[HN Gopher] 31/2 years on my custom emperor mattress - a retrosp...
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31/2 years on my custom emperor mattress - a retrospective
Author : MiddleEndian
Score : 86 points
Date : 2021-10-29 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.middleendian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.middleendian.com)
| dsauerbrun wrote:
| I can't imagine needing a bed like that for any other reason
| besides hosting giant orgies. I hope your ridiculous bed brings
| you many more years of enjoyment!
| almog wrote:
| Either that or residents of Wyoming:
| https://sleepboutique.ca/alaskan-king-wyoming-king-beds-aka-...
|
| Alaskans will not ""sleep"" in beds smaller than 9' x 9' it
| seems.
| math0ne wrote:
| haha, that video is hilarious!
| jimt1234 wrote:
| Wait. Are you my kid? Oh well, go to sleep. LOL
| White_Wolf wrote:
| Christ... that 9x9 bed is almost as big as our bedroom(30cm
| left to the wall).
| [deleted]
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Well, no comment on that one! :P
|
| But I do enjoy the bed quite a bit lol
| chrisBob wrote:
| I am very interested in the buckling gel, and I have considered
| getting a mattress from Purple a few times. Is it a significant
| upgrade from memory foam?
| MikeKusold wrote:
| Purple is carried by some mattress stores. When I laid on it, I
| immediately didn't like it. It has an unstable feel to it
| because of the grids.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| It's somewhat subjective of course, but for me it's a huge
| upgrade.
|
| Form-wise, memory foam will respond to your positions but I
| feel like it's very slow and I also feel like I'm slowly
| sinking downward forever when I sleep on memory foam. Buckling
| gel responds very quickly, latex does as well. Latex is more
| springy, makes for a good core and isn't too bad to sleep on
| directly itself either, but buckling gel really fills in gaps
| and is super supportive.
|
| Temperature-wise, memory foam makes me very hot when I sleep
| and I dislike that. Latex is much cooler and buckling gel even
| cooler than that.
|
| (Everything I said about latex applies to polyurethane, which I
| believe Purple uses for its core rather than latex)
| thethethethe wrote:
| I had a purple 2 king and it was very comfortable but the
| motion transfer was bad. I suggest getting something else of
| you have a partner and a couple of grand to spend
| Scoundreller wrote:
| I originally read that as "caveat emptor mattress", which would
| also be a fun topic.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Given the weird materials people put in commercial mattresses,
| this is wouldn't be too far from the truth for most people.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| The best thing about a square mattress is that once you have the
| right sheets, you can't screw up which way they go on.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Not gonna lie that was a factor in me choosing emperor (7x7)
| over caesar (8x7) originally. Square is a good shape.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Speaking of that, where do you get sheets for this thing? I
| don't see that mentioned in either article. I suppose they
| ought to be a bit easier to custom manufacture than the
| mattress itself.
| retzkek wrote:
| I was wondering the same thing, it's in the original article:
|
| > I ordered a custom-sized bamboo bed set from Advanced
| Bedding. Their website had a form where I could just fill in
| the dimensions so it seemed like it would be the only
| purchase that didn't involve any human interaction, but they
| called to confirm anyway as the numbers were "unusual."
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| The other posts covered the sheet sizes, but this reminds me
| of something I forgot to include in my article.
|
| My comforter is too large for my washing machine, so I wash
| it in the tub every few months.
| s5300 wrote:
| Mentioned halfway down under "sheets" from his hyperlinked OG
| build thread.
|
| https://www.middleendian.com/emperor
| aroundtown wrote:
| The one question I wanted answered, how good is the sex on a
| mattress this big.
|
| Nobody talks of how foam mattresses change the dynamics of sex.
| Gone is the nice bounce back from the coils. Instead you get the
| firm motion deadening of the foam. Participants expecting to find
| that extra spring in their step find they have to provide their
| own bounce. I hope your muscles are up for it.
|
| I personally don't having sex on a foam mattress. I think those
| seeking a foam mattress should consider keeping around a spare
| coiled sex bed. Call it your guest bed if so inclined. It will be
| there for you, providing that extra spring you may be missing
| from you foam mattress.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| This is certainly not as squishy as most foam mattresses, it's
| not memory foam, the materials are pretty bouncy. Plus the
| buckling gel allows you to have good on-the-fly form fitted
| gripping locations. So to keep this HN appropriate, I'll just
| say no complaints here!
| lapetitejort wrote:
| Is there an authority on mattress size naming standards to whom I
| may offer a suggestion? Having just read Julian by Gore Vidal, I
| learned that a few centuries after Caesar and Augustus, the title
| of Caesar ranked below that of Augustus (well played, Gaius
| Octavius). I suggest King->Caesar->Augustus.
|
| However if we want to get into semantics, the word King descends
| from the word Caesar. Perhaps replace King with Minister, and
| Queen with Representative?
| dorfsmay wrote:
| I'd much prefer 2x3 fora 2m by 3m bed. Poetic names confuses
| me: Why is a twin different than a double but the exact same
| thing as a single? Call them by their size, done.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| If I do make that 8'4"x8'4" mattress I'll call it an Augustus
| as you suggest.
| violiner wrote:
| "King" is derived from Old English "cyning". Some similar words
| (Tsar and Kaiser, for example) derive from "Caesar", but "king"
| isn't one of them.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| You beat me to it. Only fresh in my mind because of the
| Anglo-Saxon and Latin discussions also on the front page
| right now (I'd grabbed a couple books off the shelf and was
| trying to read them, I've forgotten a lot in 15 years and
| didn't make it far).
| violiner wrote:
| High fives none the less.
| EastOfTruth wrote:
| Cool project but it seems odd that you didn't really save any
| money since mattresses appear to be so over-priced.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| 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.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| The original hacker news thread from when I built the mattress:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17558719
| arthurjj wrote:
| "At this point, I decided the only thing that made sense was to
| build my own from scratch."
|
| This is such a beautiful sentence and sentiment. If HN were to
| have a motto it could do a lot worse than that
| JackMorgan wrote:
| This is the spirit that keeps me coming back for more!
| jbelich wrote:
| I did something similar to you, except I used progressively less
| dense layers of latex (also from foamorder.com). CalKing rather
| than anything larger, but I've considered larger and I've been
| thinking it's better to make an Emperor or Caesar size formed
| from two halves.
|
| it's been 10 years btw since I build mine. There's a slight give
| in the densest lower layer but it's held up enough that I still
| only really need to replace the top layer to get it back up to
| snuff.
|
| My question: how in the hell do you afford sheets that size? lol
| goldcd wrote:
| As an entirely subjective point - I went from fully sprung, to a
| Tempur (all foam) and both had benefits and both weren't 'right'
| Currently have a 'Simba' (Just one of the UK's many internet
| mattress brands) which has coil+foam -
| https://simbasleep.com/products/mattress and think it gives the
| best of both worlds.
|
| Sorry, I now realize this sounds like an advert - but I'm
| fascinated how 'online mattresses' have become 'a thing' Previous
| online examples (say amazon with books) were just higlighting
| that online can provide the same item you could checkout offline,
| for less.
|
| Mattresses should be an item you have to check out in person -
| but due to the outrageous markups, people will now happily buy
| sight-unseen online.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > due to the outrageous markups
|
| Not only that, but traditional mattress shops still use some of
| the highest pressure sales tactics I've experienced. It only
| takes once to make you never want to set foot in one again.
| glitchcrab wrote:
| I really wasn't keen on the idea of buying a mattress without
| testing it, but then the more I thought about it the more I
| realised that spending a few minutes on it in a showroom is not
| even remotely indicative as to what a whole night would be
| like.
|
| I caved and purchased a Nectar mattress (I'm also in the UK),
| mostly because you got a year's (!) money back guarantee. Best
| choice I ever made - it highlighted how poor my old mattress
| was and I never needed to use the guarantee.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| I was honestly concerned about whether I'd like the materials
| in person but I definitely passed out on it in various stages
| of construction to confirm I was going in the right direction.
|
| Nowadays you probably have a friend or two who's ordered an
| online mattress you can try out.
| gifnamething wrote:
| My Simba pillow - essentially made from mattress offcuts - has
| collapsed quite a lot in around 6 months. It's fine for now but
| I worry about the future. On the other hand, the throw is
| lovely.
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(page generated 2021-10-29 23:00 UTC)