Recommendations on a new mattress?

[9tubes]

Anyone purchased a new mattress recently? Mattress stores must qualify as the worst shopping experience in America today. It's interesting to me to see all the online brands -- fascinating from a business model point of view, but bewildering from a purchasing POV.

I welcome any advice from the vSalon hivemind. Leaning towards the Leesa hybrid.

[spopepro]

We were an early Leesa customer and it was a good mattress. We moved, needed a different sized bed, and recently got an Avocado because of natural traceable materials and location of manufacture. It's a really good mattress.

But... unless you need something in particular... it's just a mattress. It's more or less a perfect competitive market.

[NorTX-Dave]

Sleep Number air mattress. Hands down best mattress I've ever used.

[Bob Ross]

Sleep Number air mattress. Hands down best mattress I've ever used.

Every time I see their commercials on TV I think "that is an awesome ad pitch; how can anyone not want to buy that mattress?"

...and then I remember: My wife and I bought one ~8 or 9 years ago. And I was supremely disappointed in the quality of fabrication -- it seemed commensurate with something that would come out of the bargain basement in a Walmart rather than a premium product -- and my wife hated the way it felt regardless of what "Sleep Number" she had her side set to. We sent it back after three weeks.

I forget what we replaced it with, but whatever it is we both hate it now, so I'm curious to see some of the other recommendations in this thread. Last time I had a mattress I enjoyed sleeping on it was a Sealy (not the Posturepedic, some other model) and that was 20 years ago, so...

[j44ke]

We bought a Sonno MGV mattress from Design Within Reach (dwr.com). Two mattresses, each with a soft side and a firm side, then a semi-structured cover with topper that fits over the two and holds them snugly together. No perceptible division in the bed. However, it allows me to sleep on a soft mattress while my wife sleeps on a firm mattress. Both densities are very supportive. Breathes very well. Platform bed compatible. Doesn't use a box spring. Ships rolled up and compressed.

[Too Tall]

You will really hate me. 20+ years ago I got a hybrid wool/latex futon. Spartan is a word.

We are in the same boat, it is "that time" and all these freakin' ads. Eeeesh.

[Mabouya]

Whatever you get, be sure it doesn't use fiberglass as part of the flammability protection system.

I've never had that problem myself, but someone here (or maybe it was ATH) did have an issue and it turned into a massive pita.

[false_aesthetic]

I purchased a Bear mattress this past summer. I forget the model but it's advertised as one for athletes because it keeps you cooler at night (compared to other memory foams). So far it lives up to the expectations ... at least it's cooler than the tempurpedic I've tried.

I'd buy it again. Mostly because now my fiancee can't blame me for waking her up at night. Thank god, now we can focus on getting rid of the spirits and homunculi. #facepalm .

Seriously though, when we need to replace the spare mattress, I'll buy another Bear.

[9tubes]

We were an early Leesa customer and it was a good mattress. We moved, needed a different sized bed, and recently got an Avocado because of natural traceable materials and location of manufacture. It's a really good mattress.

But... unless you need something in particular... it's just a mattress. It's more or less a perfect competitive market.

Is the Avocado mattress warm/cool? I suppose you don't get many hot nights where you live by the coast. In Seattle it's cool enough that we have old houses that were built without air conditioning, and usually a few hot sticky weeks in the summer.

[bcm119]

If the OP were here in the Bay area, I'd highly recommend European Sleepworks. They use sustainable non-toxic materials and manufacture locally, and they tune your mattress to your taste. If you have something like that in Seattle, go for it. Not cheap, but worth it to avoid the used-car-like sales experience and mystery materials. There's gotta be a fancy sustainable mattress place in Seattle.

[htwoopup]

This may sound really odd...my daughter suggested it a few years ago and now I will only consider them when buying a new one (I live in a few places so I own a few too many mattresses)...Ikea. The one I get is the Morgedal. It is foam. It is reasonably priced (actually very reasonably) and since I have been buying them I have never replaced one. Love them. Never found the need to get a “better” one. They are firm in case that is not to your liking but even folks coming from a pillow top fancy mattress that have stayed over in one of our bedrooms have commented/ asked what kind they were.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/morgeda...gray-30277389/

[spopepro]

Is the Avocado mattress warm/cool? I suppose you don't get many hot nights where you live by the coast. In Seattle it's cool enough that we have old houses that were built without air conditioning, and usually a few hot sticky weeks in the summer.

Our 1947 house with no insulation is basically outdoor temp unless we run our woefully inefficient gravity wall furnace. Fortunately, right by the ocean is is 53 degrees. Basically all the time.

I feel like the mattress is pretty neutral. We use flannel sheets in winter and percale sheets in the one month it gets kinda hot. It is satisfactorily warm/cool respectively.

[EDS]

Purchased a tuft and needle hybrid mattress this summer and have been happy with it. On the firmer side, which took some getting use to coming from a softer pillow-top style mattress, though we have a platform bed with no box spring. I love the fact that the mattress and bed make zero noise and that I could do squat jumps on myside of the bed all night and it would not transmit any motion to my wife on the other side of the bed.

[NorTX-Dave]

Every time I see their commercials on TV I think "that is an awesome ad pitch; how can anyone not want to buy that mattress?"

...and then I remember: My wife and I bought one ~8 or 9 years ago. And I was supremely disappointed in the quality of fabrication -- it seemed commensurate with something that would come out of the bargain basement in a Walmart rather than a premium product -- and my wife hated the way it felt regardless of what "Sleep Number" she had her side set to. We sent it back after three weeks.

I forget what we replaced it with, but whatever it is we both hate it now, so I'm curious to see some of the other recommendations in this thread. Last time I had a mattress I enjoyed sleeping on it was a Sealy (not the Posturepedic, some other model) and that was 20 years ago, so...

My wife has lumbar spine non-surgical non-displaced vertebral fractures resulting from years of riding hunter-jumper horses, and cervical spine degenerating discs that will need to be fixed at some point so she likes the adjustability. We tried water beds and actually returned an Air-Pedic mattress before we settled on a Sleep Number.

[davids]

Buying a mattress almost always sucks. I don't know why this particular industry has been this horrible, but we all know it is.

My wife & I got around the normal bullshit by buying from a local company that makes and markets their own very high-quality mattresses. They are not cheap, but we knew what we were getting. And five and a half years later they're still making the model we bought - the Signature Tufted, extra-firm and flippable - and it's still called the same thing!

Gardner Mattress. Yeah, I know this isn't a great help to someone on the West Coast. But I hope (1) there are options like this close to you and (2) other New Englanders will check out these guys.

[NYCfixie]

For about 10 years my wife and I owned a King Coil which was the 800-Mattress version of the Tempur-Pedic; it was our first foam mattress and we realized we would never go back to a regular mattress again. Unfortunately the box spring did not hold up that well and the foam was good not great so it started to sag.

About a year ago we went to a store and purchased the real thing, a Tempur-Pedic foam mattress without the pillow top nonsense. We also got non-coil foundations. I wanted the "cooling mattress" but my wife thought it would be too cold at night so we skipped it. The new Tempir-Pedic mattress was hard as rock for the first 30 days (which they told us about) but it has been prefect ever since. They now have multiple firmness but we went for the most firm which still has a great deal of give to conform to your body.

My suggestion is go to a store and try them out. We brought our own pillows and tried out a few different models for at least 20 minutes each. And yes, we were the weird people in the store who were almost falling asleep but it also got us exactly what we wanted.

And yes, it cost a fortune when compared to even the best standard style mattress but with so much stress in the world we value our sleep so it was worth the investment.

[9tubes]

Buying a mattress almost always sucks. I don't know why this particular industry has been this horrible, but we all know it is.

It reminds me of bike saddles: a zillion options, constantly changed**, and no effective way to determine which will work other than putting in a couple of hundred miles.



** I have two Fizik Kurve saddles BNIB as spares.

[9tubes]

We were an early Leesa customer and it was a good mattress. We moved, needed a different sized bed, and recently got an Avocado because of natural traceable materials and location of manufacture. It's a really good mattress.

Which model did you get? Did you add the topper, and which one (regular or plush)? Comments / thoughts?

[spopepro]

Which model did you get? Did you add the topper, and which one (regular or plush)? Comments / thoughts?

The leesa was the original, I don’t think they made another version at the time. The avocado is the green hybrid with the pillow top. The leesa was good, but kind of just another mattress. The avocado felt expensive, but the fit and finish definitely show. Neither of us are super picky about mattresses, but it does always feel good to come back to it after travel. Not that there’s been much of that lately.

Oh, and if you go avocado, def get it really close to in place before letting it expand. And have a friend or two. It’s heavy!

[echappist]

Whatever you get, be sure it doesn't use fiberglass as part of the flammability protection system.

I've never had that problem myself, but someone here (or maybe it was ATH) did have an issue and it turned into a massive pita.

That was an eye-openers. I think it may especially be pertinent to foam mattresses.