First of all … Thank you Phoenix for having this website. I came across it just a couple days ago, and it has been very enlightening reading through the various pages. It also has helped significantly in relieving my frustration with researching and (eventually) purchasing a new mattress.
A little background information:
For the last +16 years my wife and I have been sleeping on a Wellspring Mattress manufactured by Rising Star Futons in Bend, Oregon. We purchased this futon (and platform bed frame) new from a local store that no longer exists. We have been very satisfied with both the futon and frame, but the time has come for the mattress to be replaced. (It has become compressed, is less supportive, and is increasingly uncomfortable. Plus, neither of us is the spring chicken we used to be.) A quick search of the Internet shows that Rising Star Futons went out of business, but the proprietary Wellspring Mattress name and mattress material (spun polyethelene recycled from soda/water bottles) was bought by Cotton Cloud Futons in portland.
My questions: Has anyone on this forum had experience with Cotton Cloud Futons or with any of their mattresses? (None of their cut-away diagrams or descriptions really matches the construction of our old Wellspring). Also, the Cotton Cloud website says that they can relayer/revitalize futons, has anyone here had this done? In general, I’m wondering if their new futons/mattress match the comfort and durability of our old one.
You can see a few comments about Cotton Cloud Futons in post #34 here and post #3 here. I don’t have any personal experience with their futons but they have certainly been knowledgeable and helpful when I’ve talked with them.
Both the comfort and durability of a futon, just like a mattress, will depend on the specifics of the materials that are used inside it so it would depend on how the specific layers and materials inside your futon compared with the new one that you choose. Higher quality materials will last longer and outside of the wellspring fiber they may be using different materials in their current futons. You can see a little more about the materials they used to use here although they don’t specify the quality/density of either the E-Foam (which is probably HD polyfoam) or the Ultrafoam (which is a higher grade called HR polyfoam). There is some information here about two of the futons they used to make and perhaps Cotton Cloud would know what was in the model you have and have a current model that is similar in terms of comfort and the quality of the materials.
Re-layering your futon would be similar to rebuilding a mattress and whether it’s worth it or not would depend on what was inside your futon and the condition of the materials. I would suspect that after 16 years that the foam and fiber in your futon would be at the end of their useful life and there may be little that can be re-used and you may be better off buying a new futon but it would certainly be worth calling them to discuss it.