Hi lenyc,
Recently i spoke with my chiropractor. His advice for my size (6'2 180lbs) and my lower back issues was to purchase a firm mattress and maybe purchase a mattress topper/pillow in case the mattress was uncomfortable. He told me to look at the Simmons beauty-rest recharge series.
Unfortunately ... you are getting some bad or at least some very risky advice here. I would avoid Simmons and any other major manufacturer that uses low quality materials in their mattresses (see the
guidelines here
) and I would also be very cautious about buying a mattress / topper combination where you can't test the specific combination in person (see
post #2 here
). While your chiropractor may know a lot about backs ... he doesn't seem to be particularly knowledgeable about mattresses
The first place I would start your research is the
mattress shopping tutorial here
which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice ... and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.
After doing some research on this website I started to look at other alternatives. One of which was Casper. I visited their showroom and I liked the bed but wasn't sure about its longevity and the edge support for the bed.
You can test for edge support in person to see whether it is OK for you but the Casper uses good quality materials that would be a durable choice for most people as long as you aren't in much higher weight ranges (see the
foam quality guidelines here
).
I then went to Scott Jordan Furniture and the salesperson their was very knowledgeable and led me to the Stockholm luxury mattress. This bed consist of the 2 layers of German micro coils and a latex foam layer. I laid down for 30 minutes while he gave me a background on the bed. I was ready to purchase the bed until i saw the 2k price. Needless to say this is outside of my budget.
The Berkeley Ergonomics mattresses use very high quality materials and they are a better quality/value choice than most other mainstream mattresses that are in a similar budget range or many other similar types of mattresses that are in a higher price range although I certainly understand that they are in a higher budget range than some people would be comfortable with regardless of their quality or "value". There is more about the most important parts of the "value" of a mattress purchase in
post #13 here
that can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses.
Is their a more cost effective solution that I'm not aware of? I found this website :
www.mattresses.net/quulhypocola.html
but I am not sure what this vendors reputation is. Is Saatva a better option or should I buy a beautyrest and get a latex topper instead?
As may already know ... Arizona Premium is one of the members of this site which means that I think very highly of them and they compete well with the
best in the industry
in terms of their quality, value, service, and transparency. They would certainly be well worth including in your research. The tutorial post also includes a link to a list of the members here that sell online (in the optional online step) that would be well worth including in your research and if you are looking at innerspring/latex mattresses then
post #2 here
also has some options that may be well worth considering as well.
You can see my thoughts and an analysis about Saatva in
post #1 here
and while they compare well to most mainstream mattresses ... for most people they would not be in the same "value" range as many of the other options that are available to you. A forum search on
Saatva
(you can just click this) will bring up much more information and feedback about them.
I'm guessing you've seen this as well but just in case you haven't then the better options or possibilities I'm aware of in the New York City area are listed in
post #2 here
.
Phoenix