I just got the mattress together, so I thought I would offer my initial thoughts.
[This is all prologue, so perhaps you should skip ahead to my initial thoughts.]
First some background. This Spindle Abscond queen mattress replaces the only mattress I’ve ever bought, which was around 10 years ago, maybe more. I noticed my back would hurt after sleeping in my bed, but would feel fine if I slept on my sofa. Some web searching led me to realize it was overdue to replace my mattress. The propensity of mattress stores in my area, and their prices, led me to this site (many thanks again, Phoenix!). I was totally ignorant about mattresses, and about small mattress manufacturers.
I decided to order a Spindle Abscond sight unseen, and without ever feeling a latex mattress. I’m not a touchy-feely kind of person, and I never thought I was sensitive to these kinds of things. I order many things over the web, including clothes, so this was just another one of these web orders. I narrowed my choice to be between the Nest Bedding Starling and the Spindle Abscond. I went with the Spindle, because it used natural latex, and it’s price was the same as the Starling with synthetic latex, And the Abscond is 9 inches of latex vs. 6 inches with the Starling. With the Starling I could have easily visited their Mountain View shop to examine the mattress, but I decided there was no way I could relax enough in their shop to make a meaningful evaluation, so that was pointless, and I never visited any mattress shops.
The mattress was shipped 7 days after I placed my order, Spindle refunded the Mattress Underground member discount right away (another thanks, Phoenix), and I received the 3 boxes about another week later (today actually).
[My initial thoughts (finally).]
Latex is heavy! I ordered the firm queen mattress, which is composed of 2 firm latex layers, and 1 medium latex layer. Each layer is 3 inches thick, and I’ll estimate the firm layers are about 35lbs; the medium layer felt lighter. This made assembling the mattress myself difficult. This is largely my fault, because I knew Spindle recommends 2 people to assemble the mattress, but the weight of the latex layers surprised me, and I’m stubborn and somewhat fit, so I managed to do this myself. But I am dreading moving.
Latex is floppy too! Phoenix mentioned this when recommending slats be no more than 3 inches apart. Mine were about 3.75in apart, so I added 2.5in wide slats between my existing slats. With how floppy the latex is, I see why that is important. (Thanks yet again, Phoenix!)
It took me a while to learn how to work with the latex. I was aware about flopping the latex into position, but one thing I learned, was that since the foam is elastic, I could compress one side, then relax the other side to move the layer into position (I hope that makes sense).
The foam layers fit into the cover snugly and perfectly. The cover is very nice, from my limited perspective. The mattress seems like a high end piece of bedding, but I’m definitely no expert in high end bedding. So far the mattress feels great, and I look forward to sleeping on it, instead of my sofa. Again, I don’t consider myself picky about these things, so I doubt I will be disappointed with its comfort.
[Harping on the weight.]
If I had to do this again, I would have looked closer at mattresses with a polyurethane core. The price may have been lower, and I wouldn’t have had to add more slats. But the most important aspect is it may have been lighter! Assembling the mattress was difficult because of the weight, and lifting the mattress to put the bed sheet on it is more difficult. This has nothing to do with how well I will sleep on it, but I am still shocked with how heavy the layers are. But though I would have considered another mattress, I may still have decided on the Abscond, and I’m not sorry I purchased it at all. I’m just shocked at how heavy it is…
