Foam Mattress Types

Plendo · Guru

Foam Mattress Types

Gerty Dancer · Guru

We have a latex mattress at home and its extremely heavy. So comfortable to sleep on but too heavy for a RV. The caravan mattress is medium-high density foam, fairly firm but quite light, so we put an egg-carton topper on and its very comfy.

Big Gorilla · Guru

I'll be sleeping on a water bed in Cebu in 3 weeks. Yes it is a tough life !!!

biggrin

spida · Guru

I bought a topper pad for the van bed - very high density foam as I was finding I was getting very sweaty on the egg-carton pad. Having spent ages asking around was advised that the reason for that was that low density foam traps the heat and the egg-carton squashes down and traps even more..... so - I guess if in a cold place I will put it on top of my high density pad. Although firm it is surprisingly comfortable.

Cupie · Guru

Home ...

We used to sleep on a heated water bed for more than a decade & loved it.

Changed to a Latex bed topped with around 100mm of lambs wool. Even better but extremely heavy.

Neither of these would be usable in a van.

Van ...

We specified an inner spring in our new van, but the first trip out found that it was too hard. Fitted an egg shell overlay & it was a great improvement.

After 15 years it is still going strong (might be about time to replace it). Never had a problem with heat or moisture.

We always use a good quality mattress protector over our mattresses.

This set up would be my choice. Not a fan of foam mattresses except maybe for short term camping .. like in the back of my Patrol for 2 or 3 day fishing trips.

Big Gorilla · Guru

Cupie wrote:
Van ...
We specified an inner spring in our new van, but the first trip out found that it was too hard. Fitted an egg shell overlay & it was a great improvement.
After 15 years it is still going strong (might be about time to replace it). Never had a problem with heat or moisture.
We always use a good quality mattress protector over our mattresses.
This set up would be my choice. Not a fan of foam mattresses except maybe for short term camping .. like in the back of my Patrol for 2 or 3 day fishing trips.

I had an inner spring mattress tailor made for my MH bed but also found it too hard. I now have a 2 inch layer of foam over the top. Makes a big difference to comfort.

billeeeeeee · Guru

Howdyeee Mattress lovers,,, Salutations lovers of life, My first love , !!Was a Kapok Mattress, anyone that old?????, God knows what it was made of........ !!!But enjoyed it for 8 years, soooooo long as it puts me to sleep , is ok, ,,,,, stay excited Billeeeeeee

jules47 · The Happy Helper

Billeeeeeee could sleep on a barbed wire fence!!!!!!

neilnruth · Guru

I remember another thread on this topic and there were as many opinions as there were posters - not many agreed. So I think it is really down to personal preference. And our 'penny worth' would be innerspring with mattress topper - we found foam mattress too hot and also no good for our backs.

Plendo · Guru

Thank you all for your experiences and opinions, and I think Neilnruth is correct to say it is a topic that has as many different opinions as posters.

I did note however that inner springs being too hard appears to be a common theme.

Also note that people find foam to trap too much heat, I suspect this may be limited to only some foams, but not sure.

Egg carton bed toppers appear to have mixed, but generally favorable comments.

Appart from weight Latex survives well.

Kapok, hmm not sure Bileeee, I think I remember it being an itchy mattress, that might be because of the inhabitants.

Thanks again for your views.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I have a innerspring mattress at home and in the Avan and both have the egg carton on top with no overheating problem's, could have done with a heated egg carton the other night near Yass NSW.

spida · Guru

Plendo wrote:

Also note that people find foam to trap too much heat, I suspect this may be limited to only some foams, but not sure.The expert - who sells nothing but foam & latex assured me that it has to be high density foam - very small 'bubbles'. Low density traps too much heat - as do egg carton.
Egg carton bed toppers appear to have mixed, but generally favorable comments.

woolman · Guru

We have put in a memory foam mattress. Not cheap but best thing ever did. Memory foam is not necessarily memory foam. Lots of different qualities, some not as good. You need to go online and look a densities etc. I got mine from a guy at the Tasmanian CMCA rally. I get bursitis in my hips and memory foam is the only matress I have any chance of sleeping on. We live full time in MH but maybe quatity not so important for shorter trips. a good standard high density foam might suffice, just that they don't last long I find.

Neil