Mattress Forum

The other day some friends of mine told me that they recently got a new mattress and absolutely love it. They purchased an iComfort Revolution at SleepCountry Canada. This got me thinking about our own 12-14(?) yr old foam mattress, and that it might be time to replace it. It is a "Cloudrest" which I bought from a local foam place; it was a pretty high-end mattress in it's time, and has served us well. It is 8" thick, and sits on a 7" wooden box frame (which is covered in thin foam), and sits in an "Arts& Crafts" (aka "Mission") style solid oak bed frame.

After several hours of research on the internet, my head is spinning. I couldn't believe that there are forums just about mattresses!

Anyway, I am 140 lbs, side & stomach sleeper, and my wife is 115 lbs, and a side & back sleeper (if that means anything). Our bed is a Queen size. I don't think either one of us is a "hot sleeper".

I went to a local SleepCountry Canada and they only carry the Revolution and Insight in the iComfort line. (I guess that was a head-office decision on which ones to carry). The salesman I spoke to (who was very nice) also showed me some other mattresses, but the iComfort seemed to feel the best, although I know that the real acid-test is several nights sleeping on it.

The NovaForm from Costco is very tempting at $549.00 over the $1800 for the Revolution, and I'm really curious to know the "real truth" about the difference(s) in material & construction quality.

I also got excited about the "Keetsa", but it's only available in Toronto, so even though the shipping is free, that would mean buying it sight-unseen, and now I learn that they are made in China and the whole "Green" facade is just a "greenwash".

One thing that I'm wondering about too is: The iC Revolution and the NovaForm are both 12" in depth, and the iC Insight is 9", so if we get the Insight, we can plop it on top of our existing box and still be at about the same height, but if we get one of the 12" deep mattresses, we need to either place it on the box and be 4" higher than we are now, or omit the box and wind-up 3" lower than present. Gah! With a 12" I guess I could also omit the box frame and unscrew, raise & relocate higher the wooden supports on the bed, as an option as well in order to have it be at the present, desired height.

Heat: One real fear I have is the memory foam being much hotter than our old foam mattress in the summer. I suspect that it would be hotter, but how much? I don't have room to store the old foam mattress as a back-up.

Off gassing: This is a very real concern, and should be to everyone. Off gassing of these products is very unhealthy, but won't manifest itself until years later in the form of cancer. Wild statement? No, the VOCs (volitile organic compounds) are known carcinogens. Environment Canada considers them toxins. I'm not sure if the fire-retardant PBDE chemicals are still used in mattress construction or not. Still, not good to be breathing in those chemicals for 8 hours each day.


I just want to make the best bang-for-the-buck choice, and would appreciate any input. Perhaps our existing foamy still has some years left in it; we are able to flip it over and use the other side. *shrug*