For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Oct 5, 2008 10:43 PM
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Points: 32
Such expensive mattresses seem overkill to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

Have you guys tried less expensive foam mattresses, eg the Otis Haley 110 which uses 1.8 density foam:
http://www.csnfutons.com/Haley-110-8%22-Futon-Mattress-OD1054.html
or the Otis Liberty which uses 2.5 density foam:
http://www.csnfutons.com/Otis-Bed-Liberty-8-Futon-Mattress-OD1047.html

or say the wolf latex ultima:
http://www.futons-store.com/p/wolf-8-inch-latex-ultima-chair-futon-mattress

They are sub $500 mattresses, and even if they last 5 years, you should come out ahead of the $2000 mattresses in the long run.

So, are these mattresses not good ?
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #2 Oct 6, 2008 3:20 AM
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Points: 32
Woa, the Kings are really expensive.

I believe these mattresses are sold in some B&M stores also, so they can be checked out beforehand.
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #3 Oct 6, 2008 11:57 AM
Joined: Oct 6, 2008
Points: 7
There still isn't enough data available to make it worth $700.   I don't see spending the $2300 I spent as a ridiculous price considering I spend 1/3 of my life on it.  You, hopefully, spend far less time in your car.  Do you consider $1500+ a ridiculous price for a car?
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #4 Oct 6, 2008 5:58 PM
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Points: 32
DuLL_ExIsTeNz wrote:
There still isn't enough data available to make it worth $700.   I don't see spending the $2300 I spent as a ridiculous price considering I spend 1/3 of my life on it.  You, hopefully, spend far less time in your car.  Do you consider $1500+ a ridiculous price for a car?


I dont view $2000-3000 as ridiculous if it gives appropriate benefits; its just that I'm seeing on this forum that people have bough expensive beds but the beds performance diminishes fairly quickly; and people shop for a new bed in 7 years again.

What I want to know if people have CONSIDERED these less expensive mattresses.  Apply the same criteria as that for the expensive mattresses.
Comfort must be checked out in person at a store; so that only leaves longevity. 
And here  the available data seems to point to the sealy etc mattresses having not so great a life.


I'll my own experience to enlarge the dataset . I slept on Wolf coil futon mattress (blind buy) for a few years; it was very comfortable and the coils were still functioning great at the 7 year mark. The padding  had not flattened out either.

I  used the bed just for myself
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #5 Oct 6, 2008 6:48 PM
Joined: Oct 6, 2008
Points: 7
There are always going to be people that run into a situation of a poor (and expensive) choice.  I've reviewed quite a bit of the information regarding latex mattresses specifically on this site, and I can't say that I've seen a lot of cases where the mattress performance is diminishing quickly.   Do you have specific examples?  I'm curious as to the brands mentioned.

I can speak for others, but I certainly tried mattresses in virtually all price ranges, as well as many mattress types.  The cheapest, for a king, was ~$450, and the most expensive was ~$12000.  I probably laid on 75 mattresses total before deciding that latex felt the best.  After laying on quite a few latex mattresses, I made a compromise on price vs quality and warranty.  I certainly did subjective and objective comparisons between all mattresses I tried before making my decision. 

I'm glad you had good luck with your mattress.  The biggest problem I ran into when searching for a mattress was finding one that both my girlfriend liked.  Hence why I ended up going with the latex adjustable layers.  We probably could've settled on the Select Comfort mattresses, but my girlfriend wasn't thrilled about the feel and I wasn't thrilled about the warranty. 
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #6 Oct 7, 2008 2:51 AM
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Points: 32
DuLL_ExIsTeNz wrote:
both my girlfriend liked. 

If you just missed an "s" then may I just say



I dont have specific examples, but thats just the impression I got (for boxspring mattresses). Havent read bad things about latex ones.

Regarding the mattresses you tried out, did you feel you would have had back pain or uneasy sleep with the cheaper mattresses ?
This message was modified Oct 7, 2008 by MrPointy
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #7 Oct 7, 2008 6:32 AM
Joined: Sep 6, 2008
Points: 87
Hey Dull,

It is 6 am and I tossed and turned all night.

I am considering buying a mattress via mail ... possibly through SleepEZ or Foam Distributing as it is much more affordable.

Where did you get your mattress and how is it set up?

Thanks.
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #8 Oct 7, 2008 7:00 PM
Joined: Oct 6, 2008
Points: 7
LOL.  Oops.  I edited that a few times while writing it and must've missed the 'me' part of it. 

With the cheaper innerspring mattresses, I ran into the problem of non-uniform pressure relief.   With the cheaper foam mattresses, I noticed the same.  I also noticed that they were usually either way too firm or way too soft.  Does this mean that all cheaper mattresses will have these characteristics?  No, but it's just what I experienced with the ones I tried.  I didn't actually sleep on them, but I can usually tell after 5-15 minutes whether they're providing the support I need and whether the firmness is what I like. 
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #9 Oct 7, 2008 7:25 PM
Joined: Oct 6, 2008
Points: 7
Jazzsinger777 wrote:
Hey Dull,

It is 6 am and I tossed and turned all night.

I am considering buying a mattress via mail ... possibly through SleepEZ or Foam Distributing as it is much more affordable.

Where did you get your mattress and how is it set up?

Thanks.


I haven't heard of or looked into Foam Distributing.  However, I did speak with SleepEZ on the phone and based upon that, and from what I've read on this forum, they seem like an excellent company.   However, after a call to Flobeds (flobeds.com), I ended up going with them.  A couple of things convinced me to go with Flobeds:

1) The warranty is slightly different.  SleepEZ's warranty is 7 years of non-prorated and 8 years of prorated.  Flobeds is 10 non-prorated, 50% coverage for 11-15 years, and 25% coverage for 15-20 years.
2) According to a call to SleepEZ, the core exchange would cost me about $30 for the first one and shipping both ways for every core thereafter.  With Flobeds, it costs $20 per half core and $35 for an entire layer each exchange.   They provide prepaid shipping labels that you can purchase from them, so it's a fixed cost.  With SleepEZ, the shipping both ways is whatever UPS, etc would charge for the shipping. 

There were also a couple other minor things, such as that Flobeds has never had a Better Business Bureau complaint for about 7 years or so.  That's impressive in itself.  One of the concerns I had with Flobeds was the convoluted latex topper that's on all of their mattresses is very soft.  I laid on a mattress that had 1.5" of convoluted latex and 1.5" of convoluted poly foam for a topper and I absolutely hated it.  However, they stated that if I couldn't stand the topper, they would allow me to replace it with a 2" layer of latex that I could specify.

My mattress is the Flobeds Posture Deluxe with layers of firm, xtra firm, xtra firm.  One thing to keep in mind when comparing Flobed's layers and SleepEZ's layer is that they used different terms for different ILDs.  A soft with Flobeds is a different ILD range than soft with SleepEZ.  My advice is go out to mattress stores around your area and try some latex mattresses.  Find some you like and get the statistics on them, such as how thick the topper is, what it's made from, how thick the core is, what ILD rating(s) is has, etc.  After doing that, come up with a list of questions you have.  Then give SleepEZ and Flobeds a call, get some recommendations and have them answer your questions.  When I was shopping for a mattress, I wasn't specifically looking for a latex mattress, it just so happened that latex was the most comfortable to both my girlfriend and I.  We laid on everything from $300 innerspring mattresses to $12k custom mattresses. The original latex mattress that we laid on was $3800, so I started doing some research and went from there.  
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #10 Oct 7, 2008 8:43 PM
Joined: Sep 6, 2008
Points: 87
Hey Dull,

Thanks for the great post. I like what you posted about Flobeds.

I live near Toronto, ON so shipping from the USA and the exchange add another complication to the price.

I too wasn't looking for a latex mattress but ended up there as it was the best solution for my wife and myself.

Cheers.
Re: For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?
Reply #11 Oct 7, 2008 9:28 PM
Joined: Oct 6, 2008
Points: 7
No problem.  I certainly would keep your options open and then give a call to all the companies you're interested in.  I was impressed with the customer service of both SleepEZ and Flobeds.  They seem like companies that are willing to go beyond what the average company would to make the customer happy.  

The most important part is to do your research and come with a way to objectively and subjectively compare the mattresses and companies before you buy (it seems like you're doing just that).  I've heard of far too many people that don't weigh the options before purchasing.  The mattress research and evaluation process lasted about 2 months for me before I made the decision to go with Flobeds.   Best of luck to you.  If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.