For people who buy expensive ($1500+) latex etc mattresses; have you tried cheaper foam mattresses ?

[MrPointy]

Such expensive mattresses seem overkill to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

Have you guys tried less expensive foam mattresses, eg the Otis Haley 110 which uses 1.8 density foam:

http://www.csnfutons.com/Haley-110-8%22-Futon-Mattress-OD1054.html

or the Otis Liberty which uses 2.5 density foam:

http://www.csnfutons.com/Otis-Bed-Liberty-8-Futon-Mattress-OD1047.html

or say the wolf latex ultima:

http://www.futons-store.com/p/wolf-8-inch-latex-ultima-chair-futon-mattress

They are sub $500 mattresses, and even if they last 5 years, you should come out ahead of the $2000 mattresses in the long run.

So, are these mattresses not good ?

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

1) Of the links you posted that are available in king, they're not sub-$500. It would cost me $700 for a mattress that I've never laid on, nor can I adjust the firmness.
2) If I don't like it, what does it cost me? Not only does it cost shipping back, but if you read the return policy, they'll deduct their outbound shipping charges from your refund.
3) There are no statistics provided giving me with an objective method for comparing the firmness level against other mattresses.
4) No detail warranty data is available. What do I pay if it doesn't last the five years with comfortable sleep (especially since it looks like they are made of cheap materials)?
5) There are no reviews available.

I could go on. I'm not really seeing the upside of these.

 

[MrPointy]

Woa, the Kings are really expensive.

I believe these mattresses are sold in some B&M stores also, so they can be checked out beforehand.

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

There still isn't enough data available to make it worth $700. I don't see spending the $2300 I spent as a ridiculous price considering I spend 1/3 of my life on it. You, hopefully, spend far less time in your car. Do you consider $1500+ a ridiculous price for a car?

 

[MrPointy]

DuLL_ExIsTeNz wrote:
There still isn't enough data available to make it worth $700. I don't see spending the $2300 I spent as a ridiculous price considering I spend 1/3 of my life on it. You, hopefully, spend far less time in your car. Do you consider $1500+ a ridiculous price for a car?

I dont view $2000-3000 as ridiculous if it gives appropriate benefits; its just that I'm seeing on this forum that people have bough expensive beds but the beds performance diminishes fairly quickly; and people shop for a new bed in 7 years again.

What I want to know if people have CONSIDERED these less expensive mattresses. Apply the same criteria as that for the expensive mattresses.
Comfort must be checked out in person at a store; so that only leaves longevity.
And here the available data seems to point to the sealy etc mattresses having not so great a life.

I'll my own experience to enlarge the dataset

. I slept on Wolf coil futon mattress (blind buy) for a few years; it was very comfortable and the coils were still functioning great at the 7 year mark. The padding had not flattened out either.

I used the bed just for myself

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

There are always going to be people that run into a situation of a poor (and expensive) choice. I've reviewed quite a bit of the information regarding latex mattresses specifically on this site, and I can't say that I've seen a lot of cases where the mattress performance is diminishing quickly. Do you have specific examples? I'm curious as to the brands mentioned.

I can speak for others, but I certainly tried mattresses in virtually all price ranges, as well as many mattress types. The cheapest, for a king, was ~$450, and the most expensive was ~$12000. I probably laid on 75 mattresses total before deciding that latex felt the best. After laying on quite a few latex mattresses, I made a compromise on price vs quality and warranty. I certainly did subjective and objective comparisons between all mattresses I tried before making my decision.

I'm glad you had good luck with your mattress. The biggest problem I ran into when searching for a mattress was finding one that both my girlfriend liked. Hence why I ended up going with the latex adjustable layers. We probably could've settled on the Select Comfort mattresses, but my girlfriend wasn't thrilled about the feel and I wasn't thrilled about the warranty.

 

[MrPointy]

DuLL_ExIsTeNz wrote:
both my girlfriend liked.

If you just missed an "s" then may I just say

I dont have specific examples, but thats just the impression I got (for boxspring mattresses). Havent read bad things about latex ones.

Regarding the mattresses you tried out, did you feel you would have had back pain or uneasy sleep with the cheaper mattresses ?

 

[Jazzsinger777]

Hey Dull,

It is 6 am and I tossed and turned all night.

I am considering buying a mattress via mail ... possibly through SleepEZ or Foam Distributing as it is much more affordable.

Where did you get your mattress and how is it set up?

Thanks.

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

LOL. Oops. I edited that a few times while writing it and must've missed the 'me' part of it.

With the cheaper innerspring mattresses, I ran into the problem of non-uniform pressure relief. With the cheaper foam mattresses, I noticed the same. I also noticed that they were usually either way too firm or way too soft. Does this mean that all cheaper mattresses will have these characteristics? No, but it's just what I experienced with the ones I tried. I didn't actually sleep on them, but I can usually tell after 5-15 minutes whether they're providing the support I need and whether the firmness is what I like.

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

Jazzsinger777 wrote:
Hey Dull,

It is 6 am and I tossed and turned all night.

I am considering buying a mattress via mail ... possibly through SleepEZ or Foam Distributing as it is much more affordable.

Where did you get your mattress and how is it set up?

Thanks.

I haven't heard of or looked into Foam Distributing. However, I did speak with SleepEZ on the phone and based upon that, and from what I've read on this forum, they seem like an excellent company. However, after a call to Flobeds (flobeds.com), I ended up going with them. A couple of things convinced me to go with Flobeds:

1) The warranty is slightly different. SleepEZ's warranty is 7 years of non-prorated and 8 years of prorated. Flobeds is 10 non-prorated, 50% coverage for 11-15 years, and 25% coverage for 15-20 years.
2) According to a call to SleepEZ, the core exchange would cost me about $30 for the first one and shipping both ways for every core thereafter. With Flobeds, it costs $20 per half core and $35 for an entire layer each exchange. They provide prepaid shipping labels that you can purchase from them, so it's a fixed cost. With SleepEZ, the shipping both ways is whatever UPS, etc would charge for the shipping.

There were also a couple other minor things, such as that Flobeds has never had a Better Business Bureau complaint for about 7 years or so. That's impressive in itself. One of the concerns I had with Flobeds was the convoluted latex topper that's on all of their mattresses is very soft. I laid on a mattress that had 1.5" of convoluted latex and 1.5" of convoluted poly foam for a topper and I absolutely hated it. However, they stated that if I couldn't stand the topper, they would allow me to replace it with a 2" layer of latex that I could specify.

My mattress is the Flobeds Posture Deluxe with layers of firm, xtra firm, xtra firm. One thing to keep in mind when comparing Flobed's layers and SleepEZ's layer is that they used different terms for different ILDs. A soft with Flobeds is a different ILD range than soft with SleepEZ. My advice is go out to mattress stores around your area and try some latex mattresses. Find some you like and get the statistics on them, such as how thick the topper is, what it's made from, how thick the core is, what ILD rating(s) is has, etc. After doing that, come up with a list of questions you have. Then give SleepEZ and Flobeds a call, get some recommendations and have them answer your questions. When I was shopping for a mattress, I wasn't specifically looking for a latex mattress, it just so happened that latex was the most comfortable to both my girlfriend and I. We laid on everything from $300 innerspring mattresses to $12k custom mattresses. The original latex mattress that we laid on was $3800, so I started doing some research and went from there.

 

[Jazzsinger777]

Hey Dull,

Thanks for the great post. I like what you posted about Flobeds.

I live near Toronto, ON so shipping from the USA and the exchange add another complication to the price.

I too wasn't looking for a latex mattress but ended up there as it was the best solution for my wife and myself.

Cheers.

 

[DuLL_ExIsTeNz]

No problem. I certainly would keep your options open and then give a call to all the companies you're interested in. I was impressed with the customer service of both SleepEZ and Flobeds. They seem like companies that are willing to go beyond what the average company would to make the customer happy.

The most important part is to do your research and come with a way to objectively and subjectively compare the mattresses and companies before you buy (it seems like you're doing just that). I've heard of far too many people that don't weigh the options before purchasing. The mattress research and evaluation process lasted about 2 months for me before I made the decision to go with Flobeds. Best of luck to you. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

 

[Jcocker]

I have looked for 8 years. Went to floBeds, sense I'm 21/2 hours away! I had been to Sleep Ez also. BBB made my choice! Been to the store in Southern Cal. to. I went for the kit instead! One can turn their 2 inch Cfoam topper over also!
If over kill, go IKEA!

 

[Jazzsinger777]

Dull and all,

Great points all of you.

I will be going to a local foam dealer/manufacturer in the Toronto area. They have a warehouse just in the north end of the city ... any one wants to check them out ... look at www.foamite.com

They have a Soy based product which has 60% less chemicals than the Lux-HQ and as high ILD ratings but it is quite a bit more ...

Hard to beat the prices from USA although with the CDA dollar taking a beating it might be similar.

 

[Lynn2006]

I went with FloBeds.com since clients of mine have a latex bed from them and they love the bed and loved how easy it was to exchange their split layers and they actually loved the soft topper. I also needed a bed without chemicals since I had become allergic to the chemicals placed in conventional spring mattresses and in their Polyurethane foam.
I love my pine slat bed frame and the fact they sent me two sets of legs to try out and then allowed me to exchange the legs for the tallest 10 legs so I can store things under my bed. I love how they overnighted the headboard brackets for me when I told them my Wesley Allen Headboard was arriving the next day. I love how Dave kept searching for a topper for me when I told him due to my not quite 5 feet body frame, I wanted a thinner soft topper. loved how they allowed so many exchanges and when they heard about my car accident and now my bed required even a firmer bed, they extended the latex core exchange time period for me. I love how they sliced a latex pillow for me to make it thinner for me. Their customer service aims to please and I really feel they care about each customer being happy and comfortable. Also I love their new zipped up cover that is soft and has latex protection inside it so the zipper will not get caught. No company is perfect but I liked how Dave took the time out to talk to me about my needs and never pressured me into buying a bed from him. I liked how he quickly credited my credit card twice during the 90 days when the bed I bought went on sale. I just wish their latex core combination helping you choose program on their site will ask you more questions and make the bed firmer even for little people if questions are answered a certain way so their is less latex core exchanges. For me, I just like very firm beds despite most people my size liking a bed softer. But I am learning that too firm is uncomfortable also. I never slept with a soft topper until I got a FloBed and I find as a side sleeper, a soft topper is what I needed.