I am still waiting for the replacement of my sagging latex mattress, hence all of the time I am spending on your site. Until I am sleeping well, all new information is of (some, dubious, great-you fill in the adjective) value. I replaced the slats on my bed with particle board over two by fours on edge, crown up. This makes a totally solid base for the mattress, but I have been thinking of putting something between this platform and the mattress to let it breath. I now know the Sultan Laxeby will fit, and will also dress up the look of the bed, as you can see the particle board at the edge of the mattress when viewed from above. However, no one at IKEA knows how the Laxeby is supposed to function. I don’t expect you to know either, but have some ideas I wanted to lay out for feedback from you and others who might have used it.
The Laxeby comes with the slats bowed up, so let’s refer to their possible positions as up, neutral, and down. If the slats go to a down position with a 150 pound mattress and a medium sized person laying flat on it, the effect would be like a hammock, leaving the shoulders high, while the torso sinks more. However, what if it could be adjusted so that the slates under the shoulders were neutral or slightly up while laying flat, but slightly down when laying on one’s side? Would this not give good support while lying flat, while giving extra point pressure relief when lying on one’s side? I am trying to figure out if this is how it is intended to work, given the adjustability of stiffness in some of the zones. I also have figured that the slats could be prevented from going below neutral by wood stops placed under slats where maximum support is needed-lumbar area for instance.
Actually making these adjustments would be a royal pain, given the weight of the mattress: moving the mattress, adjusting the slats and any stops, testing, moving again for adjustment. Still it intrigues me some to have the potential. If a mattress sagged or softened too much over time, using stops to keep some of the slats in the up position might be a nice way to add extra support, as the slats are curved, unlike the the pieces of plywood that I have used for filler with my past mattresses.
Any thoughts on this? Anyone on the forums have experience with the Laxeby? Are my descriptions understandable?
Flexible slats are not designed to go to the “down” position you are describing and would either be “up” or “flat” (unless they collapse because they couldn’t hold the weight in which case they wouldn’t be working correctly) at which point they are so firm they won’t compress any more.
In effect … a flexible slat foundation would be similar to adding an innerspring or an extra layer of flexible foam under a mattress and provides some extra “give” under the mattress before it compresses to a point where it becomes firmer then the pressure that is being applied
The tensioners in the hip area and shoulder area can engage or disengage a second slat which will make the slats in that area firmer or softer and allow for more or less “give” under that area. Moving the tensioner towards the middle makes the slats softer (it disengages the second slat).
This allows for the ability to customize support under each area. In most cases women would likely do better with a little softer setting under the hip/pelvis area to help accommodate their wider waist/hip differential. In the same way … most men would probably do better with a softer setting under the shoulders to accommodate their wider waist/shoulder differential. Of course this may not be the case for each person.
I haven’t tested them myself but based on the design and instructions I believe that the softest setting (all the way in the middle) would be similar to the other slats (some types of these tension adjustable slat systems allow you to adjust areas such as the shoulder section so they are actually softer than the rest of the slats) and from there you can make them firmer as you move the tensioners towards the sides.
Thanks for the reply Phoenix. It sounds like the Laxeby can firm a mattress up, at least in the center of the sleeping area, but it can’t soften it.
This is part of what confused me. Doesn’t a box spring start at neutral and go down? So all a box spring does is soften a mattress, or add bounce, which can be nice for sex. The curved slats could add a bit of bounce, but if it can’t go below neutral, it can’t soften. Have I got that right?
The flexible slat system will soften a mattress because there is more give in the slats than there would be on a firm foundation or the floor that didn’t flex at all so overall the mattress would be softer. This would be similar to adding a box spring under a mattress which will also allow for more give in the mattress as a whole. In other words … you will sink down more overall with a box spring or a flexible slat system than you would with a firm foundation or firm slats. Even a very firm foam layer under the mattress would have more give to it than a firm foundation or the floor so it would also make the mattress more “giving” and softer overall (the firm foam would be softer than the slats or the floor).
In addition to this “overall softening” though … you can create firmer areas relative to the rest of the mattress by increasing the tension of the slats under the hips or shoulders so even though the overall effect was softer the firmer areas can change the amount you are sinking in under the areas you have adjusted relative to the other parts of the body which in turn can improve alignment.
Just like foam and slats … springs also get firmer as you compress them more so they start with softer compression and then get firmer in a linear progression (if they are cylindrical with even coils and a single spring rate) the more you compress them (while firm foundations don’t have any extra compression at all). The difference with a box spring (unless it is zoned) is that they all compress at the same rate while with tension adjustable slats you can “lift” the pelvis or your shoulders relative to the rest of your body.
A box spring also acts as a shock absorber for an innerspring mattress which can help protect the innersprings from deformation that can come with sudden shocks.