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We have owned the S&F Plaza Ambassador since 2007. It is a pillowtop mostly latex bed that was a compromise purchase as my wife is a lighter side sleeper and I a heavier mostly back sleeper. As you would suspect she is comfortable with the bed while I have developed back pain and felt like I was sleeping in a hammock for the past year. As we measured the top and found no real measurable depressions without weight on the bed we decided to cut it open and see what we could do. (I blame this website for giving me the idea to cut it open ha ha!) We cut the pillowtop at the base and left the top side connected and openned it like a sardine can. The pillowtop is a nice quilted top stuffed with some sort of cotton padding. Below that was made up of a 3/4-7/8" piece of latex, slightly less than 1.5" of foam, and a 1/2" piece of latex. Below that is the base and it appears to be one 10" block of latex. As we are trying to figure out what to order we tried a few things. The first night we slept on just the base and the actual pillow top with the latex-foam-latex pillowtop filler removed. I liked it because I didn't hammock but it was a little to firm as my shoulder where a little sore. Of course my wife hated it. The second night we put the thickest comforter we had on like a pillow top and it helper her a little but naturally not enough. The third(last) night I seperated the two latex layers from the foam that where in the pillow top. They were only glued at the edges. We then put these back into the pillow top and removed the thick comforter. This feels really nice when we first lay in it, but still wasn't soft enough for my wife...and my lower back pain came back. I don't know the ILD of any of these layers...does anyone have any idea what S&F used in this line? So I am looking for a basic suggestion of what ILD to order for me. As my wife was happy with the old bed we are considerring cutting the pieces that we don't use in common into TwinXL's and use on her side. Me: 6'2", 225lbs winter - 200lbs summer, back sleeper and occasional side sleeper. Her: 5'6", 130lbs, side sleeper. SleepEZ website puts me in 36-44 ILD layers, but they show some sort of topper that I assume is a soft comfort layer. As we are dealing with an unknown base layer it's hard for me to match. I am thinking of a firm dunlop layer (1-1.5"), and a medium talay 1" layer, and reusing one of our latex layers as the top piece. Been looking at orderring from SleepEZ. Any advice appreciated.
http://img155.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img155/1180/1296501273of8.smil
<embed src="http://img155.imageshack.us/slideshow/smilplayer.swf" width="426" height="320" name="smilplayer" id="smilplayer" bgcolor="FFFFFF" menu="false" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="id=img155/1180/1296501273of8.smil"/> This message was modified Jan 31, 2011 by frank33v
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Welcome to the world of mattress surgery! You seem pretty adventurous! Nice photos as well. I assume when you put the pillowtop back on, you are stil using the cotton filled cover, and just removed the 1.5" of foam? If that cover is filled with foam or is too thick, that can be causing some of your problems as well. It would be nice to cut some of those pieces in half, so you could experiment with them. For youself, you might want to try just one of the firmer latex pieces to see how that works for you. On you wifes side, maybe fold the other piece in half. So, you would have 1 piece of latex all the way accross and 1 piece folded in half on you wifes side. See how that is for both of you. Ideally you would try it with and without the quilted cover, but I know that may be difficult. It would be nice to know the ILDs in order to help figure this out. You probably are going to need to each side different to make both of you happy, so maybe your wife can use pieces of what you have, and you might need to add a firmer piece on your side. I don't think I would go 36 or higher even for you. I would start with 1" of what you have , and try to determine if you need more. Rockymountain mattress has some reasonably priced dunlop toppers. One softer and one a bit firmer. I think you would want the firmer. Sleepez is pretty good as well. Their firm dunlop is pretty firm though, so I think I would probably go with a medium even for you. But probably just 1" to start and maybe you will be able to use half of one of the pieces you already have. |
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Mark
I posted the link first to the slideshow and then figured out how to put the slideshow directly in the post. It looks like it uses flash though. Do you have a flash enabled browser? |
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sandman wrote: I assume when you put the pillowtop back on, you are stil using the cotton filled cover, and just removed the 1.5" of foam? If that cover is filled with foam or is too thick, that can be causing some of your problems as well. Rockymountain mattress has some reasonably priced dunlop toppers. One softer and one a bit firmer. I think you would want the firmer. Sleepez is pretty good as well. Their firm dunlop is pretty firm though, so I think I would probably go with a medium even for you. But probably just 1" to start and maybe you will be able to use half of one of the pieces you already have. Both of these latex layers seem pretty soft but I agree it would be nice to know the ILD's. I think in the end I will need to order at least one firm layer 1" - 2" in either a medium or firm. I think I said SleepEZ website recommend I used firm layers but I meant the Flobeds Analyzer. http://www.flobeds.com/firmness_advisor/index.htm Even if I select side sleeper on their analyzer it still pushed me to Superfirm(44ILD) or Xfirm(36ILD). |
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Yes, but I would note that flobeds also puts a 2" convoluted talalay piece on top of most of their models (not sure which you were looking at). That piece is somewhat soft, due to the convoluted nature. So, even when it is recommending F on top, for example, it is also factoring in the softer piece above that. I think most side sleepers like a softer piece of talalay on top. As a back sleeper who likes it pretty firm, you can possibly use a somewhat firmer piece of talalay or dunlop as the top layer. I don't think your wife would necessarily like a firmer piece of dunlop on her side though. I think putting one folded piece on her side and not yours over the other piece of latex is a useful experiment. This message was modified Jan 31, 2011 by sandman
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Well it was an interesting experiment. At first, after just a few minutes trial, my side was comforatble to me and her side was way to soft for me. She loved her side. After spending all night on my side it was a little to hard and my neck is also sore which tells me when this is all done I need to look at my pillow. Last night I slept on my wife's side and it felt great, which suprised me after my initial reaction to it. I think I prefer it slightly firmer but all in all not bad. So today we orderred 1.5" medium blended talalay from Sleepez for me and 1.5" soft blended talalay for her. Then we will put the two softer layers over both... Be about a week before we get it. |
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I did surgery on a S&F from about the same time that developed massive depressions (although still 30% away from what the manufacturer considered defective). I found that the quilted pillowtop cover was the biggest reason for the depressions. I had planned on keeping it. The eggcrate foam was the next biggest reason.
I would just recommending ordering foam in thinner slices - nothing more than 2" and 1" slices for getting the final adjustments right. You may need different solutions for each side of the bed since there is such a big weight difference between you. |