I made my own "Hybrid" mattress. Has anyone else done the same? What works for you?
| I say hybrid because I artfully combined 4 different materials with VERY different properties. Traditional poly foam, egg-crate poly foam, memory foam and wool. After months of trial and error, I found my dream mattress.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Set DIRECTLY on the floor (for extra stability), I made an extra long twin mattress composed of the following: 12" thick poly foam with an IFD of 50 (very firm), topped by 4" of poly foam with an IFD of 35 (moderately firm) covered with 2" of 5.3lb/ft3 Sensus foam with an IFD of 15 (soft) topped off with 2" of egg-crate poly foam with an IFD of 35 (I found that by putting the traditional poly egg-crate OVER the memory foam undid that "squishy" feeling and and gave the mattress a nicely balanced responsiveness. I covered all that with a HEAVY weight (I think it weighs 60 lbs!) wool comforter (which gave it even more textural evenness), sealed it up with a clothed-vinyl mattress cover, added a fitted cotton mattress pad over THAT, added sheets and AHHHHHHHH. My perfect mattress. |
Re: I made my own "Hybrid" mattress. Has anyone else done the same? What works for you?
| Jim is right about latex lasting longer than most, heck ALL foam products, there's just one problem; I HATE LATEX! But if you do go the foam route make sure you get something with a density of 2.8lb/ft3 or greater, light weight stuff wears out FAST! Jim, it's also of note that the thinner a layer of foam, that faster it wears out. (I need a physics major to tell me why) For example, a few years ago I put a 1" slice of HD36-HQ foam from foam distributing.com on my bed; it was totally shot inside of six months! BUT the 4" thick layer of the exact same foam within my mattress seems to be holding up very well after 6 years of use, the 12" thick base layer is ageless and seems brand new. But I take great pains to seal my mattress from the air, oxidation is the main cause of poly foam degradation. |
Re: I made my own "Hybrid" mattress. Has anyone else done the same? What works for you?
| It ma also be notable that none of the foam on my mattress has discolored. The white HD36-HQ is still snow white, the Sensus is still pristine pink and the Lux-HQ is still baby blue. I'm tellin' ya if you can seal up a foam mattress against the atmosphere, it preserves the foam greatly. (Tempurpedic mattresses come with such an air tight cover, I think) |
Re: I made my own "Hybrid" mattress. Has anyone else done the same? What works for you?
| Jim, about sensus not giving support, Of course it CAN'T give support, no memory foam can, only the firm understructure can do that. It's got an IFD of 12, I believe, I just use it to take a bit of the bounce out of all that poly foam. IMO, the less the better 2" is perfect for me 1" might be better for some. I "trialled and errored" an awful lot to find find what works for me. While i suspect that most people would find my bed very comfy, some might be put off by it's firmness. (Remember the sensus is buried under several layers including that monster wool comforter!) lol So anyone looking to imitate me be warned; figuring out exactly what you like isn't so easy! |
Re: I made my own "Hybrid" mattress. Has anyone else done the same? What works for you?
| Has anyone else assembled their own mattress? I'd like to hear your story. |