Mattress Forum

Thanks for the wonderful insight so far, I feel really welcome.

Comfort is a very subjective thing. If you do take the time to poke through the posts you'll find that people get very passionate about what they like--or don't like. You personally have to take the time to shop around and discover what suits you best. No one else can do that for you. The three main type of mattresses are innerspring, latex and memory foam. You seem to like your parents memory foam bed so that's the best place to start.

There are pros and cons to visco and Tempurpedic is not the only memory foam mattress out there, and not necessarily the best either (you should test out a Sensus), but you should be aware that some visco mattresses are pure crap, so do the research and make an informed decision-- which goes for whatever kind of mattress you buy. And always buy from a reputable merchant who allows returns or exchanges without any kind of restocking fee if it just doesn't work out for you after sleeping on it a few weeks.

I love my FloBed Talalay 3 layer latex beds over my Pine Slat Box with 10 inch legs but with a 1" topper rather than the 2" topper the bed came with due to my petitie height and back injury so I prefer very firm beds.  But I also know others that have other brands with Dunlap Latex that are very happy and rave about their beds which you will find out by reading the posts when you have a little more time.

My friend loves her Kingsdown bed and thinks it is the best and can sleep on latex but prefers a conventional mattress.

Good luck in your search and after doing a little more research on this site, please post any other questions that you may have so we can be of help.  If you need help doing a search, please ask.

I did a little research around the forums as suggested, as well as some research around the internet.  I also went shopping (twice) for a mattress type I felt was most comfortable at sleepy's and better bedding.  It came down to either memory foam, or latex, more specifically a sealy full latex, tempur-pedic, or comforpedic.  And although the sealy and comforpedic were indeed quite comfortable, I get this gut feeling I wouldn't like it after sleeping on it because it's simply too comfortable, if that makes sense...  The tempurpedics (rhapsody and deluxe) were nice the way they comformed to my body, but they seemed just a bit too firm, and the tempurature in the summer thing is probably my biggest turn-off.  I already have a hard enough time as it is sleeping in the summer heat.  Also it seems a lot of people think that sealy and simmons are "crap" on this forum and fall apart easy, from what I gather.

I also checked out a few customizing websites including flobeds.com (never realized there was such a thing!) and it seems like the way to go.  I used their "firmness advisor" to select the best bed for me (entered in 5'10", 175 lbs, front sleeper, prefered softer) and it came up with the medium over firm 3 layer build, and a medium over firm 4 layer, and a medium over firm over firm 4 layer build for advice, all which are latex.  I was thinking one of the latter 2, and came up with the following bed:

7inch rigid glide support system for the frame, medium over firm over firm zone organic cotton latex talalay, euro slat foundation.  Will come to a little over $1800 with shipping, which is about $600 less than I was planning on spending.  But I just have a few simple questions, if anyone cares to take the time, for those of you who have shopped at flobed.com as I can't seem to find it on their site:

It says that there's up to 19 different combinations for the mattresses they send you, is that really with things like the 4 layer zone latex?  I can't imagine that medium over firm over firm has many more than..well 3 combos, are there more pieces to it inside?

Also I seriously doubt this would be the case, but I figure it would be worth asking even though I can't find it on their site, if I don't like the mattress when I try it can I send it back or exchange it before a certain period of time?

Is their "firmness advisor" usually pretty accurate?

What does zone-on-point mean?  Can't find the answer to that anywhere on the web or this forum...

Anyway, once again I thank you for all the replies so far, and for any in the future.  And again if you don't feel like taking the time...simply don't...but it would be appreciated ;D

I like very firm beds so to me the firmness adviser advised me on too soft a bed.  But with the exchanges I was able to make the bed firmer like I enjoy sleeping on but having that little bit of cushion with my topper is wonderful since I am a side sleeper and now my pressure points are not hurting and I move around so much less than I used to before having a latex bed.

I think Flobeds means that if you have spit cores (like I have in a Queen size so my bed has 6 latex cores over the pine slat base with a topper over this and the wonderful soft organic cotton wool zipper cover) and if each latex core was a different ILD, you could move the cores around to find so many different latex combinations to get the perfect one for you.  There is a post on the Zone On Point that discusses this type of bed that was posted in the last few days if you want to read that post and ask more questions there.  I chose my bed without this feature so I do not know much about that feature but I worried my bed would be too soft for me if I went that route.

In my opinion, I feel you should have at least three different latex cores to start out with and have the bottom latex core be an extra firm so if the bed is too soft, you could move that to the middle of the bed.  To me the medium is way too soft but then again I like very firm beds.  To me the idea bed for you would be the 2" soft convoluted topper over a firm over an extra firm over a super firm but then again, you did say you like soft beds so maybe this would be too firm for you. Hence, If you are unsure, I would make each side medium over firm over extra firm. This way when you get the bed and if it is just right, you will be in heaven but if it is too soft, you can move the cores around to even have a firm over two extra firms to see if that makes the bed just right and then exchange the softer cores.  Or you may find that by putting the firm core on the bottom and the extra firm core in the middle of the bed with the medium on top makes the bed perfect for you.  Hence, in my opinion, get cores of three different ILD's with no soft core in the equation since the softness is provided by the topper.

There is a 90 day exchange policy meaning you can exchange latex cores as many times as you want during that time and if you still can not get it right, you can return everything before the 90 days are up to get your full money back with no restocking fee.

I do know a couple that one partner sleeps on a medium over a medium on a platform bed while the other sleeps on a firm over an extra firm over their platform bed and there was one exchange since initially one side was extra firm over extra firm. By only having two latex layers, the bed is much firmer since the latex is closer to the slats.  If they have three layers with the topper over it, I would advice a super firm on the bottom of both sides to mimic the slat box or platform bed's firmness.  I prefer three latex cores since I wanted a fatter mattress. Everyone has their preferences.

Hope this helps. Maybe others will reply that have input if they have some time over this weekend. 

Also posting helps me take a break from cleaning my home all day so when visitors come by, I will be proud of my place and not have excuses.  :)