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It seems that in the "old days" before the time of more and more hi tech foams, that most mattresses (besides the latex ones) were made much more out of basically two components ... the springs ... and stuffing like cotton, wool, horsehair, and other "stuff". The idea seemed to be that the "active" contouring support came from the springs and that the comfort and surface feel came from the material or padding. Now they obviously knew that these materials would compress to some degree and would often pre-compress or tuft the material but unlike the polyfoams of today, the compression wasn't because of the breakdown of the material and the quality of the stuffing wasn't degraded. Now here's where I'd love the opinions from people who have been around a while. It seems at this time (and some of the higher end manufacturers and even some smaller manufacturers seem to still abide by this to some degree) that body impressions were actually a desireable part of the break-in process in that over time it allowed the stuffing to conform to the shape of the body in a more passive and general way and help with pressure and comfort issues. This would be the equivalent to what memory foam does today (in theory anyway) except the impression would come more from a combination of sleeping positions rather than be re-formed every time a person changed position. It seems that a body impression would personalize a mattress and help spread pressure out more passively with a relatively even level of support throughout (because the stuffing wasn't degraded), while the springs were responsible more for the active support when a person changed position or if part of their body sunk in deeper than the body impression. The habit of regularly turning a mattress would also help the body impressions to form in a "more ideal way". The upper layers were more "passive" than today and the springs were more important in the "active" part of the mattress in other words. This approach still seems valid today and while it may not lead to a "perfect mattress" it does seem that there may be some value to this approach which is why some manufacturers still make them this way. It also seems that some people would do better with this approach than what they may otherwise end up with using a really complex layering scheme that "goes wrong". It may not be perfect but it would probably be 75 or 80% or maybe more. This is probably also where the idea of "firm is better" came from as a firm mattress didn't mean there was no contouring but that with a good and conforming body impression that once a mattress had broken in that an even firmness along the length of the body was desireable (similar to memory foam today where the pressure along the entire body is equalized) and that this even firmness came from a passive body impression working with an active spring (which didn't have to conform quite as much because the body impression had already done some of the equalizing). I'd love to hear some feedback on this. How desireable was a body impression in these mattresses? Do you think that there is still some validity in this idea today for someone who isn't sure what else to do or is this just a "relic" of old thinking? Phoenix This message was modified Oct 13, 2010 by Phoenix
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Just to add to your comment, I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the different foam manufacturers sites and they are clearly making great strides in their polyfoams. There are quite a few who are claiming that their polyfoam is superior to Latex http://www2.basf.us/urethanechemicals/Specialty_Systems/fb_pluralux.html Energia from Foamex is making similar claims (which they also did with resilitex which has been discontinued) as are many others. Part of the problem I believe is that the newer and better polyfoams are not "real world" tested in terms of how long they really do last and keep their qualities. Resilitex was supposed to be amazing but then apparently the complaints started rolling in. There could be other reasons that I don't know about why they discontinued making it. What is clear to me from the research I've done is that for now, I don't trust them as much as latex ... at least in the upper layers. And the fire regulations in my opinion are a joke. They enact laws to "keep people safe" and protect them from themselves yet at the same time who knows how many health problems have been caused with the toxicity of some of the solutions .... not to mention the money they have cost consumers and the (mis)direction it led the mattress industry. Phoenix |
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obviously as with everything there are varying degrees of quality to all types of materials. There are 'bad' poly foam's and 'good' polyfoams. Personally I would be weary of any claim that a plastic based material will be as durable as something rubber based. Ask a chemist what he thinks and you will get a straight answer on that, ask a poly foam manufacturer and you get marketing. As we have seen with polyfoam, although there are likely many factors the durability is almost directly proportionate to density. And even the highest density polyfoams (7lb Tempur foam and 8lb Venus foam) do get tremendously softer with use. As Phoenix pointed out, we had the resilitex stuff from foamex a while ago. I remember when that stuff came out and I was told by sales reps from Serta at the time that the stuff was like latex on steroids. I would like to ask them directly how that all worked out for them. Probably better for them then the consumer since they sold a lot of it and now no longer make the stuff. In the end it was not really dramatically different from any other polyurethane foam available in the past. Jim: Good question about what our customers experience. I can actually say whole heartedly that on Tempur beds in general people are much happier than on a typical mattress....but....yeah we have had people with legitimate back problems or even pressure relief issues find a good dunlop latex mattress with a healthy layer of wool to be better. 100% of our customers that ever brought back a Tempur on a comfort exchange went for a latex mattress of some variety or another and all have since been happy, two thirds of that crowd now own a Green Sleep mattress. All told though, way less problems with that product than say a typical pillowtop mattresses which we have seen break down excessively within as little as 3 months. |