Vandalay Industries

One thing that's a pain to shop for is a bed. 20 minutes in a store is supposed to do it? Not really. Pillow top, feathertop, no flip, which "S"?, no consistency of model names from store to store means looking for reviews is pointless... it's a pain.

But there is hope if you are willing to try non-spring mattresses, which i think is for the best, since once the springs go, a box mattress is bad, and there's no simple way to determine the quality of the spring or how likely the manufacturer is to resolve problems.

So in the springless realm, there are three main choices: air, memory foam and latex. By the title you might guess which one we have. Yes, I want to be your latex salesman!

I'm not going to touch air mattresses, instead focusing on the the two foams. Memory foam is a topper (3" or so) meant to go over some other foundation (spring, polyeurathane foam, other). it is conforming and supportive but can suffer from being excessively hot (bad in Phoenix) and there are a lot of manufacturers, the most famous being Tempur-pedic, so more due diligence is necessary on quality, and that leads to greater variance in cost.

We ended up going with latex. The convenient thing about latex is that the best type, talalay, has one US manufacturer. Multiple middlemen though, but all selling the same product (best prices are $300-350 per 3" queen layer). Latex, like memory foam, is conforming, but there is no impression to roll out of. It is cooler (though still warmer than an innerspring), hypoallergenic and is available in layers. The nice part of the layers is you can flip around the different densities to get what works best for you. Online shipping is generally cheap, so the internet purchase is also simple or you can check out local (Phoenix) retailers The Mattress Company or local supply house Central Plastic (may not have a showroom, and only sells one density, but is cost competitive). Joanne & I got our 2 3" layers from memoryfoam.com, and will at some point get around to getting a third layer.

While it may seem unwise to purchase a bed untested, going the route we did (a medium density and firm density), we could theoretically test a number of different ways to "build" our mattress by folding over one of the layers we do have (MMF, MFM, FMM, FFM, FMF, MFF). Some of the online retailers also have liberal return/exchange policies so you can experiment until you find what works best for you.

We also went the latex pillow route. Walmart has some Simmons pillows for about $20 that are nice. The pillows, like the mattress, naturally maintains its shape, so no need to fluff. I would mind if mine was a touch firmer, but it's a consistent, comfortable pillow.

Now, if only I slept more...