Latex Mattresses - Regional Manufacturers in Central PA?

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Hi there,

I am so thankful that I found this site… My wife and I were extremely close to spending ~$2,200 on a king size Serta icomfort Revolution mattress earlier today. We decided to think about it for 24 hours and I checked online for some reviews after leaving the store and found this site. What luck!

Anyway, after reading through all the great information this site has to offer, I decided that a Latex mattress might be the best choice for us. We have both been experiencing lower back pain over the last few weeks and I believe that it is at least partially due to our five year old spring based mattress. I believe it is a Simmons Beautyrest that has worn out and is not providing the necessary support.

I’m 5’10" around 160 lbs and mostly a side and stomach sleeper and my wife is 5’4" around 125 lbs and mainly a back sleeper. She likes a plush feel, but would just like to get a good restful night’s sleep. Any suggestions for the latex composition that would be best for us?

In addition, we tend to do a decent bit of TV and movie watching before in our bed before going to sleep and were thinking of picking up an adjustable base for the mattress to ensure a better posture while watching the tv. Any suggestions on a good value adjustable base?

Thanks so much for your feedback and wonderful website!

S. Casey

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Hello smcasey,

Thanks for your comments and welcome :slight_smile:

The easiest one first. We also watch movies in bed and so did a lot of research into adjustable bases. We ended up buying a Reverie Deluxe from here http://www.adjustablebeds.org/reverie_deluxe_adjustable_bed_with_wireless_control_and_massage-9981.aspx which have among the best prices that I know of for adjustable bases (unless someone who sells you a mattresses is willing to give you a comparable discount if you buy the whole set from them). Ours was a queen though which is considerably less than a king which can only be purchased in a “split” version so you would be buying two twinXL adjustable bases to make up a king. The advantage to this is that each side can adjust separately if you also have separate mattresses on each side. There are lower cost versions as well without the massage feature.

In terms of a mattress layering … a good place to start as far as the thickness of a comfort layer for a side sleeper is 3", Back sleepers would be about 2" and stomach sleepers need the thinnest comfort layer of all or around 1". The softness/firmness of a comfort layer is usually around 19 - 24 ILD with heavier bodies being firmer and lighter bodies being softer. Lighter bodies can also use thinner comfort layers. The middle and lower layers or support core should be firmer since this is the part that keeps your spine in alignment and prevents your heavier parts from sinking in too far.

There are several directions you could go. One is to find a happy medium in a comfort layer which would probably be in the range of 2". The thinnest/firmest that would provide both you and your wife with acceptable pressure relief (you on your side and her on her back) would be the best to also accommodate your stomach sleeping which should have the thinnest/firmest comfort layer possible. I would pay particular attention if you go this direction that your stomach sleeping position is not “swayback” (your hips sinking in too far) and putting your spine out of alignment.

The second direction that may work even better would be to buy a mattress with a different layering on each side all enclosed with a single zip cover or ticking. They are quite popular these days because it is not uncommon for a couple to have different needs in their mattress construction. Most of the DIY manufacturers offer this including those that are DIY manufacturing members here and they are usually the same cost as mattresses that have the same construction on both sides. They have a zip cover and you place the layers in the cover when it arrives and zip it up.

The best way to accomplish this is to do some field testing locally to determine the best construction and layering for each of you and then “duplicate” it through one of our online DIY manufacturers who ship across the country. If you get it a little “wrong” … then its simply a matter of exchanging a single layer of your mattress for a different firmness which is quite inexpensive rather than the much greater expense of sending back a whole mattress.

The third way of course would be to buy singleXL for each of you that together would be king size but this is generally the most expensive (although you can then adjust each side of an adjustable base separately) and doesn’t go together as snugly as a side to side split construction mattress (where you don’t feel the “split”).

Of course field testing mattresses to find the construction that works best for you is the most accurate way to find out what type of layering works best for each of you so these are general recommedations.

There are more manufacturers in east and west PA but these would be well worth checking out if they are close enough to you …

http://www.carlislesleep.com/our_stores.htm
http://www.lemoynesleeper.com/contact.html#

Also …

http://www.ashleyfurniturehomestore.com/storelocator/storelist.aspx?countrycode=USA&country=United%20States&statecode=PA&state=Pennsylvania (they have mattresses with latex comfort layers over a polyfoam core which can be a good lower cost compromise)

and

Furniture Row Store Directory (they carry latex mattresses with only 1" of polyfoam which I consider to be the maximum “acceptable” amount of polyfoam in a comfort layer however they are in York so I don’t know if this is close enough to you)

Let me know if I can help with any other questions or ideas.

Phoenix

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Hi Phoenix,

Thanks so much for your help and suggestions.

I checked Ashley and Furniture Row in York, PA this afternoon and unfortunately neither carried their latex bed model in the York showroom. Lemoyne Sleeper is going out of business and Carlisle (located around Pittsburgh) is approximately 6 hours away from my house in York, PA.

There is a mattress store called Sleepy’s that shows the Pure Latex Bliss beds on their website. I need to check the store in York to see if they carry them in their showroom. I also have a local store called Wolf’s Furniture that carries Restonic beds. I need to check if they carry the latex models in their showroom. Not sure why it seems so tough to find the latex models in my area. That being said, do you have any regional manufacturers or stores to recommend that would be located in the Harrisburg, York, Lancaster or Philadelphia, PA area or MD or northern VA. I just need to find a few latex models to try out and once satisfied that I have found the one I will probably end up replicating at one of your membership manufacturers.

Never realized the complexity of finding the right mattress at the right price. Your website has been extremely enlightening. Can’t wait to get this new bed.

Thanks again.

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Hello smcasey,

I’m sad to hear Lemoyne is going out of business. I called them and they are still selling mattresses for a few more weeks so there may be a chance that there is some good value there if they have something suitable in stock. Of course it would not have a warranty but warranties are not that important anyway and only really protect against obvious manufacturing defects that show up early in the life of a mattress and not against the so called “normal” softening or degradation of the foam so the reduced “going out of business” pricing may well be good value.

Pure Latex Bliss is one of my favorite national brands. They are a subsidiary of Latex International who manufacturers much of the Talalay latex found in North America and they make great testing grounds to help someone determine a layering scheme that works for them. They can be used to test a wide variety of different layering combinations as they have several models which can each be used alone or along with a 2" or 3" ultra soft talalay latex topper. They are usually more than an all latex mattress at a local manufacturer using the same or similar materials but better value than other national brands.

Restonic is also a “better” national brand however they are sold through regional licensees who do not always make their mattresses to the same “specs”. If you use these for testing purposes it is a good idea to make sure that the outlet has a cutaway or diagram showing exactly what the layers are. Some of them have only latex on top while some of them put polyfoam over the latex so even though they would mormally tell you they are a “latex” mattress… you would be sleeping on top of polyfoam which will wear out much more quickly than latex when used in a comfort layer.

http://www.hollandiainternational.com/locations_us.asp is an Israeli manufacturer with an outlet in Philadelphia which makes a latex mattress but I’m not sure of their pricing. They use Vita Talalay which like latex international is a high quality latex.

Mattresssave http://www.mattresssave.com/index.php?mattress/shop/brand/6 carries the PLB in Philadelphia is a local Sleepys doesn’t have them (which would surprise me).

http://www.rhintek.com/mattress/mattress.php in Columbia, Md carries a “do it yourself” mattress made by Savvy Rest. They are more expensive than other DIY maufacturers who use the same materials however they would make a great testing ground as well. I would call first to find out what layering combinations they have in both Talalay and Dunlop as some of the Savvy Rest dealers only carry dunlop latex.

Hopefully this will give you some choices to test latex mattresses that are close enough.

In the unlikely event that none of these have latex mattresses that are suitable for testing … let me know and I’ll look a little deeper.

Phoenix