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Wonderful site! I can't imagine a better place to learn so much about mattresses. The wealth of knowledge has really empowered casual buyers such as myself.

I'm trying to find a good quality and durable mattress here in Romania, but it's proving very difficult, as there's not that much to choose from it seems. Not a lot of stores, some local manufacturers, but hard to get accurate information about the mattress construction and materials used, so all the more challenging... And the salespeople, I've yet to stumble upon any that are truly knowledgeable. I'd appreciate any advice regarding the mattresses I've found so far. It seems I'm leaning towards innersprings as support layer and latex as the comfort layer, as I have a hard time getting used to memory foam.

There's one made by Pikolin, a Spanish manufacturer.

- The support layer is made up of continuous coils, Normablock is the trade name.
- The comfort layer is made up of poly and latex. No details on the type of latex.
- Total thickness is 13.3 inches, with the springs taking up 6 inches.
- Since it can be flipped and used on any side, that means that each side has around 3.6 inches made up of the poly and the latex.
- Price for queen size: $1200 Link: www.salterra.ro/saltele-cu-arcuri/130-saltea-dream-34cm.html

It doesn't seem that they mention any density for the latex, but they do specify "high density foam 30-35kg/mc" for the poly - so around 2 lbs per cubic foot. It's also got 4 zones.

I spent a great deal of time on it. It offers good alignment and decent comfort. Am not too thrilled about the fact that it doesn't come with pocket coils, but for this price, I guess that's to be expected

A more expensive variant is called Handmade Vintage

-The support layer made up of pocket springs in cotton pouches which they refer to as "American Pocket spring block"
- Spring thickness is 34 mm I think there's two layers of springs. For queen size, there's a whopping total of over 1800 springs.
- Comfort layer is made up of HR poly foam, which they refer to as "ecological foam". There's also micro springs embedded it seems
- Wool and cotton top it off
- Total thickness is 12 inches. No info about the thickness of each layer
- Price for queen size: $2100 Link: www.salterra.ro/saltele-hand-made/175-saltea-handmade-vintage-pikolin.html

I also get good alignment on this one and very good comfort. I'm not yet sure whether the lumbar support is sufficient, but I plan to spend more time on it.

I know it's not that much to go on, but hopefully enough for a general feeling about quality and bang for buck?

Hi georgel,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum! all the way from Romania. I have some "attachment" to Romania because my fiance was born there which puts it high on my list of favorite countries

Unfortunately I have no knowledge of the Romanian market but the ideas and guidelines that are part of the information here about "how" to choose a mattress would apply anywhere.

The information about each mattress is also somewhat limited but I can make a few comments about each of them.

- The support layer is made up of continuous coils, Normablock is the trade name.
- The comfort layer is made up of poly and latex. No details on the type of latex.
- Total thickness is 13.3 inches, with the springs taking up 6 inches.
- Since it can be flipped and used on any side, that means that each side has around 3.6 inches made up of the poly and the latex.
- Price for queen size: $1200 Link: www.salterra.ro/saltele-cu-arcuri/130-saltea-dream-34cm.html

It doesn't seem that they mention any density for the latex, but they do specify "high density foam 30-35kg/mc" for the poly - so around 2 lbs per cubic foot. It's also got 4 zones.

I spent a great deal of time on it. It offers good alignment and decent comfort. Am not too thrilled about the fact that it doesn't come with pocket coils, but for this price, I guess that's to be expected

If all the polyfoam in this mattress is 30 - 35 kg/cm (1.87 - 2.17 lbs/ft3) then it would be a good quality and relatively durable material (see the foam quality guidelines here ). A continous coil is one of the lower cost innersprings but it can certainly be a durable component as long as you are OK with the greater motion transfer and less contouring ability compared to a pocket coil. There is more about the different types of innersprings in this article and in post #10 here .

While latex is a durable material ... the " pikolatex " in this mattress appears to be "flakes" of latex mixed in with polyester fibers and quilted to the cover which certainly isn't the same as having an actual layer of latex. Overall though ... assuming that there is no lower quality polyfoam in the mattress than 30 - 35 kg/cm ... then there would be no obvious weak links in this mattress.

A more expensive variant is called Handmade Vintage

-The support layer made up of pocket springs in cotton pouches which they refer to as "American Pocket spring block"
- Spring thickness is 34 mm I think there's two layers of springs. For queen size, there's a whopping total of over 1800 springs.
- Comfort layer is made up of HR poly foam, which they refer to as "ecological foam". There's also micro springs embedded it seems
- Wool and cotton top it off
- Total thickness is 12 inches. No info about the thickness of each layer
- Price for queen size: $2100 Link: www.salterra.ro/saltele-hand-made/175-sa...vintage-pikolin.html

I also get good alignment on this one and very good comfort. I'm not yet sure whether the lumbar support is sufficient, but I plan to spend more time on it.

As you mentioned this mattress has two separate coil systems inside it. One of them (the one that is 34 MM or a little under 1.5") is a microcoil which is a good quality and durable component in the comfort layers. They aren't clear about the specifics of the other one but it's likely a "regular" pocket coil. Because there are two separate coil systems in the mattress the coil count would be higher (closer to double) than a mattress that only uses one coil system but coil count isn't particularly meaningful anyway.

If the foam used in the mattress is HR (high resilience) polyfoam (which "should be" at least 2.5 lbs/ft3 or 40 kg/cm) then it would be a high quality and higher performance material than "regular" polyfoam although it still wouldn't be in the same quality/durability range as latex. The cotton/wool and viscose fabric used in the cover and quilting are also higher quality materials and would provide a sleeping surface that wicked moisture well and was very temperature regulating.

Once again ... assuming that all the polyfoam in this mattress is HR polyfoam with a density of 2.5 lbs/ft3 or higher ... then there would be no weak links in this mattress either.

Post #13 here and the posts it links to has more about how I would evaluate the "value" of a mattress purchase.

Since both of these are made by the same manufacturer they are likely in a similar "value" range based on the material cost of the mattress (although higher budget mattresses generally have a slightly higher margin as well).

Phoenix

Hi Georgel!

Here another Romanian-born, although I´ve left Romania long time ago…

The thing is I live in Spain, and I have some experience with Pikolin, so I can give you some feedback. First of all, I have to tell you it seems to me that your “cheapest” option is overpriced!! I don´t have exactly your model, I have this one:

www.lawebdelcolchon.com/colchones-muelles/pikolin-bed-pop-nbk-p-131.html

which seems to be pretty similar ( the same system of Normablock and latex). For two twin size mattresses I´ve paid 600Euros. Truth is I have no idea about the specifications of the latex, or thickness, but I can tell you that, now after 18months of use the comfort layer is not doing his job....

Many thanks Phoenix and SoniaRaritate!

I've been also looking at some of the Ikea mattresses. Is there a general consensus regarding their quality? Seems that the models available here are a bit different from the US models. Some details about the Hesseng - www.ikea.com/ro/ro/catalog/products/50257719/

- 25cm thick
- Pocket springs
- Comfort layer made up of PLA fiber, a blend of 85% natural / 15% synthetic latex
- Also featuring horse hair, coco fiber, wool
- Not double sided

Of course, no info on thickness of each layer, number or thickness of springs, but they do have these sample cutouts, so I should be able to estimate somewhat. Wonder if this would be a sturdier construction than the pikolin ones I've been looking at.

Hi georgel,

I've been also looking at some of the Ikea mattresses. Is there a general consensus regarding their quality?

I would assess the quality of any mattress on a mattress by mattress basis based on the materials inside it and never based on the name of the manufacturer. Most manufacturers will make lower quality and higher quality mattresses. In the case of Ikea they make some mattresses that I wouldn't consider at all and others that use good quality materials that don't have any obvious weak links.

While there are some details missing (which you mentioned) ... the parts of the description that they do list are all good quality materials.

Wonder if this would be a sturdier construction than the pikolin ones I've been looking at.

I would need more specifics of both to make any meaningful comparisons but in terms of the comfort layers at least the latex in the Ikea would be a more durable material than the 2 lb polyfoam in the Pikolin.

Phoenix