Help me choose an eco-friendly mattress!
Posted on April 30, 2009 by
We bought our mattress 6 years ago, and it’s already done for. It’s a King Koil, and I am naming names, because they aren’t a green company and I’m utterly disgusted by the short lifespan of this product. We bought the mattress before I started paying much attention to materials and conservation. It is enormous, and heavy, and chock full of all sorts of materials. We spent a little more on it than we’d planned, because the salesman pushed the fact that it had a fifteen year warranty. If you’re going to have the same mattress for the next fifteen years, maybe it pays to splurge. Right?
Oh, we were so wrong.
For the first two years, it was like sleeping on a cloud. And from there, it all started to go down hill. Now, the mattress has two major ruts where we sleep. The other day, when J got out of bed and could barely stand upright, I pulled out the warranty card, ready to call King Koil and complain, when I read that compression of layers isn’t covered by the warranty. Um. . . okay, so it has a warranty, but premature wearing out of a 15 year mattress at 6 years isn’t actually covered by the warranty. Lovely. And the ruts are so bad that adding a foam or pillow topper wouldn’t help.
I am sick over the fact that this big honking mound of materials (and the energy that went into making it) is a total waste after just 6 years.
And we won’t get into the fact that I don’t even want to know what kind of materials were used in making this mattress to begin with. Now that I do all the research that I do, I want to make sure that with our next mattress purchase, we’re sleeping on a mattress that won’t off-gas, that doesn’t contain random fillers, and scary flame-retardants (there are natural options, such as using a wool cover).
But, finding a “kinder” mattress isn’t exactly an inexpensive endeavor. But if we’re going to have a mattress for the next fifteen or twenty years, it makes sense to splurge, right? Except, I don’t want to fall for that again. If we’re going to shell out money for a new mattress, this time, I really want it to last. I also haven’t found many local options for an eco-friendly mattress, which means we’ll have to order one, which means we can’t test it out in a show room before we buy. While many of the sites we’ve checked out have trial periods and return policies, most involve a return shipping, and/or recycling fee, (not to mention the energy that goes into shipping and processing a returned mattress), so it’s really in our best interest to get it right the first time.
I’ve been looking at Keetsa mattresses and also natural latex mattresses. Have any of you upgraded to an eco-friendlier mattress? If so, what kind, and are you happy with your choice? Do you think it will stand the test of time?
If you decided against a greener mattress when making your last mattress purchase, what were the deciding factors for you?
Please help! I need your answers. Our mattress is so bad, I’m considering sleeping on my backpacking bedroll tonight! As much as I hate to admit it, when it comes to our mattress, we can’t just make do with what we have.
We just bought a Keetsa Tea Leaf Dream a month ago and it is the best mattress we have ever had. We co-sleep with our three-year-old daughter and normally I get no sleep, but with this bed we can toss and turn and you can’t feel anything. It comes in boxes with free shipping and you build the boxspring yourself which is really easy. I cannot say enough about this company or the mattress. We also bought one for our daughter. Keetsa is definitely worth every penny and was actually the most cost-effective option that I found compared to organic mattresses.
While I can’t speak to the eco-friendliness of the selectcomfort beds – I would never-ever own another bed again. We have two models – one in our bedroom and one in our guest room. The difference between the models is price and features. Both my husband and I had one before we moved in together – I had the cheapest one with two chambers.
Here’s why it might be considered eco-friendly:
1) air chambers, no filling other than foam supports
2) 20 yr warranty on the mattress, air chambers and the pump, so it last longer. My husband has had his for 10 yrs, and that’s the one we sleep on every night. His parents have had theirs for 15 years, and are still happy with it.
Here’s some why it may not be:
1) uses a bit of electric power when you need to adjust the bed (and if you have temperature fluctuations, you’ll need to – air pressure changes based on temp of the air)
2) plastic “box spring” – it’s really a hollow foundation box, and you could probably build one by putting a piece of plywood over your existing boxspring. It just needs to be a flat surface to rest the mattress on.
I’m interested to see what you find that is green. We’ve had ours about 6 years too and it’s not holding up that well!
We went to Keetsa about five months ago and got the Tea Leaf Supreme, which is the memory foam mattress. (http://shop.keetsa.com/products/tea-leaf-supreme) We didn’t get a platform, just put it on our old box spring. We love our bed! Only time will tell how well it holds up over the years, but I’m hopeful, and am still enjoying how comfy our bed is compared to our old bed.
I had been looking for an organic mattress, but had a hard time finding a place I could try one out before I bought. I finally found a place in Berkeley (Earthsake) that stocked organic mattresses, so we took a trip to try them out, and on the way to 4th Street we passed the Keetsa store with a big sign talking about Eco-mattresses, so we stopped in.
No, our mattress isn’t organic, but it if so comfy, VOC free, and the reduced amount of packing materials and shipping fuel costs seemed like a good trade off. Our mattress came in a small-ish box (if we hadn’t had my in-laws with us, we could have brought it home with us in the back seat of our Prius) and popped up to its full size when we unpacked it. And after months of trying to find the “best” mattress option it was such a relief to find one I didn’t feel bad about buying.
The company’s sustainable practices seem to be heading in the right direction, and they do seem to be open to ways they can do better.
I even found a home for our old mattress through Craig’s list (being totally upfront about its age and condition) The guy who took our old mattress away was thrilled, since he had moved to the state a month before and had been sleeping on an air mattress…
i’ve found keetsa and eMatress as good eco-friendly mattress companies to check out!
http://www.greenerist.com/?s=mattress&x=0&y=0
I do think 15-20 years is an unrealistic amt of time for a mattress to remain comfortable. 10 years is the max, in my opinion. But if you want to keep your new bed out of the landfill for the longest period of time, buy a two-sided mattress. They are harder to find, but they’re out there.
[...] friend Allie wants your help finding an eco-friendly mattress. Have any experience with one? Head over and let her know – and I will be watching for when I [...]
Okay, I thought that first comment was from my friend Kirsten and then I read the part about the three year old daughter and nearly had a heart attack. Oops.
Anyway, I had never heard of Keetsa mattresses but now I am dying to try one out. We bought ours two years ago and it already sags in the middle and we wake up with stiff, sore backs. Can’t wait to hear what you figure out!
Count me in for another thumbs up for Keetsa! They were even more inexpensive than regular mattresses at bigbox stores. My Keetsa mattress is very comfortable and I LOVE IT. I’m not sure there are a ton of truly “organic” options out there, but Keetsa seems committed to continually improving their sustainability practices. Since I bought mine from there, they’ve added even more info to their website. Here’s more about their eco-friendliness: http://keetsa.com/about/
Six years?! That’s ridiculous.
Just buy a couple of hand-sewn, organic cotton hammocks, string them up in the bedroom, and call it good. Sleeping while folded in half is good for the back, right?
Latex (pretty much) lasts forever.
Every type of foam loses its shape (or support level) over a period of time. Well-constructed mattresses usually hold up for 2-6 years (especially if turned over each 6 months).
Latex foam, however, retains its shape without ever flipping the mattress. It also supports the same. So, I have “lived” on my mattress for 16 years (and my cousin has used hers for about 20 years).
P.S., latex works equally well in sofa cushions.
[...] of testimonials from people who have happily had latex mattresses for 15 to 20 years. Comments on my other mattress post supported this. And, I exchanged e-mails with Katie at PranaSleep. She confirmed that [...]
Last year we ended up going with a sleep number bed and gave away our old water bed. We love it so far.
At the time we never thought of going green with a mattress purchase. If we had to do it again I would seriously consider Keetsa.
First off Select Comfort is NOT eco and here’s why.
a) the “air chambers” are made from vinyl. Horrible for your health and the environment
b) all the foam and fabrics are man made.
It all comes down to natural foams and natural fabrics.
I wanted a natural latex mattress because it is eco friendly and much more durable. Synthetic latex breaks down faster and I think it releases some sort of fumes (made from petrochemicals). They tap the rubber trees which remove C02 from the air.
Natural latex mattresses are more expensive than synthetics, but well worth the price. I replaced my 20-year-old king-size water bed with a twin (because I wanted room for sewing and the bed took up the entire room. I wish I would have gone to a full-size because it’s hard going from a king-size to a twin-size–but that’s another story.)
I bought my mattress online from Habitat Furnishings because it was so much cheaper than the Vera Wang natural latex mattress at the furniture store. There was a 180-day money-back guarantee (although I would have had to pay for shipping), a 20-year warranty, and I also received a natural latex pillow to go with it. The mattresses aren’t manufactured until they are ordered, so I had to wait a few weeks. But it is very comfortable, and no dust mites (hurray!).
We’ve been looking at Savvy Rest and OMI mattress (the latex mattresses). The Savvy Rest was rated the most eco by National Geographic’s Green Guide. If you google them, a lot of online stores sell them and will ship for free. We tried them out and they were very comfortable. You can customize the firmness — we like the Soft-Medium-Firm combo.
As far as I can tell from their website, Keetsa still has 80% petrochemicals in their memory foam — not eco at all. Their bamboo is mixed with polyester, again a material made with plastics. Doesn’t seem very eco to me at all…. Who knows though…
You may want to check us out. Essentia. http://www.myessentia.com
We make the only natural memory foam in the world. Petroleum free mattresses that are biodegradable, made in Canada, will last 20+ years and are crazy comfortable.
Free shipping throughout the USA and Canada.
GREEN should not mean 12% better for the environment and shipped from China. aka Keetsa. (sorry guys, you’re just not an honest bunch)
Our standards should be a little higher than that by now.
It’s about health too. Why on earth would you sleep on a 88% synthetic product that offgasses?
Priorities ppl! lol
An organic cotton spring mattress is around $800 so price is no longer an excuse.
Keep it GREEN.
I bought the organic Royal Pedic mattress. I tried the floor model in the store and liked it but the actual mattress I got was a lot firmer. The company wasn’t very sympathetic to my plight and was like, “oh well, too bad,”and actually said on the phone that they didn’t care about customer satisfaction. But if you like firm beds, you might love the Royal Pedic and it does smell really good, very earthy. However, in hindsight, I wish I had went with the OMI mattress. It’s latex and wool and all organic. Now I’m buying an OMI latex topper to go on my expensive dissapointment of a Royal Pedic bed.
Don’t know if you are still looking but we had a queen Green Sleep Mattress for 11 years, and just upgraded to a king. They were the most eco we could find – all organic materials, and by far the most comfortable mattress ever. Also probably the most expensive (besides Hastings maybe!)
Have you reviewed the Vital Rest Organic Collection by Vanguard Mattress at http://www.vanguardmattress.com. This line features 100% Natural Talalay latex, Certified Organic Cotton, Natural Wool and Organic Cotton Covers. This line is also adjustable friendly and two sided for “flipability”, which we all know adds value and longevity to a mattress versus a one sided, non turning, sleep system.