We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced
bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to
"climb a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a
marketing scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation
for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb

"Dwight" wrote in message
news
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a form-fitting
foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. It may
have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to "climb
a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a marketing
scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation for
a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb

Similar experience here. Bought a Serta Sagger Pillow Top. Top of the line
with a top of the line price. After 14 months replaced it with a locally
manufactured conventional mattress. Satisfaction. And about half the
price. It was, however, a very expensive learning experience. I've since
discovered a couple of other families in the neighborhood that had the same
problem with pillow top or foam top mattresses. The guarantee is worthless
because the residual depression is measured without anyone lying on the
mattress, and the foam top recovers from whatever depression is caused by
laying on it.

Land and Sky's Impression 8500 waterbed has my vote.

Dwight wrote:

We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since
sliced bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a
recommendation for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Here's what I can tell you about mattresses.

I've got a king-size double-sided King Koil mattress that has a bit of a
pillow-top layer on it (about an inch thick on both sides) and it's
covered in a sort-of shiny, smooth fabric. This mattress is probably
pushing 15 years old.

I have a matching box spring to go with it.

At some point in the past few years I started waking up with a back
ache. I put up with that for a while, then decided it's time to go
mattress shopping.

I was totally ****ed off at what I found for sale. What I didn't like:

1) single-sided. 99.99% were single sided.

2) pillow-top was way to thick.

3) fabric covering was way to plush, soft, delicate.

So, taking these one at a time:

I wanted a double-sided mattress, but apparently at some point around
the year 2000, the industry switched to single-sided. Sales people will
tell you that's good- you don't have to flip the mattress any more (not
that you *needed* to flip a double-sided mattress as opposed to just
rotating it just like you also have to do with a single-sided
mattress). But that wasn't why the industry went to single-sided. The
reason was new fire safety regulations (something about burn or
combustion time) that could be more easily met by making the mattress
single-sided.

The additional thickness of the pillow-top is I think a way to counter
consumer expectations of not having a double-sided mattress. "Well, if
you're not going to give me a double-sided mattress, you'd better make
that single-side extra thick and cushy".

Which brings us to the third point. The extra plush, velvety soft cover
found on many mattresses. Now, I don't know about you, but a cover like
that just screams to want to absorb all manner of body fluids. Not like
the mattress cover of my existing mattress (that shiny, smooth fabric)
which I believe is known as "damask".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damask

Now, when you have a thick layer that needs to be quilted, then you
can't use something like damask because there'd be too many wrinkles and
stress points on the fabric. So they go with a more stretchy, soft
fabric - which helps to sell the mattress when you're in the show room
and you put your hand down to feel it. Now, it's a crock to have such a
soft absorbant cover fabric when you consider you're going to put a
sheet between it and your body anyways, and possibly even a water-proof
mattress cover.

Ok, so I was ready to plunk down what-ever it took for a descent
mattress, but I was not going to buy one of these single-sided versions.

So I went back to the drawing board (almost literally) and got a 3/4"
sheet of 4x8 plywood and put it under my side of the bed - between my
old King Koil mattress and the box spring.

Instantly my morning back pain went away. Upon closer examination, it
turns out that the top surface of the box spring (fabric strung tightly
over the widely-spaced spring rails) just couldn't support the mattress
coils properly. The plywood made for a solid *flat* surface and worked
perfectly.

That was maybe 2 years ago, and I'm still sleeping on that same
mattress.

If you do a bit of web-searching about mattresses, you'll find that
there are people that search for 2-sided mattresses, and companies that
will supply them, as in this:

http://www.stlbeds.com/articles/2008...ided-mattress/

Dwight wrote:
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced
bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to
"climb a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a
marketing scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation
for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb
Hi,
You can have a mattress custom made from a custom mattress shop.
Maybe that is the best option.

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:40:40 -0500, Bernt Berger
wrote:

Land and Sky's Impression 8500 waterbed has my vote.

The kin-sized mattress is used mostly by people with ... certain ...
predilections that I don't want to discuss here. In many places
they are illegal.

Dwight wrote:
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced
bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to "climb
a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a marketing scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation
for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb

I thought there would be a problem, and I never slept in one. I am in the
market and I will watch out. Thanks.

Greg

"micky" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:40:40 -0500, Bernt Berger
wrote:

Land and Sky's Impression 8500 waterbed has my vote.

The kin-sized mattress is used mostly by people with ...
certain ...
predilections that I don't want to discuss here. In
many places
they are illegal.

You mean "relative humidty"?

Like when atmospheric conditions are just right and the
sweat off your balls is rolling down the cheeks of your
sister-in-laws ass?

On Nov 21, 2:30*am, "harry" wrote:
"micky" wrote in message

...

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:40:40 -0500, Bernt Berger
wrote:

Land and Sky's Impression 8500 waterbed has my vote.

The kin-sized mattress is used mostly by people with ...
certain ...
predilections that I don't want to discuss here. * *In
many places
they are illegal.

You mean "relative humidty"?

Like when atmospheric conditions are just right and the
sweat off your balls is rolling down the cheeks of your
sister-in-laws ass?

You can ship my new keyboard.

Harry K

On Nov 20, 7:57*pm, gregz wrote:
Dwight wrote:
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced
bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to "climb
a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a marketing scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation
for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb

I thought there would be a problem, and I never slept in one. I am in the
market and I will watch out. Thanks.

Greg- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Of course there is the "Sleep Number Bed". Fancy name for nothing but
an air mattress with dual pumps. Alsocomes with a fance price. I
sure do get tired of their commercials. Anything I hear beign pushed
that hard on TV I figure is a rip-off.

Harry K

On Nov 20, 6:12*pm, Home Guy wrote:
Dwight wrote:
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since
sliced bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a
recommendation for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Here's what I can tell you about mattresses.

I've got a king-size double-sided King Koil mattress that has a bit of a
pillow-top layer on it (about an inch thick on both sides) and it's
covered in a sort-of shiny, smooth fabric. *This mattress is probably
pushing 15 years old.

I have a matching box spring to go with it.

At some point in the past few years I started waking up with a back
ache. *I put up with that for a while, then decided it's time to go
mattress shopping.

I was totally ****ed off at what I found for sale. *What I didn't like:

1) single-sided. *99.99% were single sided.

2) pillow-top was way to thick.

3) fabric covering was way to plush, soft, delicate.

So, taking these one at a time:

I wanted a double-sided mattress, but apparently at some point around
the year 2000, the industry switched to single-sided. *Sales people will
tell you that's good- you don't have to flip the mattress any more (not
that you *needed* to flip a double-sided mattress as opposed to just
rotating it just like you also have to do with a single-sided
mattress). *But that wasn't why the industry went to single-sided. *The
reason was new fire safety regulations (something about burn or
combustion time) that could be more easily met by making the mattress
single-sided.

The additional thickness of the pillow-top is I think a way to counter
consumer expectations of not having a double-sided mattress. *"Well, if
you're not going to give me a double-sided mattress, you'd better make
that single-side extra thick and cushy".

Which brings us to the third point. *The extra plush, velvety soft cover
found on many mattresses. *Now, I don't know about you, but a cover like
that just screams to want to absorb all manner of body fluids. *Not like
the mattress cover of my existing mattress (that shiny, smooth fabric)
which I believe is known as "damask".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damask

Now, when you have a thick layer that needs to be quilted, then you
can't use something like damask because there'd be too many wrinkles and
stress points on the fabric. *So they go with a more stretchy, soft
fabric - which helps to sell the mattress when you're in the show room
and you put your hand down to feel it. *Now, it's a crock to have such a
soft absorbant cover fabric when you consider you're going to put a
sheet between it and your body anyways, and possibly even a water-proof
mattress cover.

Ok, so I was ready to plunk down what-ever it took for a descent
mattress, but I was not going to buy one of these single-sided versions.

So I went back to the drawing board (almost literally) and got a 3/4"
sheet of 4x8 plywood and put it under my side of the bed - between my
old King Koil mattress and the box spring.

Instantly my morning back pain went away. *Upon closer examination, it
turns out that the top surface of the box spring (fabric strung tightly
over the widely-spaced spring rails) just couldn't support the mattress
coils properly. *The plywood made for a solid *flat* surface and worked
perfectly.

That was maybe 2 years ago, and I'm still sleeping on that same
mattress.

If you do a bit of web-searching about mattresses, you'll find that
there are people that search for 2-sided mattresses, and companies that
will supply them, as in this:

http://www.stlbeds.com/articles/2008...l-find-a-good-...

I think I will try that. The king on our bed has 'form fitting'
depressions and they are there whether the mattress is flipped or
rotated.

Harry K

Thomas wrote in news:3577f7c1-d09d-4b89-81b1-
:

Of course there is the "Sleep Number Bed". *Fancy name for nothing but
an air mattress with dual pumps.

I have this. 5 years or so and one side has a leak. I doubt I could
find the leak so I too am in the market.


Try these guys and don't be put off by the web site, they are good folks.

http://www.airbedsunlimited.com/categories.php

I have purchased parts from them to repair an air bed in the past.

On 11/20/2011 7:20 PM, Dwight wrote:
We spent a lot of money at Macy's for a Sealy mattress with a
form-fitting foam which was supposed to be the best thing since sliced
bread. It may have been called Sealy True Form.

We soon got depressions where each of us sleep, so that we have to
"climb a hill" to visit each other.

We have had the depressions measured, but they are not deep enough to
qualify for Macy's replcement policy.

Our son and his wife bought a similar mattress from another firm and had
the same experience.

It seems as though the form-fitting idea was just some sort of a
marketing scam.

We would like to buy a new mattress. Does anyone have a recommendation
for a no-nonsense, firm mattress?

Many thanks

Dwight Gibb
We bought a foam mattress years ago and in my view it was pretty poor.
Just bought two mattress (one Queen and one King ... firm) from The
Original Mattress factory which has Consumers Reports highest rating.
They are flipable. Time will tell.

Had a couple of mattresses custom made from Mattress Factory
Wanted them extra firm.
Came out a lot less expensive than buying brand name.
Was even able to go and watch while they were being made.

The most important point is that the metal frame & springs not be recycled
from some old mattress that was stripped (and in some cases not even
stripped, but just covered with a new layer)