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Cool project but it seems odd that you didn't really save any money since mattresses appear to be so over-priced.

MiddleEndian 5y ago
I'd say the lack of price savings are mainly these three factors: Material quality: Purple, which I roughly used as inspiration for my original mattress design, used polyurethane which is cheaper and lighter, but less durable, than the latex I used for the core of my mattress. I have no idea what they used now but that was the case at the time. Economies of scale: They can keep making the same few shapes cheaper. I was unable to buy specific dimensions of buckling column gel so I had to buy several toppers to extract the material and I only used 49 square feet out of the 64 square feet (although I found other uses for some of the remaining gel), plus the toppers came with other cheap foam that I had little use for. It's really difficult to order buckling column gel directly. The literal scale: My mattress is larger than most of the US mattress companies, more material = more money. I imagine an emperor sized mattress would be similarly or more expensive from Purple. I would've gotten slightly better ROI per size had I made my bed larger due to the aforementioned discarded buckling column gel. Plus I needed to get nonstandard custom sheets and a custom sized encasement.
Alupis 5y ago
Some things are simply not worth skimping on. A good quality mattress, where you spend 5-8 hours every day - is one of the areas where skimping is not worth while in my opinion. Same with computer chairs, or any other thing that impacts back and joint health over prolonged periods.
- User23 5y ago
  I’m under the impression that sleeping on rough ground actually produces the greatest long term health benefits. Much like how sitting in a plush chair isn’t all that healthy really.
- EastOfTruth 5y ago
  In my experience, paying more for a mattress doesn't necessarily equal to more comfort and I have no aches sitting all day in a cheap height-adjustable captain chair on wheels if I make sure that the arm rests are at the same height as the keyboard tray.

I'd say the lack of price savings are mainly these three factors: Material quality: Purple, which I roughly used as inspiration for my original mattress design, used polyurethane which is cheaper and lighter, but less durable, than the latex I used for the core of my mattress. I have no idea what they used now but that was the case at the time. Economies of scale: They can keep making the same few shapes cheaper. I was unable to buy specific dimensions of buckling column gel so I had to buy several toppers to extract the material and I only used 49 square feet out of the 64 square feet (although I found other uses for some of the remaining gel), plus the toppers came with other cheap foam that I had little use for. It's really difficult to order buckling column gel directly. The literal scale: My mattress is larger than most of the US mattress companies, more material = more money. I imagine an emperor sized mattress would be similarly or more expensive from Purple. I would've gotten slightly better ROI per size had I made my bed larger due to the aforementioned discarded buckling column gel. Plus I needed to get nonstandard custom sheets and a custom sized encasement.

Alupis 5y ago

Some things are simply not worth skimping on. A good quality mattress, where you spend 5-8 hours every day - is one of the areas where skimping is not worth while in my opinion. Same with computer chairs, or any other thing that impacts back and joint health over prolonged periods.

User23 5y ago
I’m under the impression that sleeping on rough ground actually produces the greatest long term health benefits. Much like how sitting in a plush chair isn’t all that healthy really.
EastOfTruth 5y ago
In my experience, paying more for a mattress doesn't necessarily equal to more comfort and I have no aches sitting all day in a cheap height-adjustable captain chair on wheels if I make sure that the arm rests are at the same height as the keyboard tray.