New mattresses all junk?
Feb 12, 2010 10:38 AM
Joined: Feb 12, 2010
Points: 1
Hello everyone first post here.

Oviously I (we) are having issues with our mattress(s) over the last year and  through which time we have gone through 4 different mattresses. The first was a serta "whispersleep" or some other stupid name but there was something about whisper. Secondly we had a Steans and Foster mattress(the name escapes me). The third mattress was  sealy base model. The most recent purchased about 6 weeks ago is a Kingsdown.

All these mattresses had the same problem. After only a few weeks of use the foam on top of the mattress had body impressions and it literally felt like your body is "bottomed out" in the bed. Once this "foam" was imprinted from only a few weeks of use the bed(s) were extremely uncomfortable - the Kingsdown is by far the worst of the 4.

My girlfriend and I both had 10+ year old flipable mattresses previous to deciding to "upgrade". We havent slept comfortably for over a year and on many occasions have reverted back to sleeping on my old mattress.

Are there any manufacturers that still make a good ole' flipable mattress without any memory foam or latex or whatever other crap they are putting in mattresses these days?

Honestly I think beds have been going up in price and going down in quality.

We are both exhausted with this whole situation, any ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated.

We are going today to notify the seller that we will be needing a different bed than the one we have(still within the sleep guarantee on the Kingsdown) but we have lost hope as to finding a bed thats going to last.

Please help.

This message was modified Feb 12, 2010 by websy
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #1 Feb 12, 2010 11:42 AM
Joined: Oct 15, 2009
Points: 966
Most mattresses now a days use cheap foam that does not provide enough support or last very long.  Latex is probably the best foam because it is denser and will last longer.  So, you may want to consider an all latex bed.  Beyond that, there are some small makers up high end (and expensive) beds that don't use cheap foams.  Royal-pedic is an example. 

You are right, they don't make them like they use too. 

If you go back and read old posts on here, you will see a lot of discussion about this issue.

Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #2 Feb 12, 2010 8:34 PM
Joined: Jan 9, 2010
Points: 128
I have been checking out Hastens and finally found a price! Yep, this is the Queen's mattress alright. All $59,000. Even the ads with floating naked ladies are over the top.
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #3 Feb 12, 2010 8:44 PM
Location: L.A. area
Joined: Jan 18, 2008
Points: 1161
My wife and I went through the same thing. We tried a Sealy, hated it. Tried a Spring Air, hated that. Finally bought the cheaper, firmer Sealy at CostCo because at least it was cheap. But that only worked sorta kinda, for about a year and then we had back aches.

So we cut 'em open, took out the old foam and put in our own higher quality foam. (I recommend replacing the foam inside with latex.)

I highly recommend you do this - some think it "too radical" but I can tell you it works. My wife has been sleeping on her "operated on" mattress well for a year or more with only a few changes here and there when needed. Admittedly I have been less successful with mine, but still better than any mattress I have bought. (My 3 car accidents make it hard for me to find complete satisfaction in any mattress but my DIY'er has been better than any we bought.)

Basically when you open up your mattress, there are a few layers of foam inside. That's all. Nothing complex. Nothing mysterious. Just some layers of foam on top of springs. There are some higher quality mattresses that may have some cotton batting or dacron or something inside but all 3 I have opened up have had nothing but foam inside.

So you use a knife to cut around the top edge, take off that top tufted piece - which is also full of lousy foam - and put in about 2 or 3 one-inch layers of latex in its place. The latex may cost you anywhere between $240-300 for a Queen size if you buy two 1" layers of latex.

The beauty of this is that you can ADJUST your mattress as you want and if it doesn't work, okay you may be out a $100 for a layer of latex but you can probably get it right with only one or two changes of layers.

Also, if you buy the very cheapest model of mattress the store has, in an ULTRA firm (because the less firm it is the more crappy foam it has, so you want the firmest you can get which is also the cheapest), you can save some money - get the difference returned to you in cash or maybe a nice wool mattress cover or a latex pillow or something like that...

See this thread:
http://www.whatsthebest-mattress.com/forum/mattress-surgery-performing-foam-ectomy-my-englander-mattress-w-photos/6161-A-1.html
Make sure you click ALL to see each post including links to other surgeons' projects.
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #4 Feb 12, 2010 11:20 PM
Joined: May 3, 2008
Points: 827
Better yet use the feature at the top "Highlighted Threads" to see mattress surgeries and pictures of some mattresses.
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #5 Feb 13, 2010 7:00 PM
Joined: Jan 9, 2010
Points: 128
I have mattress people looking at this site today so I am going to bump post up....
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #6 Feb 14, 2010 10:30 PM
Joined: Feb 14, 2010
Points: 7
We bought twin & full size mattresses for our kids a year ago from Savvy Rest bcse we didn't want them to breathe in all the chemicals that are in standard mattresses.   Plus, most standard mattresses last only about 5-7 years.  They end up in landfills, etc. 

Besides being eco friendly you one can replace just the biodegradable layers (1, 2, or 3 of them) and keep the organic cotton/organic wool cover, which repels bed bugs (plus bed bugs don't like to live in natural latex), and wool is naturally flame retardant.   On the occasional nights that we ended up sleeping with the kids, the mattresses felt nice on our backs but we were also happy with the Sleep Number we had for several years.  However, the Sleep Number started failing us too....it felt like we were laying on a hill.  Luckily, we were able to sell it on craigslist and got more money than we thought we would for the used mattress.

Now, we are looking for a mattress for us.  We have been looking at FloBeds, Sleep EZ, Savvy Rest, etc.  We want to go for the Dunlap latex because it is more durable, less bouncy, and made with more eco friendly process than Talalay.  But I have been doing some digging into the suppliers that Sleep EZ & Savvy Rest are using and I was really let down/surprised at the Latex Green that supplies to Sleep EZ.  http://www.latexgreen.com/fr.html   that the cores are flame retardant & check out the picture at the bottom of the process link that shows many beakers full of chemicals that are apparently used in this '100% natural' product.  I am really disappointed because we were all for saving $500 on the king. 

I am trying to dig up more info on the Cocolatex supplier that Savvy Rest uses, I see the chemical analysis report that is posted on Savvy Rest but I want to learn more directly from Coco-latex.

The mattresses that we got the kids seem great but we are nervous about getting an expensive mattress for us that may start causing us back aches in a couple years.  After all, we weigh a heck of a lot more than our kids.  But I guess it is nice to know you can buy replacement layers too.  I think Savvy Rest replacement layers are at $75-100 where Sleep EZ is quite a bit more.

I would really love to find someone in the industry who is fully aware of the processes used by these companies and really shed light on how natural and to what degree these are natural.  I am not after 100% dunlap process, but degree of the natural and full disclosure of chemicals used and what chemicals are left in the end product.

This really frustrates me.  Where is the full disclosure.  I want to be able to compare apples to apples!!!!!
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #7 Feb 15, 2010 2:58 PM
Location: L.A. area
Joined: Jan 18, 2008
Points: 1161
katarina2000 wrote:
We bought twin & full size mattresses for our kids a year ago from Savvy Rest bcse we didn't want them to breathe in all the chemicals that are in standard mattresses.   Plus, most standard mattresses last only about 5-7 years.  They end up in landfills, etc. 

Besides being eco friendly you one can replace just the biodegradable layers (1, 2, or 3 of them) and keep the organic cotton/organic wool cover, which repels bed bugs (plus bed bugs don't like to live in natural latex), and wool is naturally flame retardant.   On the occasional nights that we ended up sleeping with the kids, the mattresses felt nice on our backs but we were also happy with the Sleep Number we had for several years.  However, the Sleep Number started failing us too....it felt like we were laying on a hill.  Luckily, we were able to sell it on craigslist and got more money than we thought we would for the used mattress.

Now, we are looking for a mattress for us.  We have been looking at FloBeds, Sleep EZ, Savvy Rest, etc.  We want to go for the Dunlap latex because it is more durable, less bouncy, and made with more eco friendly process than Talalay.  But I have been doing some digging into the suppliers that Sleep EZ & Savvy Rest are using and I was really let down/surprised at the Latex Green that supplies to Sleep EZ.  http://www.latexgreen.com/fr.html   that the cores are flame retardant & check out the picture at the bottom of the process link that shows many beakers full of chemicals that are apparently used in this '100% natural' product.  I am really disappointed because we were all for saving $500 on the king. 

I am trying to dig up more info on the Cocolatex supplier that Savvy Rest uses, I see the chemical analysis report that is posted on Savvy Rest but I want to learn more directly from Coco-latex.

The mattresses that we got the kids seem great but we are nervous about getting an expensive mattress for us that may start causing us back aches in a couple years.  After all, we weigh a heck of a lot more than our kids.  But I guess it is nice to know you can buy replacement layers too.  I think Savvy Rest replacement layers are at $75-100 where Sleep EZ is quite a bit more.

I would really love to find someone in the industry who is fully aware of the processes used by these companies and really shed light on how natural and to what degree these are natural.  I am not after 100% dunlap process, but degree of the natural and full disclosure of chemicals used and what chemicals are left in the end product.

This really frustrates me.  Where is the full disclosure.  I want to be able to compare apples to apples!!!!!

Did you look at Latex International's web site? Also, if you really want to know I would consider calling them. Do they even make "100% natural" latex? Not really sure. But in any case, I would find the company who does make the latex, if you can, and call them personally if I were you.
Full disclosure?? IN the mattress industry?! You must be dreaming... Flobeds, SleepEZ et. al. latex mattress sellers do a good job of describing the materials of their mattresses. But you're right, I"ve always wondered myself what is left over in the latex - even "natural latex" - from the processing.
Re: New mattresses all junk?
Reply #8 Feb 15, 2010 3:09 PM
Joined: May 3, 2008
Points: 827
Latex International SAYS they rinse out the chemicals in the final stages.  Also I read the layers do not have the fire retardants in it.  It is ONLY mattresses sold that have these chemicals added.  That is what I found out.

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