Mattress Forum

Anyway, a friend of mine recently bought a Sealy Reserve cushion firm.  He did not really like it, and went back to to his old mattress after just a few days.  He could not return the Sealy (he could exchange but once burned...).  So, I made a decision to buy it from him at a discount, return the Flobed, and see if I could make this innerspring work for me.

The Sealy has 782 14 gauge coils (queen) and about 3" of Sealy foam, according to US-mattress.  Current price at US Mattress would be around $800.

Ok, so I got the Sealy and decided to sleep on it as is for a few days to see what it is like.   How was it?  Not very good.  The Sealy foam feels sort of like a stiff memory foam, and as the night went on I sank too deep in the hip area.  So, as we all know, the PU foam is basically not very good.

Plus it was just as warm, or probably warmer, than the all latex Flobed!  So much for innersprings being necessarily cooler.  I think the main variables for heat are the top few inches of padding (foam or whatever) plus whatever you put on top of it. 

Knowing that I could not live with it this way, I pulled out the scapel and cut the top of (originally on just 3 sides, but eventually the whole thing).  This actually pretty easy to do.  It took a total of about 15 minutes to cut the 3 sides and pull the old foam out.

The cover is about 1" thick with the Sealy (PU) foam quilted in.  No easy way to get the foam out.  Below that were 2 pieces of foam.  The top level was about 1.5" thick, convoluted, with about a 2' wide strip of 1/2" memory type foam accross the middle.  This was suppose to be the 3 way pressure relief inlay.  What a joke!  Below that was a 1.5" piece of PU that weighs a total of 5 lbs.  That comes out to a density of 1.2!  Nice quality Sealy.  There are also 3" of firm foam around the edges, so no coils there.  That is probably a money saver for them, but it does not really bother me.

The was a thin layer of what looks like PU packing material over the coils.  I layed directly on this too see how firm the springs feels.  The springs do feel fairly firm and supportive by themselves.  I did not notice any sagging.

Meanwhile, I had orered 2 pieces of 100% natural talalay latex from Rockymountain mattress.  2" of 32 ILD and 1" of 24.  It took about 1 1/2 weeks from order to arrival.  The latex is made by Latex International and seems high quality.  No wierd seems or irregularities.  The was about a 2" tear on one side of the 1" which I need to glue.  I don't think that is totally unusual.  I had a few small tears in the Flobed latex as well. 

To me the 100% natural seems very similiar to the blended.  I am not sure I could tell them apart.   In fact, there is no way to know for sure if this really is 100% natural.  It does smell a little different, more of a sweet smell and less chemical (which is the way Eagle described it as well).  So, I think it is 100% natural.

Okay, in goes the 2" latex on the bottom and the softer 1" piece above.  I folded the Sealy cover back on top and put on the mattess pad, sheets etc.   I decided to lie on it for a while to see how it feels.  Definitely felt more supportive than the old foam - no surprise.  Still I senses a little lack of support.  So, I folded back the Sealy cover, and put the mattress pad, etc. back on.  Ahh, better.   So, I decided to cut the whole top off, since I was pretty sure I did not want that low density (and not cool either) Sealy foam on the mattress at all.

First night sleep was pretty good, but not totally satisfying.  In way fairly similiar to the all latex Flobed, but a bit more "springy" (for lack of better word) which I kind of like  However, firmer in the shoulders do to the lack of the vzone.  I will agree with Jimsocal that if you put enough foam on and innerspring it pretty much feels like an all foam bed - not that is necessarily bad.

Heat issues are not gone!  Too bad, I guess the only way around that is firmer older style innerspring, water bed, or maybe more layers of wool or some other material.

So, I tried adding 1" of 4 lb. mem-cool memory foam (from overstock) to see what that would be like.  The feeling was definitely plusher and softer.  Feels pretty comfortable, but possibly slightly too soft.

I have tried 2 other configurations, putting the soft latex above the memory foam, and moving the soft latex to the bottom, the firmer latex in the middle, and the memory foam on top.  The latter configuration is what I have used the last couple of nights.  Feels pretty supportive, yet soft and cushy.  I have noticed any significant temperature difference with or without the memory foam.

Future changes.  I am planning to cut out a portion of the firm foam (one half only) at the shoulder lever, and try putting in a softer piece of latex (ordered from foamonline).   I am also going to try adding a wool topper to see if that reduces the heat issue and possibly adds some plushness with latex only.

Bottom line?  Hard to say just yet.  I am fairly happy with the current situation, but I would not necessarily better than with the Flobed.  The Flobed is certainly simplier to deal with and you can experiment for 90 days.  The vzone offered good shoulder pressure relief.  The flobed also comes with nice wool zip up cover, which I wouldn'nt mind having.  An easier solution for me would probalby have been to return the convoluted layer of the Flobed, and use memory foam or softer latex or something else on the very top layer.

I was very happy with the quality and service at Flobeds, got the credit refund after about 2 weeks, and would definitely recommmend them to anyone looking for a latex mattress.

Both the springs or 6' of firm latex can provide a good support level.  I was hoping springs would sleep cooler, due to breathing down to the coils, but I am afraid most of the heat issues come from having a few inches of dense foam at the top.

Link to photos.

I will leaver further updates as my situation evolves.  Hopefully others can learn from my experience.