TOPIC:

Hello Underground.

California King Canada Purchase

Both under 200lb, I'm 170 6'1, wife 120 5'7.

I wish I found this place sooner but I think I found you in the nick of time. I was 1 day from delivery of a Simmons BR Darnold Silver Soft mattress from Sleepcountry (Canada) and I cancelled it. The price was $1776 after tax and the sales person was saying I was getting a great deal because it was the end of the year, told me it would last 7 years as my biggest concern is durability. Regular sales stuff but I thought the price was fair until I discovered the comfort layer being 1.2lb foam @ 30(IFD)

I currently am sleeping on douglas bed, I've had it for 3 years and it no longer supports my wife and I. It started out solid, though it has always been too firm for my liking but now we wake up stiff and in pain. Because of this I trust bed in a box manufacturerers a lot less. 3 years is not enough.

I am a side sleeper, I love cozy, soft mattress', even though I sometimes rotate to my back. To be completely honest I loved the mattress in sleep country, I am sad about cancelling it but I don't want to buy another mattress in 3 years again especially at double the price. My wife is not picky at all, she sleeps on anything but is definitely willing to try a softer bed.

I've read through the guide to buying a mattress, it took me 2 hours but I feel like I have a lot of information to start my journey, that being said I'm still pretty overwhelmed.

Goals:
Cozy softer mattress around 30.
7 year durability, more if possible.
$2000 CAD maximum.
Springs, Foam, Latex, not picky I need to go try out more options at a sleep country but they only carry brands they sell.
California King is a must (custom bed frame)

Ideas:
Flipping the douglas hard side up and using that foam as a base, then buying toppers to place on top.

Am I asking for too much? Does anyone have opinions about good retailers in Canada? I thought the swiss bed in the 'trusted' companies list looked interesting but I have no way of testing it.

I live in the Lower Mainland (Vancouverish) so any local support would be 'rad.

Thanks for existing TMU

Hi jimlaheytpb.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum.

I'm glad to hear you found us just in time! It's lucky you were able to discover the 1.2lb weak link foam prior to delivery. 3 years out of your current mattress definitely is *not* a long time. While there definitely are some great beds-in-boxes out there, it's not uncommon for most of them to have less durable components. I looked up the Douglas but couldn't find any of the IFD information. My wager is they likely use lower quality foams, which is the main contributing factor to foam breakdown after such little time.

Here is a listing of Canadian and US manufacturers/retailers who are Trusted Members of our site that ship across Canada that you may wish to consider. They are very seasoned in providing good guidance over the phone and fitting their customers with a suitable product in terms of comfort/support needs without the ability to test.

SnugSleep Has a factory and showroom in North Vancouver, Canada carrying natural latex mattress products.

MFC Canadian online retailer with a very good selection of mattresses and hybrids.
Restmore Bedding Canadian Manufacturer with a large array of mattress choices latex/ pocket coil, hybrid, springs. They are based in Winnipeg, but you can place an order over the phone.
CBH Wood Furniture
Dormio Canadian Manufacturer specializing in organic/natural latex mattresses with options that fit all budget ranges.

You can also peruse Our Trusted Mattress Members as there are some US-based companies that provide products to Canadian market but you'd need to call and ask with the current Covid closures and the issues that may present.

If you'd definitely prefer to search locally, then I'd recommend reading this article on how to choose a quality outlet/retailer .

Ideas:
Flipping the douglas hard side up and using that foam as a base, then buying toppers to place on top.

Is the Douglas meant to be flippable? If so, this could be a reasonable solution. It's much easier to solve the problem of "too firm" and adding softening layers than it is to try and add firmness to a mattress. This is something we commonly face here in the forum, so if you ultimately choose the topper route, I'm happy to help assist you in that should you need it!

I hope this helps provide a starting point for you!
NikkiTMU

NikkiTMU wrote:

Hi jimlaheytpb.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum.

I'm glad to hear you found us just in time! It's lucky you were able to discover the 1.2lb weak link foam prior to delivery. 3 years out of your current mattress definitely is *not* a long time. While there definitely are some great beds-in-boxes out there, it's not uncommon for most of them to have less durable components. I looked up the Douglas but couldn't find any of the IFD information. My wager is they likely use lower quality foams, which is the main contributing factor to foam breakdown after such little time.

Here is a listing of Canadian and US manufacturers/retailers who are Trusted Members of our site that ship across Canada that you may wish to consider. They are very seasoned in providing good guidance over the phone and fitting their customers with a suitable product in terms of comfort/support needs without the ability to test.

SnugSleep Has a factory and showroom in North Vancouver, Canada carrying natural latex mattress products.

MFC Canadian online retailer with a very good selection of mattresses and hybrids.
Restmore Bedding Canadian Manufacturer with a large array of mattress choices latex/ pocket coil, hybrid, springs. They are based in Winnipeg, but you can place an order over the phone.
CBH Wood Furniture
Dormio Canadian Manufacturer specializing in organic/natural latex mattresses with options that fit all budget ranges.

You can also peruse Our Trusted Mattress Members as there are some US-based companies that provide products to Canadian market but you'd need to call and ask with the current Covid closures and the issues that may present.

If you'd definitely prefer to search locally, then I'd recommend reading this article on how to choose a quality outlet/retailer .

Ideas:
Flipping the douglas hard side up and using that foam as a base, then buying toppers to place on top.

Is the Douglas meant to be flippable? If so, this could be a reasonable solution. It's much easier to solve the problem of "too firm" and adding softening layers than it is to try and add firmness to a mattress. This is something we commonly face here in the forum, so if you ultimately choose the topper route, I'm happy to help assist you in that should you need it!

I hope this helps provide a starting point for you!
NikkiTMU

Thank your for the informative response, I'll be able to take a trip to Vancouver this weekend to hopefully test out a few more options. I'm also going to spend some time going through the trusted list and go from there.

One thing I forgot to mention is the salesperson at sleepcountry stated "these bed in a box guys spend so much on marketing but there is no way to compress high quality foam like tempurpedic that much to ship it in such a small box" is there any truth to that at all?

As for the flippable Douglas, no it is not, I figured the underside would be the foundation for new foam but in further reading this likely isn't a good plan and for now I'm simply going to scrap that idea. I'll use the old foam for an outdoor couch or something a long those lines as I try to reuse anything before junking it.

One thing I noticed in some of the retailers you suggested is a complete lack of California king options, only one of the above and ghost bed (from my searches so far) have a California king option and I'm worried about limiting myself too much but this is unfortunately something I will not buckle on.

Thank you again, I will update this thread when I've done some 'laying'

Hi jimlaheytpb.

One thing I noticed in some of the retailers you suggested is a complete lack of California king options, only one of the above and ghost bed (from my searches so far) have a California king option and I'm worried about limiting myself too much but this is unfortunately something I will not buckle on.

Sorry for that oversight! I was on a bit of roll and spaced that "California" aspect to your king mattress. I know some of the above listed will make custom mattresses, but I understand that it's probably preferable to seek out a mattress already existing in that size.

I look forward to your after-testing updates!
NikkTMU

My Wife and I spent a lot of time searching today and I think we have it fairly narrowed down here. We went to every bloody mattress or furniture store we could find and saw very few mattress' without the 'S' or the 'BR'. That's ok.

We managed to test 3 important things:

Classic pillow top, springs and wool tops (no foam) - Did not come in California King but truly love these companies as my Moms (20yr) flippable is still in perfect condition so shoutout to SpringAir

Various 'latex' based mattress' - I thought I would hate the bounciness more than I did, I did not mind it, I wish I was able to get more of a sinking feeling from the latex but that is ok and I believe that if it really comes down to it I can achieve the feeling with some sort of topper.

'The Swiss Dream Bed' - Listed in TMU's trusted list my wife absolutely went head over heels for this one, she loved it, I'm less sold I'm not sure I see the value in the $3,000ish mattress over the standard latex. I do appreciate the master workmanship that is this bed and I really really like the idea. I'm still wary of the price tag even though I believe it is a fair price (over budget for us)

Where does this leave us?

Well since coming here I've been leaning towards 2 places, SleepEZ & 'The Swiss Dream Bed'. After our day I'm heavily leaning towards a SleepEZ mattress as I'm struggling to justify the price jump to the swiss bed (which was also quite firm for my taste). No matter how my Wife tries to justify it she agrees about the price jump versus 'the reward'.

Now that I've narrowed it down so heavily I am struggling a bit whether to go with something like SleepEZ's '360 Hybrid Pillowtop' or something like 'Natural Latex Mattress' as I don't fear springs that much even though I am not a fan of motion transfer lets remember my #1 concern is durability. I also appreciate the ability to customize the firmness of the 360 pillowtop via the friendly zipper.

I'll likely give SleepEZ a call for some more information but in the meantime if something in my post jumps out at you guys I'm all ears and I apologize for the grammatical ranting mess it has become

I should also mention I have eye'd up both Nest and Ghostbed a bit I just appreciate the "family values" vibe SleepEZ has going for no matter how goofy that might be.

Couldn't find an edit button on this forum

Hi jimlaheytpb.

That's all very exciting! It sounds like you had quite the mattress testing adventure and have narrowed it down to some wonderful options. I look forward to hearing how your call with SleepEZ goes.

NikkiTMU

NikkiTMU wrote:

Hi jimlaheytpb.

That's all very exciting! It sounds like you had quite the mattress testing adventure and have narrowed it down to some wonderful options. I look forward to hearing how your call with SleepEZ goes.

NikkiTMU

While it was quite the adventure it still feels like we have more on our plate than when we were blissfully ignorant and one day away from a bed

In talking we really are struggling to narrow it down from "The list of 4"

SleepEZ Hybrid 360 (pillowtop + coils + flippable)
At ~2000 CAD shipped this is the one I'm leaning towards, the coils worry me a bit in terms of motion transfer but the sleep country bed we were going to buy didn't bother us too too much in this regard, the difference here being latex vs memory foam in terms of topper. This bed offers a zippable pillow top which would provide us the ability to swap out comfort layers while maintaining the integrity of the mattress as a whole. I like the ability to open the cover and swap stuff out if it isn't working.

SleepEZ Roma (latex + pillowtop + customizable + filippable)
At ~1500 CAD shipped this is the biggest 'budget' mattress of the list, it is latex and provides the ability to flip for a more firm or less firm option. It can't be opened, it doesn't offer much other than a solid base for us. It has 1.5" of wool pillowtop on both sides which concerns me should it be too firm and we want to put a topper on, would this affect the feeling? I'm unsure, but I think likely. The biggest plus of this mattress is the price. It has 6" of latex.

SleepEZ Latex (latex + customizable + flippable)
At 9"~2150 - 13"~2700 CAD + Shipping this mattress is quite expensive, the biggest plus here are the customization in terms of comfort, the ability to swap out layers to try and suit the mattress to our needs in our own home really speaks to me in terms of value, but it is almost $1000 above my budget. While budgets are meant to be broken I just don't know if I see the value in having a piece of Latex holding the bulk of me up vs a set of Springs. Perhaps someone here has some more input on the support it would provide. the 13" option would likely be the way to go as the 9" almost brings us to the Roma territory which would likely be the better buy if I started removing inches of latex. My wife asked "why do we need more latex? is there really that big of a difference between 13" and 7"?" honestly, I'm not sure either.

Swiss Dream Bed (latex + wood + wool + customizable)
At ~3000 CAD this is the most expensive mattress with likely the longest wait to sleep in it (1+mo). As I said earlier my wife loves this bed, but I find it quite firm, probably too firm, which would mean another cost in terms of adding more to the comfort layer. I am vary wary of this price point, I see it as "I get 4" of latex, a wool topper and some wood tied together for $3000"; I know there is more to it than that and I know the craftsmanship that goes in to the bed as I am a carpenter myself. I just feel like it isn't enough. I think the idea is fantastic, I think the message is good, but aside from the "no metal bed, all natural, GMO free, etc, etc, etc," (this stuff isn't important to me like it is to others) I just struggle with the price tag. I will say that if this bed was $2000 we would have already purchased it.

I'm really struggling to narrow it down from here and would love to hear more information on Latex in terms of how thick it is. I did real the mattress guide but perhaps I've missed a section or skimmed something too hard.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

I just contacted SnugSleep from your first post and they said they no longer make mattress' or toppers.

Hi jimlaheytpb.

Thanks for the update!

It looks like you've got quite the list and are in a battle between great, great, great, and great!

From what I gather, you:
- like the option to be able to swap out layers if needed (eliminating the Roma)
- have questions about an all foam vs hybrid/innerspring option
- want to know if there is ultimately a difference between a 7" and 13" mattress

You will get less motion transfer out of an all foam build, but you will lose the "traditional mattress feel" and "springiness" that many people like and prefer. A hybrid will also have a bit better breathability, meaning less concerns about mold and offering a slightly cooler sleeping experience.

With regards to thickness...generally, a 9” to 12” mattress would be more than enough for most people. There are benefits to a thicker mattress but this tends to be most relevant to people with a higher BMI.

The Swiss Dream Beds really are a beautiful product, but if you're not absolutely thrilled/sold on the feel then I would say...it's probably not the option to go, especially as you will then face the issue of "how do I find comfort on this bed" and then comes the searching-for-toppers-for-adequate-comfort saga. Best to buy a bed that gives you the support and comfort you need off the bat. As you've pointed out, it's a large investment. And, to quote my dad, "if you don't love it, don't buy it." They do offer a 5% discount to TMU members, for what that is worth.

NikkiTMU