Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Non-Toxic Mattresses

One third of our lives are spent sleeping. That’s a lot of time spent on a mattress! I pride myself in being thrifty, but this is one area that I believe in investing more money.

12 years ago, we couldn’t afford a luxurious mattress, but couldn’t afford to keep killing our backs on the crappy one we had. We made the mistake of buying a $500 mattress and returned it a week later. Then we found a  Beautyrest pillow top at RCWilley that we loved, but it was $2,000. We drove down to the RCWilley Clearance Center and found the exact same mattress for $1,000. It was still very pricey for us at the time, but we enjoyed it for 12 years and never regretted the purchase.

12 years later my husband was sleeping on the edge of the bed where there was still padding and support and I was building a fortress of pillows around me, waking up with a dead arm and neck pain. In the photos it looks like a brand new bed, but upon close examination at eye level, I could see an indent in the middle. Even though the mattress was old, I posted it on Facebook Yardsale for my town and had 5 people instantly fighting for it. I was only asking $50 because that was the cost of delivery for my new mattress and I didn’t think anyone would want an old mattress. Was I ever surprised! It made me wonder if I was being too hasty to get rid of it, but the new mattress was bought, the old one sold and it was too late to go back. The couple who bought my used mattress had just invested in a new $500 mattress and hated it. They were excited to have our used pillow top BeautyRest. This is why I believe in investing in a good mattress. Anything under $1,000 is going to be a waste of money.

Buying a mattress this time was not going to be as simple. I recently discovered that I have 2 copies of the C667T MTHFR mutation (I know, holy MTHFR! Right?). The quick explanation of what this means is that my body doesn’t detox as well as someone without the mutations. It also means that I can’t process folic acid, so I shouldn’t eat any processed and fortified food (good advise for everyone, but especially important for me). It explains why I get candida so easily and will always battle it. I get migraines when I’m around someone with heavy perfume or other fragrances; Even some laundry detergents will give me a headache. I try to buy non-scented products and get as close to natural as possible with everything in my home. I recently bought an infra-red sauna to help me detox and swapped out my gas stove for electric. I have slowly started making these improvements in my house as I’ve needed things. 

I know that furniture is saturated in flame retardant chemicals and figured the same is probably true with mattresses. After some research, I learned that the fire retardant regulations for mattresses became much more strict in 2007, creating even more toxic mattresses with a lot of off-gassing. All mattresses are now required to contain enough fire retardant to withstand a two foot wide blowtorch open flame for seventy seconds. Over 90% of mattress companies use a highly controversial fire retardant due to it's low cost. Even the glue and materials used can cause off-gassing. The solution is to either get a doctor’s prescription and ask that your mattress not get sprayed at the factory, or buy from a company that makes organic mattresses and uses a non-toxic fire retardant.

Here are the non-toxic mattresses that I found within our price range, which happened to be our tax refund. I know that most or all of these are too expensive for many of you, but there are other options. You can always buy an all-natural latex topper for your current mattress until you save up and can afford the mattress of your dreams. A good mattress is worth the cost.

IntelliBed
There are a ton of bloggers singing praises to IntelliBed and offering a 10% coupon code. They are affiliates and have something to gain by getting you to use their code so I was skeptical, until I went to the IntelliBed site and was impressed and intrigued. IntelliBed is also based in Utah, so I could go to an actual store and try one. 
Warranty: 30 year limited warranty. I was pretty excited about the idea of not having to buy another mattress for 30 years. I hate mattress shopping.
Price: They were at the top of my price range with their cheapest King size mattress starting at $2,000.

Update: This is the mattress we bought and regret buying. Read the full review of our IntelliBed mattress here: An Honest Review of IntelliBed

Savvy Rest
I asked my Facebook MTHFR group about non-toxic mattress options and I had several people tell me they love their Savvy Rest. All of their mattresses are made of natural latex rubber, certified organic wool or cotton, and are nontoxic. I was tempted to buy a Savvy, but there were no stores near me and I was afraid to buy a mattress without testing it out. We are talking about a 10+ year investment and a lot of money.
Warranty: 20 year limited warranty
Price: The cheapest King size mattress I could find was $3,149 which was a little above my price range, especially after shipping.

Saatva
Saatva uses a "natural thistle barrier" flame retardant with an organic cotton cover and Euro pillow top. The pillow top mattress was very tempting to me since I loved my last pillow top so much and they are very affordable.
Warranty: 15 year
Price: $1,299 for a King

European Sleep Works
A woman in my MTHFR Facebook group directed me to European Sleep Works and said that she has been very happy with hers. They use natural, non-toxic, high-performance materials like cotton, Merino wool and natural latex. I like that they offer a full refund if you are not happy.
Warranty: 10 years
Price: The starting price for a King mattress is $2,000.

Keetsa
They claim to sale eco-freindlty, all-natural and/or recyclable latex mattresses. If you live near SanFrancisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, or New York, you are lucky to live near a showroom and can test one out. Unfortunately, I do not live near any of their showrooms.
Warranty: 12 year limited warranty.
Price: They are reasonably priced at $440-$2,200

Spindle Natural Latex Mattresses
They use all natural materials like organic cotton, wool, pure latex and horsehair. No harmful chemicals, polyester, polyurethane foam, or other toxic products.
Again, no store near me to try before I buy.
Warranty: ? They do not show one on their site.
Price: A King mattress is $1,699.99


A lot of the people in my MTHFR Facebook group said that they love their organic latex and wool mattress toppers, which are a much cheaper alternative if you don’t need a new mattress, but want the surface you are sleeping on to be non-toxic and more comfortable. A few people also told me of bad experiences with memory foam and migraines from the chemicals in memory foam. I tried a memory foam topper a long time ago and hated it and got headaches from sleeping on it. I also like to be able to move around in my bed and memory foam does not allow that.

I bought one of these mattresses and will be reviewing it soon. I did not ask for any blogging discounts, so that I could give a truly honest review. I am annoyed at all of the fake blog reviews and Amazon reviews by people who have been given free products in exchange for good reviews. I will be writing a very honest review.

Update: I fell for all of the paid reviews for IntelliBed and bought one. Here is my review:
An Honest Review of IntelliBed


I was not paid for this post. If I have gotten any facts wrong, please comment or email me (thethriftyhome(at)gmail(dot)com. If you have a non-toxic mattress that you love, write a comment or email me a review and I will add it here. If you work for a non-toxic mattress company and would like to be included in this list of non-toxic mattress options, email me. I won't charge to link up your company as long as it is truly non-toxic and affordable. I had a hard time finding non-toxic mattresses and hope this list will be helpful.










9 comments:

  1. We bought an expensive mattress too about 12 years ago that had a 15 year warranty. Guess what we did in December? Put a claim on the warranty and they gave us a credit towards a new mattress. We got one of the organic bamboo thingys ($2500) that cost us $600 out of pocket. Um, yeah, I'm glad that Hubby was so anal about keeping the receipts and information on that old mattress. They actually measured the depth of the mattress to see how much it broke down as a certain amount is acceptable, luckily, ours was NOT ... just something to think about next time you get ready to buy a new mattress, check the warranty!!

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    1. Thanks for the information Jan. I bought my Simmons Beautyrest on clearance, so it didn't come with a warranty. However, I have cashed in on other warranties and save all receipts and papers. Can I ask where you got your organic bamboo mattress and if you like it? I would love to add the link here as another option.

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  2. Hey Jennifer,

    thanks for the list of the mattress brand. Can I add on your list? It's the bedding stock mattresses. It is affordable and eco- friendly mattress. You can visit their website for more information. https://beddingstock.com/

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  3. Thank you so much for your honest review of Intellibed. I too have favorite bloggers and was pretty taken in by all the positive hype!!!

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  4. I'm going to chime in here. Started with an Untellibed baby mattress (they no longer sell them). Looked new 4 years later.

    Heard about Purple who manufactured the gel for Intelibed and got other products. Got to try it didn't like it the first two weeks. Then adjusted and a year later and still happy. I bame an affiliate. Didn't love how the company treats us but still love the mattress. Problem, It's always out of stock.

    Funny thing is I'm looking at getting an Intelibed next.

    I think you're being harsh. It is possible to love something AND make money recommending it. Isn't that an ideal? Isn't that the premise of companies like Mary Kay? So you're saying that all those women are a fraud or dishonest because they make money if you buy what they recommend???

    Like you wrote it's best to buy online. Most of these companies let you actually sleep on your mattress for several months and like Purple, will literally send someone to your house to pick it up if you're not happy. You can't do that in a showroom at about retail store.

    I looked for a used Intelibed and guess what? None. People don't sell them. In your negative review someone offered to buy it off you! You had several endorsements from people who'd owned one for 10 years and still love it.

    I think you're being judgemental and one-sided in the other direction because you accuse them of being dishonest when really you just didn't like yours.

    I've been to the factory where they make Purple. No off gassing. Hardly a smell at all.

    I have a Purple mattress review on Newspapermom.com of anyone cares to check it out. It's an Intelibed type mattress for a fraction of the price. Hopefully they iron out the manufacturing so they're in stock by the time you need one.

    Blog on,
    Janet

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    1. Thank you for your comment Janet. As you can see, I welcome comments from people who love their Intellibeds and I publish them. When buying an expensive product, I think it is best to read as many unbiased reviews as you can which is why I wrote mine. You are right that it is possible to make money off of a product that you love, but the review will be biased. I put my review out there so that I can prevent people from making the same mistake that I did of buying the bed at the store instead of online. When I was reading reviews for Intellibed before spending my hard earned money, I only read the glowing ones from affiliates. I wrote my review so that people can know that not everyone is 100% satisfied and I include positive comments to show that some people do love their Intellibeds. My review is honest and I will not change it, but I'm happy for anyone who has a good experience with the company.

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    2. Your link to your review of intellibed is not there any more but I gather you had a negative experience because you actually lived where you could try the bed. Same with me. I weigh 105 and the newest numea indigo just about killed me. I went back almost immediately because I actually woke up all the time if I had been in one spot too long because it began to hurt. If I was on my back, my heels would just burn. Their policy to allow people to try the bed remotely for a period of weeks and return it if it didn't work, but not offer that option if you're local and could lay down on it, is absurd. Utterly absurd. My bed cost $6000 plus. After a long drawn out battle they did make an exception and offered me a partial refund, minimizing my loss to around $1000. At least I got that back, because they didn't have to and reminded me time and time again that I signed the paper saying I could not return it. I don't think their bed will work well for light weight people unless you like to float on top of your bed. I know many of their employees don't like the return policy, so hopefully they change that.

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  5. Hey Jennifer, thanks for the great list of all these different brands. Should i also add one? It's the Coco-mat brand, i recently bought a natural latex mattress and absolutely loved it. All the matresses are made with natural materials which are stacked in multiple layers and offer great body support! i think you should make a review for Coco-mat as well, because for me buying this mattress was the greatest investment i had done sofar! you can check their website and i would be glad to see your comments on that! https://www.coco-mat.com/store/us_en/natural-mattresses

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