Tried out several mattresses today... Can someone help me find one like the one I liked?

Hi Skyjumper,

ILD isn’t really a relevant specification with memory foam because it changes with conditions (temperature, humidity, and the length of time it’s compressed) and when they are provided they aren’t comparable to ILD’s in fast response materials. ILD is also a “comfort spec” and when you are testing a mattress locally then your body will tell you more about whether a mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of PPP than any specifications.

I’m not sure which mattress you tested used 19 ILD in the comfort layers (I’m guessing it was the Natura Eco Sanctuary) but I would also be aware that all the layers of a mattress interact together and the type of latex, any convoluting in the layers, the thickness of the layers, and the other layers below and the quilting in the cover (in this case wool) can also be a significant part of what you “feel”. Once again though your own careful and objective testing for PPP will be more meaningful than ILD specs.

[quote]The first latex I tried was a Pranasleep:


The spec sheet (such as it is) seems to indicate a lot of poly foam and some Talalay latex. No hint of ILD rating. It felt okay, supporting most of my body. Not very sinky, and I wanted sinky.[/quote]

You can see my comments about Pranasleep in post #3 here and in this thread. Jordans lists the quilting layers as 3/4" of 2.5 lb polyfoam and then two 1" layers of 1.5 lb polyfoam which is higher than the two 1" layers of 1.35 lb polyfoam that your attachments lists but either way there would be too much lower density polyfoam in the top layers and I would tend to avoid this in a mattress in this budget range because of the risk of premature foam softening and the more rapid loss of comfort and/or support that goes with too much lower quality materials in the upper layers of a mattress. With polyfoam layers this thick you would also be feeling polyfoam as much as you would be feeling the latex.

[quote]Better was the Natura Latex, which seemed to support my pressure points well. I didn’t sink in much, and I would prefer to sink in a bit, but I think i would be happy with a bed like this. Here are its specs:

www.dropbox.com/s/ddgrite5m90nie3/2014-01-26%2014.21.03.jpg[/quote]

The specs of this mattress are much better and there are no weak links in this mattress although it would be well worth making some careful value comparisons with other mattresses because this in a higher budget range than other mattresses that have a similar design and materials.

[quote]Finally, the bed I liked the best was the one that is probably the worst. The Beauty Rest was actually a hybrid with a pocket coil support layer and memory foam comfort layer. It was very comfortable, supported me well, had just the right amount of sink for my preference and handled bouncing well. It was also like $2,400! Here are its specs:



This was a “4000 Plush”. It described the “quilt” as:

1 inch memory foam with Try\u Temp 4 pounds
2 inch advanced AirCool memory foam 3.5 pounds
1 inch Advanced AirCool memory foam 4.5 pounds

Then there was a “comfort layer”:

1 inch density foam[/quote]

You’re right that the materials in this mattress are questionable. The top 4" are “in the range” of medium quality memory foam although the 2" layer is on the low side (less than the 4 lb guideline I would normally use) and the additional inch of polyfoam underneath them is also low for a one sided mattress (1.5 lbs which is less than the 1.8 lbs I would normally suggest in a one sided mattress) so overall this would be a somewhat risky purchase in terms of durability and it certainly isn’t particularly good value compared to other mattresses that use better quality materials and would be less risky and are in a lower budget range. The specs they list for the 4000 Plush here are even worse than the ones you attached.

To their credit … Jordans is one of the few retailers that lists meaningful specs for some of their major brand mattresses.

It would be fine to bend most pocket coil mattresses around corners (or use them on an adjustable bed) because the springs aren’t joined together with helicals and it doesn’t have a border wire but it could damage other types of innersprings. I would definately avoid this though based on the quality/density of the materials.

You can read a little more about trying to “match” one mattress to another in post #9 here. There are some online memory foam retailers or manufacturers (there is a list in the tutorial post) that use some of the major brand memory foam mattresses such as Tempurpedic, iComfort, or Sealy Optimum as a reference point for comparison but I don’t know of any that use Simmons as a reference point. This means that the only way to “match” the Beauty rest to another mattress in terms of PPP would be based on your own personal side by side testing in “real time” (if there is too long between testing two mattresses then your body won’t “remember” what the first one felt like or how it compared). Of course if another mattress seemed similar to you in terms of PPP I would make certain that the quality of the materials was better because otherwise it could lose the comfort and support and the “showroom feel” that was the reason you purchased it much too quickly.

Phoenix