Not bad, but not for Everyone!
Written: Apr 21 '01 (Updated Apr 27 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Comfort: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Style: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Extremely Comfortable. Unique support. Nice looking bed.
Cons: Staples don't hold. Body Impressions in Quilting. Somewhat Hot, "Dead" surface
The Bottom Line: Very unique total body support. Support wanes fairly quickly due to body impressions. Bed is hotter than a normal bed. The novelty wears off quickly.
|
|
|
| bareyb's Full Review: Englander Nature's Finest |
Initial Impressions: Okay. Right off the bat let me say that this is hard for me to do. Wanted to give this bed an unqualified "thumbs up" Especially after all the time and effort spent discussing it with the very nice people on this forum. I can't help but feel somewhat like traitor, especially since I have been singing the praises of the Englander Laytex Plus to any and all who will listen. It is an excellent bed and there is much to like but alas, I feel I must be brutally honest and admit that it's not quite as perfect as I had hoped it would be. Does that make it a bad bed? Certainly not. It just means that if I truly want ZERO body impressions then I should have listened to my instincts and gotten a true 100 percent Latex Mattress that uses Latex as the comfort layers and not two inches of Fluff. Common sense I suppose that anything that is fluffy is going to matt down somewhat. I can only hope that it will ALL matt down evenly. Right now I can clearly see a hump in the middle of the mattress "between the bodies". Okay, that's the painful part. They do indeed matt down. About an inch and half I would say. Whether the "settling" will become uniform across the surface of the bed remains to be seen. Perhaps others can shed a light. As it sits now, the impressions are clearly visible underneath our Bedspread. The very condition that upsets me to no end. Even with the bed made, it still looks kinda funky with those trenches in it.
The Feel: Moving on. How did I actually like the "feel" of the bed? It has an extremely unique and luxurious feel that I noticed immediately the moment I jumped under the sheets. So much so, that I actually got out of bed and jumped in again to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't. This bed is amazing. Laytex is amazing stuff. I could immediately feel the superiority of the Laytex support. It's like your entire body is being supported over every square inch. Take it from a 200 pound man with four missing discs in his back. This is a whole new ball game my friends. My entire body while reading is perfectly flat. No hammock and not arching. From my heels to the small of my back to my neck. 100 percent flat and not a trace of pressure on any one part of the body over the other. A condition I have never experienced to this degree with any coil spring bed I have ever had. Including Pocketed Coil beds and Laytex (inch and half) over Coil beds. This bed is a pleasure to lay on. Period. Unfortunately I will have to smash a bit of hype that is going around based on my experiences. First off, many will tell you that Latex beds breathe better than normal beds and are not hotter. This is not true. This is the first and only bed my Wife and I have ever perspired in. It IS hotter, just like they have always said it was. Even with the cotton or wool tops Latex is going to be hotter because you are laying on a slab of rubber. Coil beds have airflow within. Secondly, I did not find it had absolute "Zero Motion" as many who like Latex beds will claim. I will caveat the latter by saying it is a much "deader" suface than a Coil Spring bed and quite frankly, because of my back problems I can't "roll" over. I have to pick up my body and "flip" over. Quite the Earthquake when I do and there was significant improvement over the "Earthquake" syndrome according to Wife. She says it's certainly acceptable. I should also mention that a little bounce feels kind of nice and familiar and I don't mind it at all. If you want a slightly firmer more stable surface I recommend getting platforms instead of springs. Besides, I actually looked under the bed and had my Wife hop around on top of it and quite frankly, most of the "motion" was being caused by the bedframe flexing and not just the boxsprings (our bedframe is a "heavy duty" keyhole design. Not the very top of the line where the cross members are solid one piece design such as our old bedframe which was a Leggett & Platt "Inst-A-Matic") Although not exactly "Zero Motion" it certainly isn't much motion and a 200 percent improvement over any bed I have had previously.
Fit & Finish: I like to get the bad news out of the way first. Two annoying problems with this bed. First. One of our plastic "corner protectors" on the box spring was falling off. The thin staples they used did not penetrate the wood very deeply and weresticking up on some of the corners. Secondly, the breathable fabric that lines the underside of the box spring completely fell off on one side (coincidentally the same side where the corner protector fell off. Perhaps the technician and or staple machine was having a bad morning?) Luckily I happen to have a qood quality staple gun and simply went around the perimeter and restapled these items. Not a big deal but somewhat annoying on a new mattress. Also sorta shook my confidence in the Company somewhat. I felt much better after I had everything stapled back on. There were also quite a few long bits of thread that were hanging loose that needed to be cut off with scissors (don't pull the threads!) but I have seen this happen on all my mattresses. The important thing is that no stitching was missing and they seemed to do a good job securing everything else, especially the the material on the mattress itself. They kinda dropped the ball on the box springs however. Okay let's get to the good stuff. This is a nice looking bed. Perioid. Very soft white damask cover with fancy "flower" stiching. Tres Chic and quite luxurious looking in a "high profile" style. The mattress is about 10 inches thick and will requre deep pocket sheets unless you use the built in "sheet holders" that come with the bed. I assume these work, but I found it a somewhat odd way to keep your sheet on. Especially since deep pocket sheets are readily available. Our sheets came from Strouds and were supposedly able to fit a mattress up to 14 inches wide. Even so, the corners fit quite snugly, but the sheets do ride up along the sides showing the the mattress cover and elastic band that is supposed to be under the mattress. I suggest Deep Pocket sheets from Macys. The ones rated to 17 inch. These work beautifully and have elastic all the way around the perimeter and hold quite nicely all the way around.
Bottom Line: Fantastically comfortable bed with a level of support that has to be experienced to believe. However. If you truly want zero body impressions you may need to look into a true 100 percent Layered Latex bed since it would appear that the Dacron filling in the quilting on these beds does settle somewhat and leave noticeable impressions. At least initially. Also, we did not it to be absolutely "zero motion" since bedframes will flex a bit no matter what type of box spring or foundation you have. It is most certainly miles better than the motion I have experienced with coil spring beds. It is also much quieter. Again, the only noise being from the frame and to a lesser degree from the box springs. Lastly, it is a hotter than normal bed. We both perspire in it and have not turned on the electric blanket since we got it. Electric Blankets are okay on Latex by the way.
Would I recommend this bed to a friend? Absolutely, with the caveats I mentioned above. So please don't take my criticisms to mean that this is not a great bed. It is. It's just not the "perfect" bed I had hoped it would be. I suspect that bed doesn't exist. I would be very interested to know if ANYONE out there has actually experienced "Zero" body impressions (including the "settling" of the fibers in the quilting). Especially you folks with the Layered Latex beds. I will add that even the "layered latex" beds all have some type of material sewn into the quilting. So it's quite possible that some settling may occur in those beds as well.Therefore I would expect that ANY bed is going to go through a period of settling where body impressions might occur so I am not necessarily condemning Englander but merely reporting my honest findings on this one particular Englander Bed. This is not to say that others have not had differing experiences as it would appear that some people have had. Some have said they have had no body impressions even after months of use, this may be true or it may mean that my definition of body impressions might be different. The laytex itself certainly had not matted down. Only the quilting and the filling within the quilting.
Otherwise, this bed has a very unique and luxurious feel. The overall support is uncompromised especially for someone with past back surgery such as myself. My entire body felt supported and my spine was perfectly flat. No hamocking or arching of my spine at all. I also feel that this is the best value in a bed I have come across. This is ALOT of bed for just over a thousand bucks for the set (we paid $1200.00). Is it perfect? Not quite, but darn close!
*** UPDATE ON LAYTEX PLUS MATTRESS SET ***
Okay Gang. It's truly humble pie time. I hate having to do this but I feel in all honesty I have to let people know our long term experiences with this bed that we thought was so good... In a nutshell, we are getting rid of it. Remember the slight body impressions I spoke of earlier? Well we are now in full Hammock mode. Remember the slightly annoying "hotter than normal" feel? Funny how slightly annoying becomes more annoying over time... Anyway, it's original comfort is already starting to go and with the body impressions getting worse and worse, we are waking up with back aches and my Wife is having trouble sleeping. Sooo, I am afraid we are going to have to move our recommendation to a No. I wouldn't recommend this bed to a friend. Don't get me wrong. Many people do love Latex beds, but I am finding that many who I see recommending them are actually sleeping on innerspring mattress beds with a little bit of Latex on top of the springs. That is NOT a Latex bed! Anyway, we tried the grand experiment and really wanted to like Latex, but in the end it was too dead of surface (you sink in over night) too hot (since you sink in you don't get alot of airflow around the body and quite frankly it's just a hotter bed to sleep in, I don't care what the hype says) and lastly, the build quality just isn't there on this bed. Both sides have caved in. Due to the overwhelming amount of Latex Zealots I have run across, including mattress manufacturers, I am loathe to condemn Latex mattresses as a whole just because of my one experience with this one. I think it's more fair to say that in my case I did a "head trip" on myself because I wanted to like this so much! Over time I realized that sleeping on Rubber while being unique, is still, well, sleeping on rubber. I finally have had to admit to myself I like an innerspring bed better and chalk this one up to experience. Thank goodness I did not order this over the Internet and that I bought it from a local retailer who provided a comfort guarantee. We are now moving up to a Chattam and Wells conventional and couldn't be more relieved. To sum up. Latex beds have an almost cult following on the Internet. Be careful not to get "sold" on something until you really give it a fair try. I don't recommend buying latex off the internet. It can cost about $200.00 to ship back! If you can't buy it local, forget it. Not worth the risk. Latex is not that big a deal and although it has some advantages, it also has some drawbacks. Many people do love latex but it is not for everybody. Including me. Be careful.
Recommended:
No
Mattress Size: Eastern King
Mattress Firmness: Somewhat firm
Amount Paid (US$): 1200.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bareyb
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 3 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.