Please help w/ natural latex mattress choice (sleeptek vs bella sera vs sleepez)

[4foxes]

I'm looking to switch to a king size 100% natural latex mattress without any chemical additives, flame retardants, etc
I've been researching for weeks but it feels like the more I read the more confusing it gets! There aren't any retailers nearby where I would be able to try out a mattress so I'm going to have to make a decision and cross my fingers that its not a $3k mistake! We are ~175lb people who side/stomach sleep and dont generally like a super soft mattress. I need to keep the price around $2500 or less.
As of now I think I have narrowed the choices down to the following. Any help, reviews, comments, cheaper/better mattress suggestions - anything - that will help me feel confident in this decision would be very much appreciated!

Harmony Organic Latex Mattress - 6 + 2 inch Natural Rubber - by Sleep Tek ($2394) - Free Shipping (Free Sheets and Pillows)
http://www.home-and-bedroom.com/harmony-organic-mattresses-6plus2inch-natural-rubber.html

Suerte natural rubber mattress by Sueno ($2599) - Free Shipping (PLUS 2 free Sueno shredded rubber pillows & Sueno wool comforter)
http://www.thenaturalsleepstore.com/natural_rubber_mattress_suerte.html

Nove 4 Organic Mattress by Bella Sera Organics ($2550) - Free Shipping
http://thenaturalsleepstore.com/nove4.html

SleepEZ All Natural Select Sleep 10,000 ($2300) - Free Shipping
http://www.sleepez.com/natural.htm


Thanks!
Heather

 

[budgy]

I really don't like it when retailers do not check their product information.


The Harmony Organic Mattress from Home and Bedroom does not use Texel wool anymore, Sleeptek now sources all of their wool from Argentina, it is a very high quality wool as well but for the sake of accuracy...it doesn't come from the Netherlands anymore. And the natural rubber they use is not all from north malaysia anymore. They have a couple different suppliers they work with for sourcing this material.
The Suerte natural rubber mattress from the Natural Sleep Store, is also made by SleepTek. It is essentially the same 6+2 mattress with a nicer jersey stretch cotton cover. They list the wool content @ 2 lbs/square yard. (32oz), this is incorrect. That is the amount of wool they used to quilt into the top of the Green Sleep Vimala (which SleepTek no longer makes, and is also the reason they had to change wool and rubber suppliers). The official specs on that mattress from SleepTek is 350 GSM, which converted means 10 oz per square yard.
In any event, for the price difference between these mattresses, the cost of the Jersey stretch knit alone is worth the price difference, and the free rubber pillows and wool comforter are worth about $700 @ retail, far better value than the home and bedrooms pricing right now.
The Nove 4 and SleepEZ mattress are also great value, I don't believe that the quality of the wool and cotton covers being used are even close to the quality product that SleepTek produces, but the good thing with both of these options is the customization options available.

 

[4foxes]

Thank you so much for the information. I was worried about the Suerte mattress because I usually assume that free gifts = worse product, glad to hear its not true in this case! Now to decide between medium and firm...hmm...Its scary to buy something that expensive and you can't return without forking over a 25% restocking fee!

 

[budgy]

4foxes wrote:
Thank you so much for the information. I was worried about the Suerte mattress because I usually assume that free gifts = worse product, glad to hear its not true in this case! Now to decide between medium and firm...hmm...Its scary to buy something that expensive and you can't return without forking over a 25% restocking fee!

The mattress is made with high quality natural dunlop rubber, it will be slightly on the firmer side of the comfort spectrum even in the medium configuration. It is realistically a safer choice unless you know you want a mattress that is quite firm.

 

[4foxes]

Do you think the 6 inch core of medium (32-35 ILD) and 2 inch top layer of soft (22-24 ILD) that makes up the Suerte mattress is more firm than the average person would like? At this point I feel like I can't decide between the
Sueno mattress - better quality, free duvet & pillows but has 3-6wk ship time, only 10 yr warrenty, no returns, exchanges with 25% restock plus cost of new item and ship
Bella Sera - customizable layers, 20 yr warrenty, no returns but can purchase addition layer of soft, med, firm for $180 within 90 days of purchase, ships in 1 week or less

both for the same price and free shipping. It seems that the "safer" choice is the Bella Sera since I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to like but I feel like I'm cheating myself out of better quality and the valuable freebies by not going with Sueno. What to do......

If I go with the Bella Sera do you recommend the
Nove 3 - 3 layers of 3" natural dunlop latex OR
Nove 4 - 3 layers of 2" and 1 layer of 3" natural dunlop latex to equal 9" of natural latex

Are there any good threads on this forum that give guidelines to help choose the right ILD?
Sorry for all the questions - but thank you so much for your help!

 

[budgy]

4foxes wrote:
Do you think the 6 inch core of medium (32-35 ILD) and 2 inch top layer of soft (22-24 ILD) that makes up the Suerte mattress is more firm than the average person would like? At this point I feel like I can't decide between the

Sueno mattress - better quality, free duvet & pillows but has 3-6wk ship time, only 10 yr warrenty, no returns, exchanges with 25% restock plus cost of new item and ship
Bella Sera - customizable layers, 20 yr warrenty, no returns but can purchase addition layer of soft, med, firm for $180 within 90 days of purchase, ships in 1 week or less

both for the same price and free shipping. It seems that the "safer" choice is the Bella Sera since I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to like but I feel like I'm cheating myself out of better quality and the valuable freebies by not going with Sueno. What to do......

If I go with the Bella Sera do you recommend the
Nove 3 - 3 layers of 3" natural dunlop latex OR
Nove 4 - 3 layers of 2" and 1 layer of 3" natural dunlop latex to equal 9" of natural latex

Are there any good threads on this forum that give guidelines to help choose the right ILD?
Sorry for all the questions - but thank you so much for your help!

The Bella Sera likely has a pro-rated warranty. Both are probably 10 years 100% coverage.
It's really hard for me to speak for other people...because what even constitutes average anymore? If you want a softer mattress then you should go with the Bella Sera knowing that if you do not get it firm enough you can change a layer. If you know you like a medium/firm feel than you would be happy with the Suerte. Realistically the Nove 3 should give you plenty of customization being able to change all 3 layers, however I see the price is the same on both. The Nove 4 will give you more flexibility in comfort. I would also recommend if you go with one of these types of mattresses to have the top layer of latex the same firmness and not split. This will help prevent you from feeling any seam whatsoever. Because of this reason the Nove 4 gets another +1 because you will still have 3 other layers underneath to customize firmness. I would probably recommend firm on the bottom, soft on the top....something in the middle underneath like perhaps 2"soft on top of 2"medium. Or all medium. Something fairly neutral like that would give you a great starting point.

 

[robyns]

Hi Heather--my husband and I drove up to the Natural Sleep Store yesterday and tried out Bella Sera, Savvy Rest, and Greensleep mattresses. We were very impressed with the quality as well as the knowledge of the salesperson (and the lack of sales pitch). We are leaning towards the Bella Sera Nove 3. My husband has back problems, is primarily a back sleeper and likes a firmer mattress, and I have neck problems, am mostly a side sleeper and like a slightly softer mattress. We didn't much like the pillow topper, and felt that the extra $800 wasn't worth it--rather get a mattress that has a soft top layer to begin with. Our current mattress is also natural, a Viviteque. It sucks, the quality is bad, and we are more than ready to replace it! We are also looking at iComfort mattresses and Tempurpedics for comparison. The Bella Sera, also being our favorite, is less expensive than either of the memory foam mattresses, not to mention cleaner environmentally too!

The Bella Sera that we tried was soft-med-firm on one side and soft-soft-med on the other. My husband was very happy with the S-M-F side, and I am vacillating betw. the 2. So be sure that you don't go too firm! The firmer mattresses were way too firm for me! I think the warranty on the Bella Sera is very good, esp. since you might only have to replace one layer to make the mattress work for you again. Our Viviteque (much more expensive 10 years ago than the Bella Sera is now) crapped out after about 8 years, so a 20 year warranty sounds great to me, even if it is pro-rated after 10 years. Also, we have a slat bedframe and like that we don't have to do anything different to accommodate the new mattress. The mattress seems to be made with excellent quality, esp. for the price.

Good luck!

Robyn S in Colorado