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I just purchased a new FloBeds. It is the 100% natural Talalay 4 layer mattresses. The top most layer being a soft egg crate 2" piece of Talalay. I purchased the following configuration. On the left side of the bed I have a median top layer, firm middle layer, and extra firm bottom layer. On the right side the top layer is firm, the second layer is extra firm, and the bottom layer is extra firm. I felt that this should give me an opportunity to switch the layers around and come up with the configuration that will work the best for my 6' 2" 210 pound frame. It has been quite a wrestling match, reading all the different descriptions that various people like, when it comes to firmness layers. You also run into this with some of the websites. No two people seem to consider this the same way. So I'm just going to have to experiment. This is one of the main reasons that I went with FloBeds. They have the most liberal exchange policy coupled with a generous return policy. They definitely get more money than some of the other sites. But when you're purchasing something this expensive from the Internet, and cannot lay on it, feel it, look at it, and even smell it, it's good to have a situation where you can make corrections at a nominal expense. Given the fact that FloBeds has an excellent reputation with the BBB, and Dave and Dewey Turner are excellent people to do business with, it just seemed to make good sense to me to consider the extra cost as an insurance policy. One last point I would like to make. I just realize that I have been misspelling FloBeds name. I had been misspelling it "FlowBeds." Wrong! It is spelled FloBeds.com. I hope I have not misdirected anyone. It will probably take about a week to get this bed in my home, set up, and slept on. When I have had an opportunity to do this I will be sure to post back and let you know what my experiences are, as I know how confusing this kind of a purchase can be. This message was modified Sep 22, 2009 by eagle2
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I think we have to find what works best for us. This message was modified Oct 20, 2009 by eagle2
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I decided, since this was “sheet changing day”, to take off the mattress cover and the convoluted 2 inch top layer of latex and inspect the surface of the two top 3 inch layers. The reason being that it seemed to me the latex had been softening in the hip area. And since it will be five weeks since I first set up the mattress, come this next Monday, I thought it might be a good time to inspect these layers. I could not see, or feel any indentions or softening in the hip area of these two top players. The layer on the right side of my bed is a medium layer, and the layer on my left side of the bed is a firm layer. The only thing that I can figure out is, it is either purely psychological, or, the natural botanical grown latex has the capacity for rearranging its cell structure in such a way that there is softening without any indication either by feeling it with your hand, or visually. The one thought that came to my mind is how good quality natural leather in a pair of gloves, or a pair of shoes, will “break in” to the wearers physical configuration over a period of time and become more comfortable. Possibly this is what is happening. In any event the bed is sleeping quite comfortably. At this point in time, I’m glad I bought it. |
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<BR> eagle2 wrote: Another night, another good nights sleep!<img alt="" src="/components/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif"/><BR><BR>Patty and I went ahead last night and changed out the one top layer of soft Talalay on the right side of the bed. I then installed the medium layer.<BR><BR>There is definitely a difference when sleeping on medium rather than soft. The soft layer has an ILD of 22, the medium layer has an ILD of 28. So, if my calculations are correct, that is an increase in firmness of approximately 27%. <BR><BR>Not an insignificant amount, and I could definitely feel it. It is interesting the increase in ILD between the soft layer and the medium layer is considerably more than the other firmnesses. For instance the percent difference between a medium piece at 28 ILD and a firm peace at 32 ILD is only approximately 15%. The difference between firm and extra firm (32 to 36 ILD) is approximately 13% increase in firmness. So the most significant increase in firmness is between the soft layer and the medium layer. <BR><BR>If there are some folks out there that are much better at math than this poor student, please correct my calculations, if need be.<BR><BR>I think I’m going to like this configuration, of course only one night is totally inadequate to draw any concrete conclusions. So to reiterate. The right side of the bed is currently configured like this. Top layer medium, middle layer extra firm, bottom layer extra firm. Left side of the bed, firm/firm/extra firm.<BR><BR>I like having two different firmness levels on either side of the bed. What I have found is that when I first go to bed a softer surface feels better. But as the night wears on I very well may want a firmer feel. This type of configuration allows for that. It all depends on how the body is feeling due to the preceding day. Has it been an exhausting day? Does this exhaustion come from mental strain, or physical strain,or both? The point being, there are so many different intervening variables in our lives that we never know how we are going to actually feel at the end of the day. So it really makes it nice, if you have the room for it, to have a King size bed with a split firmness value for the two different sides.<BR><BR>I think I’m beginning to get the hang of this thing, and am developing a database of experiences in sleeping(if you want to call it that) that will allow me to make choices that will provide for me the best sleeping surface for the future.<BR><br type="_moz"/><BR> <BR>Hello eagle. Thank you for being so detailed and meticulous in your posts. I've been out of the loop for a few weeks, just the rigors of raising a 6 and a half month old baby boy and working full time. I appreciate the information on firmness levels. I'm still in the process of researching a new latex mattress but in the meantime have been sleeping on a firm inner spring mattress. It occurred to me that a latex mattress topper would be a good interim investment for this temporary situation until a find the latex mattress that will suit our needs. The inner spring mattress is a bit too firm for me so I'm trying to figure out the appropriate ILD for a latex topper to go on top of this mattress. Jim made a good point in another thread about toppers, he said to start with a one inch topper and then another layer if you need it, a very wise approach. It's deciding on the ILD that is the challenge. Something is telling me to go with 34 for my situation, we'll see if it works. Thanks again for sharing your experience with all of us.<BR><BR>JayThis message was modified Oct 28, 2009 by enlighten
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Jay: JimSoCal would be the best person to answer your question about the proper ILD for a topper. I am continuing to struggle with what is the best firmness layers for my FlowBeds. I thought I had about working it out when I discovered that one side of the bed feels a little too firm now. But I have learned from five weeks experience that you cannot make up your mind very quickly in this business. The body has a way of adapting over time. And I would say you need at least three nights sleep, and preferably more like a week. I will enter here what I have put in my diary that I am keeping so that I can recall what I have went through in this process. Well, I took off the left side of the bed the top soft layer, and the middle medium layer. I put back in their place the two firm layers. It may have been a little too much firmness. I'm going to sleep on it for a while and see how it does, or I should say how my body adjusts to it. The right side still has the medium layer, over and extra firm layer, over and extra firm layer. I boxed up the medium layer and the soft layer and they are ready to ship back to FlowBeds. But I'm going to wait a while before I do it because I'm beginning to wonder if I might not need the medium layer for the left side of the bed. If I choose to do that I would have on the left side M/F/XF and on the right side I would have M/XF/XF. I sure am glad that I have 90 days to work this out. This may sound odd, but if I do this, I will wind up with what I had originally. Full circle? As you can see I am not someone who makes up their mind quickly. Good luck Jay with your topper investigation. |
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As I have adjusted to the firmness layers as I have selected them, I'm finding the bed sleeps more and more comfortably. One of the principal keys to this whole operation is taking enough time to let your body adjusts to the configuration. The way I have it now the left side of my bed is the most firm feeling. Right side of my bed is slightly softer. What I have found is that the topmost layer (excluding the convoluted layer) definitely gives you the initial impression of softness or firmness. However, the second layer is the layer that seems to provide the feeling of support. What the third layer provides is hard to say since I have always left it the same, extra firm. Current configuration, left side of bed is F/F/XF. The right side of the bed is M/XF/XF This message was modified Nov 1, 2009 by eagle2
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Eagle, I am somewhat like you in that I am now using medium/xfirm/firm or firm/firm/xfirm. The latter seems a bit firmer but more supportive (although I have only used firm/firm/xfirm 1 night). I have the Vzone, so the comparisons are not quite the same, but I am finding that the piece under the hips is the main variable. I use soft under the shoulders, which is nice. I have not felt any should pressure using this mattress. <BR><BR>I found soft under the hips is not supprtive enough. Medium/firm/xfirm is okay, but probably not enough support either.<BR><BR>Have you tried firm/firm/firm? That might be intersting in that it would be a little softer but with a deep level of support. Eventually I will probably swap out a couple of soft vzone pieces for firmer ones, but I will probably retain some flexibility for changes after the 90 day period is over. This message was modified Nov 2, 2009 by sandman
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sandman wrote: Eagle, I am somewhat like you in that I am now using medium/xfirm/firm or firm/firm/xfirm. The latter seems a bit firmer but more supportive (although I have only used firm/firm/xfirm 1 night). I have the Vzone, so the comparisons are not quite the same, but I am finding that the piece under the hips is the main variable. I use soft under the shoulders, which is nice. I have not felt any should pressure using this mattress. <BR><BR>I found soft under the hips is not supprtive enough. Medium/firm/xfirm is okay, but probably not enough support either.<BR><BR>Have you tried firm/firm/firm? That might be intersting in that it would be a little softer but with a deep level of support. Eventually I will probably swap out a couple of soft vzone pieces for firmer ones, but I will probably retain some flexibility for changes after the 90 day period is over. Sandman: You have a very different situation from mine since you have the Vzone. I would imagine this gives you a great deal of flexibility. I think for the immediate future I'm going to leave things as they are. As I reported in my last post, things seems to be going along fairly well and I awaken in the morning without any discomfort after having experienced a good nights sleep. So while the temptation to "fiddle" with the configuration is always there( although taking the cover off and moving these layers around gets to be a bit old after awhile) I am going to do my best to resist. That was one of the fears I had about the Vzone bed, was that I would "fiddle" too much. I have enough variables as it is. Yes, it would seem that our physical needs for firmness levels are paralleling one another fairly closely. But it certainly is reassuring to have someone like FlowBeds, and their liberal exchange policy backing you up, just in case you feel the need for an exchange. At this point in time, I am very glad that I found FlowBeds and purchased this mattress. This message was modified Nov 2, 2009 by eagle2
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Bed still configured , left side F/F/XF, right side M/XF/XF Since it's been a bit of time since I last updated this thread I thought I would add this thought. It is interesting how the body adapts over time. The longer I sleep on this mattress the more I enjoy the firmer latex. But it all depends on how the day has gone. A lot of the time I enjoy starting out on the softer side of the bed, but not always. Invariably as the night wears on towards morning I seem to enjoy the firmer side of the bed. So a lot of this depends on what is going on in our lives and how our bodies respond to it. But the old saying about trying out mattresses is certainly true. You have to sleep on them for a decent length of time to really find out what is too soft or too firm. This of course is only if the bed is not giving you pain. In which case you need to do something different right away. This message was modified Nov 14, 2009 by eagle2
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The blended piece of firm latex arrived today. The first thing I noticed was that there was very little odor when I unpackaged the layer. It had a very slight chemical smell, and a very slight cookie smell, but the odor was much lighter than the original odor that I experienced when unpacking the 100% natural botanically grown latex. This odor would not be a problem for me, as whatever there is, since it is so slight, I'm sure will dissipate considerably over time. I noticed that the 100% natural latex on my bed has almost completely lost its slightly sweet odor. therefore I can say without reservation,as far as I am concerned, that I would not hesitate to purchase a blended piece of latex because of any odor that it might have. The major difference that I noticed was that the blended firm piece of 32 ILD latex seem to be softer than the firm piece of 32 ILD natural latex. My guess would be that the blended piece of firm feels more like a medium piece of natural. This evaluation is extremely subjective, and amounted to nothing more than simply pressing down on the two pieces of latex with both of my hands spread flat against the latex with some body pressure. I will just have to sleep on it for a while to be able to give any kind of a definitive comparison. So now, according to the ILD on the layers. On the right side of my bed I have a firm, over extra firm, over extra firm. On the left side of my bed I have what I had before, namely, firm, over firm, over extra firm. Again the new piece of firm blended is on the right side of my bed and takes the place of the medium piece of natural that I had their previously. After I have slept on it for several nights I will report back on my experience. This message was modified Nov 30, 2009 by eagle2
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That's very interesting. If anything, I would have expected the blended to feel slightly firmer than the all natural. But really, I would have expected them both to feel identical because 1) they are both manufactured by the same company, LI, and 2) they undergo the same ILD testing. It doesn't make sense that they could share a similar ILD and yet one feel softer than the other. I'm also surprised that you say the smell on the blended was less noticable than with the 100% natural. Again, I would have expected it to be the other way around, if anything. I received a replacement piece of blended last week and could barely notice any odor from it. Keep us posted! |