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We have the typical 8 year S brand bed that has had divots for at least 7 years, its so bad we don't even bother to flip it anymore. We went to a store and I told the salesman I didn't want a bed that was going to get divots, so he showed me select comfort and vera wang. The airbeds still felt like camping air mattress. And the wife and I liked the vera wang. My wife loved the latex pillow. My wife likes the soft beds I like the firm beds. But we both felt pretty comfortable with the firmest vera wang they had. She prefers soft when she tests a bed but thinks a harder bed would be better for her since she never really sleeps very well. I am 6'2 195 lbs she is 5'6 150 lbs. So I have a few Qs As a side note neither of us liked the memory foam bed. 1. Could I really expect to get 20 divot free years out of an S brand latex mattress, like the salesman claims? 2. how many years should I expect out of a foam by mail mattress? 3. How does this combo sound? All from foam by mail. King size: 6 inch talay latex firm mattress, 1 inch soft latex topper, 1inch medium latex topper, and a costco cuddlebed. About $843 How would this feel compared to the firm vera wang? I like with this setup I can cut the two toppers and give my wife the two softs and me the two mediums if it was too firm for her. 4. What about this combo? FBM again. lux-r firm convential foam 5 inches, 2 1inch latex medium toppers, 1 soft latex topper, and a cuddle bed. total cost around $500 I like this option because the cost is lower, since I am a little concerned about how a diy mail order matteress is going to work out, so I could minimize losses if its a bust. And I could order another 1 inch soft topper for even more adjustability. She could have 3 softs 1 medium, and I could have 3 mediums, 1 soft etc. Once again how would this compare to the vera wang? |
| I'd be a little concerned about the "conventional" foam unless you're talking HR or LUX. Most standard PU lasts about 3 years and starts to soften and sag long before that. You may need to replace that element sooner rather than later. Of course it's much cheaper than HR or LUX, and I suppose you could look at it this way-- if you decide to try something else in a year (like a waterbed, ha ha) you aren't out a lot of money. Or if you love it, you can move up to a better grade of PU foam when you have to replace the standard foam. |
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Thanks for the reply cloud 9 The 5inch one is the the lux firm foam and the 2 inch is the hd36-r. FBM claims 7 years, but if I get 3 that would be fine I just kind of want to keep the initial cost low to make sure I can make the DIY thing work, but don't want to go so cheap that I miss the boat. I really like the Idea of latex even though the only latex beds I could find local were s brand types so there wasn't much latex in them. But we love the feel of the latex pillows. I guess I am trying to get the latex feel without the $600 core. |
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My bride and I find it "funny" that others make a joke about considering a waterbed as a serious option so here we go one more time. Today's waterbeds ARE NOT the swishy and bouncy things we played on decades ago. New hardside waterbed mattresses have features and new engineering that no one dreamed of back in the early 70s when the first waterbed mattresses were introduced. Cathy and I have slept on waterbed mattresses for the past 22 years and over that time we have bought three of them and the last one Jan. 1st - there was nothing wrong with the one we had slept on for the last seven years but we are older and she has multiple and serious permanent back problems so we wanted something ultra waveless and more firm and our new mattress combined with a Cloud9 three inch semi-firm memory foam topper is simply dreamy for us both and with all her back problems she sleeps in comfort throughout each night. I'm not trying to hijack this thread to talk waterbeds but since they were mentioned as a joke by a poster I had to step up. Fact is, the ability to adjust firmness easily by the user is extremely important and waterbed mattress owners can easily adjust firmness of the waterbed "core". They never develop indentations - that's impossible. This last go-around we looked at every type of mattress available on the market today very carefully - sat on them and lay on them and online researched them to make certain sure that a waterbed was still the winner for us and - it was and is. You can buy a dual section model so that each side can be separately set for basic firmness but we didn't need to do that this time. Price wise you can get a top of the line untra-waveless and extra firm model for around $300 (includes shipping and we paid no tax) so with our topper we paid under $500 for our new combination - supports without hardness and it's even gently heated with easy temp. control. Beyond the waterbed option we think you are "spot on" with the concept of buying a core and then experimenting with different topper layers until you achieve personal comfort - and it is a personal thing - each person cannot depend on finding comfort with a combo that is perfect for someone else. For example, we were happy and thought we had it "right" with our new topper placed beneath our mattress pad - however, the mattress pad was compressing the memory foam topper and limiting its' ability to flex and conform to our bodies and when we put the topper over the mattress pad and directly under our sheets we were surprised that what we thought was already perfect became even better to the both of us. So, don't assume anything - experiment on your own with different layering and combinations of layers because we learned that small changes can make a BIG difference - and - LOL, but it was the truth (for us) don't count out new waterbed technology and engineer as a serious alternative to consider as we sincerely cannot describe how very much better we found our new waterbed to be compared to EVERY spring and memory foam and latex foam and even tempur-pedic foam mattress we tried. Best of Luck and Good Sleeping!! Jim and Cathy |
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Jim, $300 is the price for the waterbed mattress alone, you need to drop $800+ for the actual King setup with frame. Waterbeds, like any other mattress, have good and bad points. I believe the market has determined the fate of water beds... Darren This message was modified Mar 15, 2009 by dkcs
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imjay wrote: My bride and I find it "funny" that others make a joke about considering a waterbed as a serious option so here we go one more time. Today's waterbeds ARE NOT the swishy and bouncy things we played on decades ago...I'm not trying to hijack this thread to talk waterbeds but since they were mentioned as a joke by a poster I had to step up. Imjay, the subject is LATEX, but you seem to hijack every thread no matter what the subject is to proselytize waterbeds. It's getting old. Stick to the topic PLEASE! |
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Thanks for all the help here!!!! We are very happy with our diy bed. I ordered what I had listed above. 5in conventional firm foam 2in conventional med foam 1 1in med latex topper 2 1in soft topper a cudle bed and zippered shop satin mattress cover. I didn't use the shop satin cover, the one I ordered only had a zipper on one side it would of been way to difficult to use. We just use the cuddlebed and another waterproof cover we had from before, it seems to work fine and is plenty of protection. The bed was too firm, so I would order diffrently next time, I wanted a firmer mattress but this was way to firm. I decided to cut open the old S brand mattress to see where it failed and to ease in disposal. To my suprise it had a 3/4 inch thick layer of soft latex on each side I could not see/feel any divots in them so I took them off carefully and placed them on the bed, still to firm, but much better. Then I took the pillowtop off of the old bed, probably 1.5 inches of soft PU foam and put it on the bed. It was the same way, couldn't feel or see divots. After I had the two layers of latex and the pillowtop on I kind of notice minor divots, my wife thinks I am crazy because she does not feel them. So I would say 15% of the divot in the old bed was the latex and pillowtop and the remainder was in the springs. At any rate the wife and I are pleased and happy with the new setup. It feels plenty comfortable and supportive and I like knowing if I have a divot problem with the convential foam I can just replace it by itself for low $$. Massive improvement from the old bed! I did build a platform out of OSB and 2x4s to evenly support the foam. It also added the height back to where the old bed was at and where my wife liked it. I just put the platform on top of the old boxsprings. I also got the latex pillows from FBM they are good, but we liked the higher profile ones we tried from a local store. We have adjusted to the less height and I like the feel of them and I like that all the cushion doesn't go the side as you sleep or roll around. |
| Thanks for letting us know how it worked out. Resourceful thinking on your part to scavenge the old mattress. Good luck with the fine tuning and keep us posted. BTW, what you described would be way too soft for me. |
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I made an error in the above post we only got 1, 1inch soft latex layer from FBM. It does sould like it would be soft, but I would put it in the medium range as compared to the mattresses at the store. |
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Before selecting a Vera Wang bed, you should research to find out what is inside it exactly. Chances are, it is springs with lots of layers of foam on top. You don't even get down to the springs in these beds when you lay on them...all you feel is the foam. Foam breaks down faster than springs do. It is so difficult to order a bed sight unseen, never touched, on suggestion alone. Have you tried finding a bedmaker in a town near you to see what they have to offer? If you liked the Vera Wang, maybe they could make something with better foam and less of it that you both would like. Plus, they can make a bed with a zip-open top so you can play with your own foam if you want to. These beds often are less expensive than the major manufacturers because they have no middlemen. Personally, I like offset coil springs topped with burlap, then cotton batting, then minimal foam...latex is a good choice because it wears longer than P/U. Good luck, Kait |
| ok I am back, 3 years later, we finally ditched the old foam pillow top portion from our 11 year old S brand bed. So I am looking to add some more soft latex, however our foam by mail pillows are starting to crumble pretty bad and the FBM latex looks like it is getting ready to crumble. Is this normal? I was thinking the latex would last longer.... Please advise? the 11 year old s brand latex layers we scavenged from the old matters still look like they are in good shape. |