cover with a 5-10 year warranty against penetration, which we would want because my hubby sweats a lot, and we have kids. What is your take on online companies and their warranties? How do we know they will be around in 10-20 years? Are they as “honest” about backing up their warranty without defaulting to the usual loopholes?
Lastly, the cool factor. All of our knowledge is based on what several sales people have told us, but what is your take on the best cooling mattress? Are any gel blend mattresses going to be comparable? Like I said before, this is a HUGE factor for us.
Thanks in advance for ALL your help and any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated!
The first place I would start is post #1 here which has all the information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make good choices.
I’ve never managed to figure out how to convince anyone of anything other than presenting the facts as you see them and letting them make up their own mind
As you will see though … I would always start locally anyway regardless of whether you end up purchasing locally or online and would only look online if the difference in quality and value was large enough to justify the additional risk of an online order… While the membership here is certainly among the best of the best in terms of quality and value … they are only a small group so far and there are many sources of great quality/value across the country that are not members here.
I would be very cautious about using another mattress as your “target”. In terms of quality and value I wouldn’t want an equivalent to the iComfort anyway and in terms of “feel” which is very subjective and relative to the body type, sleeping style, preferences, and perceptions of each person … the only way to find a “feel” equivalent is with side by side testing in real time. As you can see in post #2 here … I would measure every mattress you test against a common set of standards … not another mattress. The time you spend testing mattresses like the iComfort and other major brands are mostly wasted because they are not worth buying in terms of quality and value and they can’t be “duplicated” outside of their “subjective feel” even if someone wanted to because they don’t disclose the details or quality information about what is in their mattress.
As you can read here (and is also in the first post I linked) … warranties are about marketing and have little to do with how long a mattress will last or when it will need to be replaced. Warranties only cover defects and the loss of comfort ans support that comes from foam softening andis the main reason a mattress needs to be replaced isn’t covered by a warranty.
Most ofthe information you will be told about sleeping temperature is also about marketing and is more misleading than anything else. you can read more about all the different factors involved in the sleeping temperature of a mattress in post #2 here and post #29 here. Most of what you will hear from mainstream stores is about “selling you” rather than “educating you”.
Some of the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the Gainesville area are listed in post #2 here.
