Well, I am back. I was unexpectedly out of town over the past few weeks so I was unable to share my initial thoughts.
The bed arrived while I was away so my wife set it up. It is extremely heavy, so I would suggest 2 people for it. From what I heard, it nearly crushed her on the stairs more than once. But she is rather determined so once she has the idea in her head…anyway, I don’t think there is much to say about the setup anyway, that has been covered on forums and even videos.
What I bet most people are concerned with, if you are reading this, is the firmness. As noted before, I selected the 4. Both my wife and I were concerned as there are many notes on the web about these mattresses running firm. Well as soon as I lied down on it, my fears were gone. It must be the “plush” top, but it felt much softer than I thought. Don’t get me wrong, that was just the top, the support is very much there, but it didn’t feel like a sleeping on the floor like I thought it might (ok for me to feel like a floor, but not my wife). So the firmness/support of the mattress itself has been very good. No lower back pain in the morning that had started to creep back with our old mattress. I even sleep on my side at times and I am comfortable doing so. If anything I would say the mattress is softer than I would have imagined. Please NOTE though, I have this on the quality box spring from the Simmons mattress we had before so that may contribute to the softer feeling. But in my opinion, the firmness is true to what is stated by Chuck. 4 being on the firmer side on normal, but not much. I am glad I did not go higher on the scale (softer). I don’t think I would have been happy with something softer (5 and up). I would be curious what a 3 would fee like (probably too firm for my wife though). So bottom line, tell Chuck everything you are thinking and any comparisons you have. He knows better than anyone what will work. I needed a compromise between my need for firm and her desire for a bit softer (nesting feel) and that is exactly what we got. I think the plush top is the key.
As for value…who knows. Price is obviously good. So it would come down to quality, and that we will just have to see over time. But I spent 3 times as much for our last “nice” innerspring, that I am happy to get rid of after 5 years. So even if this last 2 years, I am even. But something tells me this should last the next 5 years, at least.
Another concern I had was smell. None that I could tell. I got home a couple days after it was set up and there was no noticeable smell. My wife never mentioned a smell even when setting it up.
Bottom line - would I buy from them again, Yes. No doubt about it. Both my wife and I are happy.
Let me know if there are any questions on something I didn’t cover. I would be happy to help.
Oh, and we got the latex pillow. I can’t comment on it, but my wife is using it and says she likes it. I am better off with no or very little pillow, and the latex pillow is pretty big (well normal, just big for me). So just not a good fit for me.
sorry for the rambling, but hopefully i got my thoughts across.