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I'm posting here because my 5-year-old Serta Perfect Sleeper isn't so perfect anymore. My wife and I wake up every morning sleeping in a ditch and my back is now killing me. We both like a plush mattress and after conducting a lot of research I have come to the conclusion that it is very hard to find a traditional pillowtop mattress that will not sag over time. We originally were looking at a tempur-pedic mattress but my wife doens't like the "stuck" feeling and I'm afraid that I'll be too hot. Luckily I found this site and I would like to give props to all of you on this forum who have unwittingly assisted me with my search for a new mattress. Based on the reviews here we decided to look at latex mattresses. At first we were going to just order a Flobeds mattress because of the return/exchange policy but we really wanted to try latex out first to make sure we liked it. Fortunately we found a guy near my house who is a Savvy Rest dealer. This is not his main line of business so we didn't get the typical used car salesman vibe that you usually get in a traditional mattress shop. We spent over an hour there on Saturday trying different combinations of both Dunlop and Talalay. I think that we have found our preferred configuration which is the following: Wife (5'4" - 135lbs.): Soft - Dunlop Medium - Dunlop Medium - Dunlop Me (5"10" - 175lbs): Soft - Talalay Medium - Dunlop Firm - Dunlop My wife is not as picky but I like the plush feel of the Talalay topper with the more solid feel of the Dunlop underneath. I'm hoping that that it will provide enough pressure relief so that my limbs don't fall asleep but enough support so that my lower back doesn't hurt. We are not big into the organic scene but I do like the fact that these mattresses should be chemical free. I would still consider going with another brand but we now know the feel (ILDs) of the Savvy Rest mattresses so I'm worried that it will be hard to find the equivelent without a bunch of exchanges. I also feel some loyalty to the guy we forced to move mattress peices for over an hour. SleepEZ is tempting because of the savings but after reading SLOPYS problems I'm a little reluctant to go that route. I know that Savvy Rest won't take a return but I'm crossing my fingers that things won't change when start actually sleeping on this. I will probably place our order this week but before I do I wanted to ask a few questions: 1. Can any of you who have latex mattresses tell me if you've experienced any sagging and if so, what type of mattress you have? Since that's the problem we have with our existing mattress, that's one of my biggest concerns. 2. Is there any break-in period? Should this feel the same as the showroom the day it arrives our will it be stiffer a first until we sleep on it a while? 3. Do any of you rotate your mattresses? I guess with a split configuration you can only rotate 180 degrees but I'm wondering if it's necessary. 4. When we were playing at the Savvy Rest dealer we noticed that a couple of the pieces were flaking at the edge near the zipper. Is this something that we should be concerned about? I don't want the whole thing to start flaking in a couple of years. Any advice or comments regarding these questions or our configuration would be greatly appreciated! This message was modified Jan 4, 2009 by warehouse
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1. No sagging. Talalay. 2. No break in period. 3. No, I do not rotate. 4. Not sure. |
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RE1: I had a Dunlop mattress for 20 years and it never sagged. Eventually it dried up and started to disintegrate. RE 2: Latex does soften up a bit with use. People often remark that Talalay has a characteristic of feeling softer after you've been lying on it for a few hours and it warms up. I noticed this myself. Dunlop does not share this characteristic. Another thing you should be aware of is that cores have an ILD range-- for instance 20-22, 30-32 etc. But these are often approximate. The cores you receive may feel firmer or softer than the ones in the store but not significantly so. Also Dunlop will feel firmer than Talalay at an equivalent ILD. RE 3: Everyone says rotating isn't necessary. I always rotated and flipped my mattress anyway. It can't hurt. RE 4: Latex is very fragile. Cores almost always come with little cracks and tears, and you'll probably put a few more in just touching it. The less you have to handle the actual latex the better. Once it's inside a case you can throw it out the window without damaging the latex, although I wouldn't, but you get the point. If you're concerned about back support go with the Dunlop. You have to get Talalay really firm to be truly supportive, and that means HARD. Dunlop is denser so it provides better support even when it's fairly soft. Which is not to say you can't get Dunlop so hard it hurts--just that you don't have to to get the support. This message was modified Dec 31, 2008 by cloud9
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Thanks for the replies. I actually got so fed up with my aching back that I went on and ordered the above mentioned configuration on Tuesday. Hopefully it all works out. Anything has to be better than the expensive hammock I'm sleeping in now. It is scheduled to ship on Tuesday so I should have it by the end of next week. I still have to find some type of support for it as I don't think that my current box springs will work. We are currently deciding whether to go with a platform bed or to order a more solid slatted foundation to go on our current bed frame. Does anyone have any experience with the slatted foundations that you put together yourself like the one that SleepEZ sells? From the pictures it seems to be a solid enough and the price is right at $300. |
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warehouse wrote: Fortunately we found a guy near my house who is a Savvy Rest dealer. This is not his main line of business so we didn't get the typical used car salesman vibe that you usually get in a traditional mattress shop. Just curious...are you located in Howard County, MD? I also met with a Savvy Rest dealer near our house that is actually in the software business. Seemed a bit odd to me, but he definitely seemed like he believed in the product. That would be an interesting coincidence if we are talking about the same guy. Even though I liked the Savvy Rest product, I ended up purchasing from SleepEz. I had a very tough time determining the differences between their offerings, and SleepEz was $500 less for the same setup. FWIW, this what we ordered: :----soft----: :med::med: :firm-:-firm: 100% Dunlop all layers, since the Dunlop should be a bit firmer than the equiv soft Talalay. We are pretty certain we both want a softer top layer, so we went with a single layer on top. Then we can try two med, two firm, and med/firm as the middle and bottom. me: 155lbs, side and back sleeper her: 100lbs, side and back sleeper I am supposed to be receiving the mattress parts next Wednesday...I'll post up some thoughts after I get it all together. |
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I live in Columbia so I'm sure it's the same dealer. What are the odds? It's a little strange to buy a bed from a software developer but I agree with your assessment that he really believes in the product and I never felt like he was pushing to make a sale. He also spent a lot of time with us switching out configurations on two separate occasions. Although I had to pay tax I also had a coupon for free shipping so the cost wasn't much more than ordering the Savvy Rest from an internet supplier. Just like you I went back and forth between the Savvy Rest and SleepEZ product but chose the Savvy Rest mainly because we got to try the SR product in the showroom and pick out the exact configuration that we liked. It's very likely that the same configuration from SleepEZ would be fine but my wife has no patience for mattress shopping so I didn't want to risk the possibility that we would have to send things back. The good news for you is that you also have the exchange policy and the added bonus of the ability to return the whole thing if it doesn't work out. Can I ask what you did for a foundation? I saw your other posting about the VersiFlex product which looks very similar to one of the foundations that SleepEZ sells. I was going to use my current box springs with some plywood but I've since changed my mind because I want to make sure the mattress can breathe. My mattress should also arrive this week so we can compare notes after a few nights of restful sleep! |
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Wow...that is quite the coincidence! I am in Ellicott City, right off Long Gate Parkway, so Rhintek was literally two minutes away. To answer your question about the foundation, for now I am going to go with the plywood-over-the-box spring route. I know this is not optimal, but I think it will do as a quick and cheap solution. If everything works out with the mattress, we may look to just replace the bed with a new platform bed and ditch the need for a foundation altogether. BTW, if you are interested, I found the queen Versiflex RTA foundation for $199 on line at Overnight Mattress. I think the king is $299. Good luck with your SR! -Brian |
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About the Versiflex foundation.... I thought that this looked good too and was ready to buy it, then I called the company that makes it, Coverest and asked them specifically how much space was between the slats. I don't remember their exact answer but it was well above the 3" or so that I thought was safe to prevent the latex from sagging down through the cracks. So I changed my mind and went with what Cloud9 on the forum here recommended.. For my King setup, I went to a local furniture store (not high end) and bought two very nice foundation pieces (Englander, but could be anything decent) that were exactly the height I wanted for $190 total. They are more than enough support for the latex and they even 'give' a little bit. This saved me quite a bit of money and they looked nice and it kept my total Latex 8" DIY system to just over a thousand dollars. |
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Is the Englander foundation that you bought a box spring model or some type of solid wood? Is it slatted or something else? I was going to order the SleepEZ model foundation: http://sleepez.com/box-kd.htm but it looks identical to the one made by Coverest. I'll call them on Monday and see if they can tell me what their slat spacing is. If it's more than the recommended 3" then I'll probably rethink the plywood approach or look into making my own foundation. I actually had plywood in my cart at my local hardware store but I was worried that 5/8" wasn't going to be thick enough and good quality 3/4" plywood was going to cost me $60, which I'd rather put towards a real foundation. I also have a slight concern about the glue and wood smell in the plywood. I have gotten headaches when I've had to work with it in the past. Anyone have an idea whether I can put one of the Ikea slatted bases on a regular bed frame? This message was modified Jan 4, 2009 by warehouse
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warehouse wrote: Is the Englander foundation that you bought a box spring model or some type of solid wood? Is it slatted or something else?
This is perfectly fine for latex to go on and looks good too. See this thread for a picture of what I used. Bill
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That looks like a nice setup! So the set you got from Englander has slats that are close enough? I just checked the single bed in one of our guest rooms which has a box foundation and the slats are probably 5 inches apart. Maybe that's because it's designed for a standard twin bed. There's a furniture store near my house which sells Englander so I'll try to get by there tomorrow. Thanks for the response. |
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warehouse - Do you mind if I ask which furniture store near us carries the Englander product line? Just want to keep my options open if we decide to keep our current bed, but ditch the wood-over-box spring setup. Thanks, Brian This message was modified Jan 5, 2009 by Brianc
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warehouse wrote: That looks like a nice setup! So the set you got from Englander has slats that are close enough? I just checked the single bed in one of our guest rooms which has a box foundation and the slats are probably 5 inches apart. Maybe that's because it's designed for a standard twin bed. There's a furniture store near my house which sells Englander so I'll try to get by there tomorrow. Thanks for the response.
The bed has a built in frame to drop the foundation pieces into, it also has 3 slats accross the frame that screw into the sides (head, middle and foot area), and these each have two feet under the middle area for support. The foundation piece sits within the built-in frame. Also - there's nothing really special about Englander for this other than my local furniture guy was able to order me a custom made oddball height for this (7"). Most of these pieces are in the 5" or 9" range. I wanted the 7" size to put my finished bed at a certain height. Any of the S brand' box piece should work OK for this as long as it has a smooth top and no springs. Bill
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BillB wrote: Hi. Maybe I wasn't clear enough about this. Sorry. The bed has a built in frame to drop the foundation pieces into, it also has 3 slats accross the frame that screw into the sides (head, middle and foot area), and these each have two feet under the middle area for support. The foundation piece sits within the built-in frame. Also - there's nothing really special about Englander for this other than my local furniture guy was able to order me a custom made oddball height for this (7"). Most of these pieces are in the 5" or 9" range. I wanted the 7" size to put my finished bed at a certain height. Any of the S brand' box piece should work OK for this as long as it has a smooth top and no springs. Bill I now understand what you are talking about with the bed but my real question was about the foundation. So it has some type of solid wood product on the top so that it is smooth? The foundation that I have has slats on the top which then have a cloth cover over it. On mine (twin) these slats are roughly 5 inches apart so I don't think that something like that would be supportive enough for a latex mattress. If it's solid then that would work as long as I don't move somewhere where the humidity is too high since I''ve been told that the latex needs to breathe to prevent mold. Thanks! |
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Brianc wrote: warehouse - Do you mind if I ask which furniture store near us carries the Englander product line? Just want to keep my options open if we decide to keep our current bed, but ditch the wood-over-box spring setup. Thanks, Brian It's called Oak Tree Furniture on Red Branch Road off of Route 108 in Columbia. I was in there the other day looking at beds and noticed that they sell Englander mattresses. They sell more than just oak! http://www.oaktreefurniture-maryland.com/ I haven't checked with them on the price yet but I'm actually leaning towards building my own foundation. Since we still haven't decided what type of bed we will buy in the future (platform vs. traditional) I don't want to spend more than I have to. If I use pine it will cost around $125. I'll build two pieces just like my box springs and use a midbeam since the pine slats aren't as strong as other wood. I can probably reuse the cloth casing from my current box springs so that it will have a finished look. Something like this:  |