Mattress Forum

Of these 3, the rubber (called latex when it is a foam) is the most durable and can easily outlast an innerspring. This is not the case with the other 2. Latex is a more expensive foam so the "S" companies don't like to use it as it cuts into their profits and when they do they charge way too much for it and will often use a worse quality of rubber. They don't usually even use the best polyfoam that is available. Smaller manufacturers don't have as big a supply chain or work with the same expenses or profit level (which are huge in many cases) and will often sell "factory direct" either through their own factory or through retail outlets. They tend to use higher quality materials and will usually produce a much higher quality mattress for substantially less. There are several hundred of these around the US. Some are local, some are more regional, and some are even available nationally.

In terms of having an adjustable bed, this would be a personal choice. We bought one because my other half really wanted one as she likes to mark papers and do her work sitting on the bed. I tend more to your point of view (questioned it's value and the extra expense) but it was a "discussion" I lost (laughing). Having said that once we decided to go in that direction I did do some research into them and the Reverie seemed to have the best value. I bought mine online as there is a wide variance in pricing for exactly the same thing. I personally would have preferred an adjustable slatted foundation that just lays flat but can adjust the "firmness" of the foundation in various areas to help with posture alignment (firms up the hips or softens the shoulders).

Firm is really a relative thing as what some people call firm others call soft and everyone has their own scale. Much of the "firmness" you will feel comes from the support layers (firmer foam or innerspring) and some will come from the comfort layers (upper 3" or so). These upper 3" need to be soft enough ... even with a firm mattress ... to accomodate side sleeping. Here is an example of a "firm" mattress, made by a "higher end" subsidiary of Sealy, that has 3" of "junk" super soft poly foam and another 1" of "so so" polyfoam and some synthetic lofted quilting fiber on top of that and yet it still feels firm to most people (this is a 3.5 on a scale of 1-10 with lower being firmer so about the same as your 7). So this mattress has about 4" of "bad foam" and another inch or so of lofted fiber for a total of 5" of "bad stuff" that will likely form impressions even with normal use in a relatively short period of time. Even the absolute firmest mattresses made by these companies and feel like "sleeping on the floor" to most people will have around 2" of poor quality soft foam over the innerspring. It feels firm because you are feeling the firm innerspring or the insulator pad above it. The top of a mattress is the most important part to have high quality durable foam and yet they rarely if ever do.

You will also notice that their selling price ($1619 queen size if you add it to the cart) is less than 50% of the regular price. This is the "normal" selling price for most "S" mattresses and they have "fake" sales all year long to encourage people to believe that they are getting a good deal and create a false sense of urgency so they will buy before leaving the store. Better mattress outlets or factory direct outlets rarely have sales and any time of the year is usually as good as any another. When they do it is usually for a much smaller discount and for a "real" reason.

Kansas City doesn't have a lot of mattress outlets and seems to be dominated by Mattress Firm (which has nothing I would even look at based on their website) however there are a few that I would go and see.