Mattress Forum

Dissecting my Sealy Fenway mattress bought at CostCo 4 years ago: Lousy soft foam inside!
Feb 2, 2008 4:12 PM
jimsocal
Location: L.A. area
Joined: Jan 18, 2008
Points: 1161
This mattress was bought at CostCo 4 years ago. Over a year ago it started to give my wife and I back problems but we had been in an accident and did not realize it was the MATTRESS that was at least half or more of the problem - we thought it was just because of the accident. The accident did indeed cause us problems - especially me - but it became clear over the past few months that this mattress (actually 2 twins that we put side by side) was the problem.

So... Today we decided to open up the mattress and see what was inside, and then go down to the foam store where I found out I can buy 1" of HR foam  (high resiliency - a very high quality) for $24 in the twin size.

So we opened up the mattress on the top seams on 3 sides with an exacto knife.
This turned out to be incredibly easy, we just put the knife along the seams - which are held together with a piece of cloth tubing about 1/4" in diameter. So we just ran the knife along the cloth tubing where the top seam is. Once we cut about 6" of this tubing that covers the seam off, we could then grab hold of it and just pull, tearing it off all along the edges of the bed. We did have to use the knife to get the tubing off in a couple areas, but for the most part, it just pulled right off very easily and cleanly.

We just tore off the seam /tubing on 3 edges leaving the long edge of one side of the mattress attached so we could open it up like a flap on a box, to get the foam out (and later put new foam in).

So when we got the seam cut so we could open up the top and see inside the mattress, we were really shocked. We didn't expect it to be made very well, but we didn't think it would be as crappily made as it was, either.

We saw 4 layers of foam on top of the springs, about 3 and 3/4" of the crappiest, cheapest, softest foam you could imagine. Not one firm layer, not even over the springs.

Over the springs - which are held together on top with a kind of "chicken wire" - wire divided into small squares - was about a 1/4" layer of memory foam - yes ONE QUARTER inch of memory foam! Why they would put memory foam on the bottom I have no idea. Seems to me that is where you want something firm.

Over that there were 2 layers of 1" foam, just cheap polyurethane foam, not even hd, just cheap crappy VERY SOFT cheap foam.

Then on the top layer there is a 1 and 1/2" piece of convoluted memory foam, of medium quality - the type you could probably buy on sale as a topper for maybe $20-35.

And that's it!

No wonder our backs have been killing us! Absolutely NO support at all over the springs, just 3 and 3/4" of the worst, softest foams.

Check out my slide show, here of how we cut it apart and what we found inside: (takes about 60 seconds to see the whole group of slides. You need Flash to view it. Most computers do have Flash installed these days. If not, it's free to get and install.)

http://img134.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img134/1785/1201983161pn8.smil
(this link requires that your computer have Flash.)
Let me know if you do have flash but it doesn't work. (I wanted to put it up on a page somewhere as just a page of photos but couldn't find an easy place to do that. Anyone know where I could do that, where I could link to just the 8 or so photos and they'd be avalable to the public via this thread, for all time?)

So, the plan was to go buy a layer of 1" HR FIRM or VERY FIRM foam to put over the top of the springs (now I'm wondering: do we need 1" or would half an inch be enough, and should it be VERY firm or just FIRM?), but we called before we left just to make sure they were indeed open on Saturday as they said they would be, but they were closed at 10:30am when we called. (This is a warehouse, not a store, so selling foam to me for my mattress is just something they do on the side, not something they stay open for.) 

So we were forced to improvise until Monday or Tuesday when we can get down there to buy the foam.

So, we really had nothing but super soft foam to work with - even the other foam we have is all soft memory foam in 2" and 3" layers, and then we have 2 x 3/4" layers of soft latex, but even that is harder than any of the foam they had inside the Sealy!

So what I did was I cut up a big cardboard box and used a layer of firm thick cardboard over the springs. Then I put one layer of the 3/4" latex over the cardboard, and the 1/4" layer of memory foam over that.

It actually felt like it was giving me enough support and that I wouldn't feel the springs. I'm doubtful it will feel great, but how much worse could it feel than all that soft cheap foam?

If it really kills me I'll try putting the other layer of 3/4 latex on top of everything else.

Note that this is just for the weekend or until Monday or Tuesday when we can get the layer of HR foam to put over the springs instead of the cardboard. And we'll also be buying various cut pieces of HR foam in 1" thicknesses that we can use for zoning and layering in a component style.

See my other thread in which I give my plan for building up this mattress.

The only other comment I have to give, here, is that even the springs seem very shoddy. They are not damaged, they are all in place. But they just seem very weak and soft, not what I really want to be sleeping on. But since we have them, we may as well see how they feel with various densities of good foam and latex on top.
This message was modified Feb 2, 2008 by jimsocal
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