Hi athenasamson.
The specifications you listed are unfortunately meaningless and they don’t tell anything about the type of foam, or any of the specifications that would allow us to determine the durability, quality and weak links in the mattress you are considering
Polyfoam that has a density higher than 1.8lb for people with normal weight ranges (and 2lb for people with higher BMI) or … one of the “newer” generation of higher performance polyfoam is a durable and quality material that is often used successfully in mattress construction. The “stay away” that you mention is connected with the caution I often advise that…. unless you specifically know or find out from a reliable source the quality/density of polyfoam in a mattress comfort layer or quilting it is usually wise to assume that it is a low grade and anything more than about 1"or so should be avoided in either the comfort layers or quilting above it.
I’d keep in mind that the “weakest link” in a mattress in terms of durability is normally in the upper layers (the top 3" - 6" of the mattress) that are compressed more deeply when you sleep on it and not generally in the deeper support layers so the firmer bottom layers of a mattress will have more effect on feel and performance than they will on durability for most people. You may wish to peruse some reading about polyurethane foam in the comfort layers in this article here.
I think that testing mattresses made by major manufacturers can end up doing more to confuse than to help because no matter how they feel in a showroom … you are making a blind purchase and since you can’t feel quality or durability all that happens is that you waste a lot of time testing mattresses that aren’t worth buying but also can’t be used as a reference point or compared to other mattresses. This is the reason for the first guideline in this article which suggests avoiding them completely (and the chain stores that sell them) The only exception I would consider is if I knew the quality of all the materials and layers and they were good quality materials and value which unfortunately you aren’t likely to find. Excluding the worst choices (which is probably about 75% of them or more) will help you focus on the better ones without being overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of information or misleading information that you will encounter or worse yet spending the time and adding to the confusion.
[quote] If you think I should stay away from serta, which latex or hybrid mattress do you suggest?
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Latex in general is a higher performance material and is the most durable of all the foam materials (latex foam, memory foam, polyfoam) regardless of whether it is Dunlop or Talalay or is made from natural rubber, synthetic rubber, or a blend of both and I’d suggest that you do some local testing with a mattress with at least a few good inches of latex in the comfort layer to determine if you like the feel of it. Again, I can’t predict what type of mattress you might do best with via an online forum, as there are entirely too many personal variables involved, but there is very little value in testing a mattress for which you can not find the specifications and I’d suggest that you do a hard reset on your approach to purchasing a mattress and focus on the guidelines in post #1 here which can greatly increase your chances of finding the most suitable mattress that has the best possible quality and value. Remember that you are the only person who can feel what you feel on a mattress and it is best left to personal testing and your own experiences or more detailed discussions with the more knowledgeable people at the retailers or manufacturers that sell a mattress you are considering.
One step at a time (going through all of the steps from the mattress shopping tutorial ) is the most effective way to find “your perfect mattress” and has by far the highest chances of success … and of course once you’ve had the chance to read through the information provided and narrow down your research to a few finalists I or our Expert member TMASC would be happy to help you further.
Phoenix