Saatva HD Mattress Review

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This Mattress Could Be For You If:

• • You carry a lot of weight and need a mattress that will hold you up with solid support.
  • You sleep hot.
  • You need something with a little bounce to help you move around and get in and out of bed.
  • You’re not a big fan of the memory foam feel.
  • You like to keep your carbon footprint low.
  • You sleep on your back and/or stomach.
  • You are a combination sleeper who has limited mobility.

If you carry a lot of weight, it can be hard to find the right mattress. There are a plethora of reasons including:

• The wrong layer lineup with low-density foams will develop sagging too early. 
• Medium firmness typically isn’t accommodating.
• Adequate support just isn’t there, leading to back problems, tossing and turning, and aches and pains that haunt you hours after waking up

If you’re a heavier person, I’m preaching to the choir, and today I’m proudly presenting a viable solution in the Saatva HD mattress. This luxury hybrid innerspring mattress was designed specifically with your unique needs in mind, and it’s engineered to offer support for sleepers ranging from 300 to 500 pounds. 

Saatva is one of the earliest pioneers in the bed-in-a-box industry, so let’s jump right in and discuss everything you need to know before you buy.

You may want to read: Saatva VS Zenhaven

Saatva: A Pioneer in the Bed-in-a-Box Industry

The bed in the box industry really took off around the year 2014. Saatva has been behind the scenes as one of the earliest pioneers in 2011, and this has allowed them the chance to develop a full line of quality products:

• Flagship Saatva innerspring mattress
• All foam Loom & Leaf
• Eco-friendly Zenhaven
• Firmness-fluctuating Saatva Solaire

One of my favorite things about Saatva is that their representatives don’t work on commission. This means their paychecks aren’t determined on the number of mattresses they sell. When you work with them, they don’t push you into buying their products. They do, however, take the time to ensure all your questions are answered. Their honest guidance is very evident, and they don’t beat around the bush when answering questions. 

Customer service was incredibly transparent and helpful. They answered all my questions on ILD, density, and coil count. When they didn’t know an answer, they took the time to go find out. Best of all, their representatives are available 24/7 including weekends and holidays.

You may want to check out: Breakdown of the Saatva VS Helix

How to Choose the Right Saatva Product

Saatva has five mattresses from which to choose, so how do you know which one is best for you? Let’s take a moment to discuss who would most benefit from each:

• Saatva HD
  • You carry a lot of weight and need a mattress that will hold up with solid support.
  • You sleep hot.
  • You need something with a little bounce to help you move around and get in and out of bed.
  • You’re not a big fan of the memory foam feel.
  • You like to keep your carbon footprint low.
  • You sleep on your back and/or stomach.
  • You are a combination sleeper who has limited mobility.
  • You and your sleep partner have a combined weight of 1,000 pounds.
  • You weigh up to 500 pounds.

• Saatva Original
  • You’re looking for a strong innerspring unit without all the motion transfer.
  • You’re ready to invest in a product that’ll stand the test of time.
  • You and your sleep partner have a combined weight of up to 600 pounds
  • You weigh up to 300 pounds.

• Loom & Leaf
  • You weigh up to 300 pounds or have combined weight with your sleeping partner of up to 600 pounds and have had trouble in the past finding a product to offer the support you need.
  • You enjoy memory foam but don’t like feeling “stuck” and sleeping hot.
  • You are in the market for a product you can expect to last.
  • You want a product that reduces motion transfer.

• Zenhaven
  • You want a natural product that’s naturally hypoallergenic and resistant to mold, microbes, and dust mites.
  • You want to take advantage of quality materials at a lower cost using the online mattress model.
  • You appreciate the ability to experience more than one firmness level.
  • You’re looking for a product that will last for many years to come.

• Saatva Solaire
  • You would like to be able to adjust your firmness.
  • You and your sleep partner have highly different needs and preferences.
  • You sleep hot.
  • You enjoy the use of an adjustable base.
  • You carry a lot of weight and need strong support but don’t want an innerspring product.

Saatva HD Support

One of the biggest hindrances people over 300 pounds face in finding the right mattress is the fact that it can be in the best interest of a newer mattress company to reach a broad market base. With a growing number of companies launching their first or second products, many mattresses dominating search results feature a medium firmness.

As we have seen, Saatva has already covered their ground in offering products geared toward the average person, lightweight folks, and those in the two hundred to three hundred pound range.

Since Saatva HD is designed with weights between 300 to 500 pounds in mind, I personally can’t give a very helpful perspective in terms of feel. What I can subjectively tell you is that, if you weigh less than 300 pounds, this mattress is going to feel very firm, and you won’t get a whole lot of engagement with the memory foam or latex. 

One of the reasons it is so firm is to accommodate heavier weights, and the support is strong. The largest layer consists of a quality innerspring unit made of materials that are above the industry standard. The edges are reinforced to keep you in bed, and the mattress is capable of holding up to 1,000 pounds with 500 being applied on each side.

 

Saatva HD Firmness & Contour

To analyze firmness, the support layer is where most of it is. It weighs in at a 12.5 gauge. This number usually ranges from 12-15 with the lower number representing a firmer mattress. So, at 12.5, you can imagine, the final product is pretty firm.

Considering my limited ability to provide useful subjective feedback on this one, let’s take an objective look at how the Saatva HD measures up when we use our firmness and contour testing tool. You can learn all about how this testing works here, but, in a nutshell, it allows us to take a scientifically accurate snapshot of how different areas of your body will interact with the layer lineup with respect to how much the sleeper weighs and the weight a mattress is designed to accommodate. 

Keep in mind that the latex and coils are zoned. This means they are firmer toward the center of the sleep surface to improve lumbar support, a great feature for back sleepers who carry a lot of weight. In my testing, I measured the top, middle, and bottom of this mattress to represent how you can expect to engage with the Saatva HD mattress.

 

General Firmness Testing Procedure

Taking a look at our results, we have used weights of 50, 100, and 150 pounds. This represents various body types. For example:

• Some may carry a lot of their weight in their hips, a moderate amount in the shoulders, but not much elsewhere. For them:
  • 150 lbs. could represent the hips
  • 100 lbs. could represent the shoulders
  • 50 lbs. could represent the extremities 
• For a bodybuilder:
  • 150 lbs. could represent the shoulders
• For those with very even weight distribution:
  • 100 lbs. could apply to the hips and shoulders
  • 50 lbs. could apply to the extremities

Everyone is different, and you should have a pretty good idea of where and how you carry weight. Understanding this, let’s take a look at the chart generated from our testing.

 

Test Results

First, I’d like to draw your attention to the two sets of results. Those on top show the readings we got on the top and bottom, and the bottom set of results shows the middle. You can see the

lines on it are smaller, and this reflects the zoning. Based on our testing, the middle of the mattress is approximately 30% firmer than the top and bottom. This allows the extra support you need to keep your lumbar spine from sagging. 

If you carry a lot of your weight in your midsection and sleep on your side, you might find this added firmness to cause pressure points. However, those of you who are top heavy or carry your weight relatively evenly throughout the body, you’ll enjoy the most benefit of the zoning.

• The blue line represents how deeply lighter-weight areas of the body will sink into the mattress. The 50 pounds sunk a little less than an inch into the material, and this is in the pillowtop region. 
• The 100 pound weight represented in red stands out. It’s much longer than the other two, and we experienced sinkage of about two and a half inches at this point. Here, you’re sinking into the latex with about an inch of space before the memory support foam blend kicks in. 
• When we add that extra 50 pounds, the sinkage increases by another inch. The reason the yellow line is so much shorter than the red is because, in areas of the body where you weigh one hundred fifty pounds or more, you’ll sink into the firmer memory foam.

For a bed made for people between 300-500 pounds, these results are great because you can expect the heaviest areas of the body are going to be feeling that memory foam contour, and it’s four inches thick. Considering 150 pounds only scratches the surface of this layer, it should be plenty thick to accommodate people up to five hundred pounds.

This particular combination of firmness and contouring capabilities are going to be best suitable for most heavy set folks who sleep primarily on their back and/or stomach. If you like to sleep on your side, best compatibility will be experienced with inverted triangle and rectangle-shaped bodies. It can also be a great fit for heavy combination sleepers since the latex/innerspring combo makes moving around very easy.

 

A Look at the Layer Lineup

Now that you have a better idea of how the Saatva HD mattress feels, let’s take a look inside to understand how it works.

The Cover

It all starts off with a 1 ½ inch organic cotton pillow top to provide that immediate

cushioning for contour and comfort. Cotton is naturally very breathable, and this is important considering the direct contact with the body.

The cover is enhanced with an antimicrobial fabric treatment called Guardian®, an excellent feature for allergy sufferers. To keep the inside layers in place, the entire cover is hand-tufted.

Comfort Zone

Below the cover is the two inch comfort layer comprised of all-natural Talalay latex. Its responsive and buoyant nature resists body weight and is a great choice for heavier sleepers. Latex is known for being highly durable, and the top comfort layer is where most wear and tear takes place, so this was a smart choice in terms of durability. 

The latex layer offers five zone support. This means the firmness varies just slightly based on where you carry the most weight, working to provide targeted support for the back, hips, and shoulders. I like that the strong response of the latex prevents excessive sinkage without being overly firm.

The lift provided is natural and buoyant to keep you on top of the mattress where you want to be, not sunk into the support zone where pressure points develop. Latex in layer one is also smart considering it’s a very breathable material.

Transition Zone

To ensure the responsive latex doesn’t overwhelm deeper contouring effects, it’s followed by four inches of a combination of memory foam and support foam. This adds pressure relief and keeps you sleeping comfortably. If you don’t carry much weight, a

lineup that starts with memory foam and follows with latex is often a better fit, but this layer lineup is very appropriate for those who carry a lot of weight.

But My Sleep Partner Isn’t Heavy…

If you’re a heavy person with a sleep partner who doesn’t carry much weight, I’d suggest buying the king size Saatva HD and adding a Twin XL memory foam topper to be applied to the lightweight person’s side. I’ll leave a link to some of our favorite toppers in the description below.

Support Zone

The next six inches of the Saatva HD mattress is made up of the innerspring unit. It works well with the latex to offer great bounce to aid in mobility, and its tempered steel coils are 25% stronger than the industry standard.

The coils are also threaded with 17 gauge helical wire to reduce motion transfer, and we’ll put that to the test here in a few minutes. Just like the latex in layer one, the coils are zoned for added lumbar support. Best of all, the entire innerspring unit is wrapped in a high density edge support foam that reinforces the entire surface area of the mattress. 

These foam rails encase not only the sides but also the top and bottom of the innersprings, so the final layer of this mattress is comprised of two inches of this material. This is important to maintain the shape of the mattress and keep the innersprings in place. 

All layers combined result in a final product that’s 15 ½ inches thick, so make sure you buy sheets large enough to accommodate.

 

Saatva HD Edge Support

A supportive edge can make mobility easier and help keep you from falling out of bed. At the same time, when you have an edge that’s much more supportive than the rest of the sleep surface, you run into the trampoline effect. This is where sleepers feel as though they’re being drawn into the center of the mattress, most notably a lighter sleep partner falling into the indent of his or her heavier sleep partner.

You can see here that I am supported incredibly well when I sit and lie on the edge. This has a lot to do with that solid innerspring unit and that high density foam reinforcement along the edges. The firm foams of the layer lineup keep you from sinking too deeply into the comfort layers, and I don’t feel like I’m sagging too far into the bulk of the mattress within the borders. 

The overall mattress firmness and added wire support in the center third provides a very even support system that should accommodate sleep partners well.

 

Motion Isolation: Does the Latex/Innerspring Combo have a Negative Impact?

We’ve looked at multiple instances where the latex/coil combo is genius. It makes movement easy, transfers heat well, and provides great support. The only trouble lies in the fact that these great benefits often exist at the sacrifice of a degree of motion isolation. 

Put quite simply, latex and springs are bouncy. 

When I dropped a 20 pound medicine ball next to another of equal weight,  you can see in the video review above that the resting ball is visibly affected by the impact. If you have a sleep partner, you will have to make a compromise. 

If awesome support, durability, and ease in mobility are more important to you, the Saatva HD is a prime choice. However, if you’re a very light sleeper and have a sleep partner who moves around a lot, you may want to consider a product made of foam.

 

Naturally Breathable Mattress for Hot Sleepers

Hot sleeping can be a huge concern, especially considering you can’t enter the deepest level of REM sleep until you drop just slightly below the normal 98.6 degree body temperature. That’s why we always take a look at the ability of a mattress to sleep cool. 

Looking at the features, we have three main components at work aiding in this department: 

1. Starting at the cover, the organic cotton breathes well naturally. 
2. The latex layer is ventilated to promote airflow.
3. Open coils breathe well by design.

As a combined unit, let’s take a look at how quickly the mattress is able to return to room temperature after I lied on it for a half hour. Most mattresses take around 10 minutes, and this product cooled off in right about that amount of time. I didn’t have trouble with hot sleep on this mattress, and I’d say, as long as you don’t have significant issues with hot sleeping, you’ll find it to be thermally compatible with quality sleep.

 

Saatva HD Durability Expectations

Prior to using the HD, I had tried out four of Saatva’s five mattresses. They were all donated to acquaintances of mine, some of them having been used for almost three years now. I’ve had nothing but great feedback in terms of durability, and that’s because Saatva uses quality materials. 

The fact that the HD model has an increased weight limit of 300-500 pounds says a lot. In fact, for all sizes except twin and twin XL, it can support sleep partners up to 1,000 pounds with 500 being applied on each side. 

Latex is naturally very durable. Memory foam, however, is synthetic, so durability varies. We need to look at the density measurement to get an idea of how long it should last. 

• A density in this foam type of at least three pounds per cubic foot is suitable for average durability expectations.
• Saatva HD uses five pcf foam. This is top-notch stuff built to last. 

The steel coils are 25% stronger than the industry standard, and this goes a long way in preventing premature sagging. Overall, high quality is there at every layer of the Saatva HD mattress. With proper use, it should easily last 8-10 years.

Maintenance, Protection, Care, and Warranty

While it’s true the Saatva HD is made of quality materials, you should still make efforts to keep it in good shape. 

1. It’s not required, but using a quality mattress protector can help prevent stains and other mishaps.
2. Saatva recommends you rotate after six months and then yearly after that.
3. Don’t flip the HD mattress. The layer lineup doesn’t allow for this. 
4. To ensure it lasts as long as possible and doesn’t develop mold, you should use a foundation capable of holding heavy weight. Saatva offers their HD foundation, and you’ll be prompted with the ability to add it to your order at checkout.

Cost

We’ve determined that quality is not lacking with Saatva HD. However, does this mean it comes at an expense you cannot afford? The great news is that, by using the bed-in-a-box business model, you’re able to eliminate a lot of the overhead involved with the retail alternative. Let’s take a look at the cost of each size option:

Size	Price
Twin	$1,499
Twin XL	$1,599
Full	$1,899
Queen	$2,499
King	$2,799
California King	$2,799
Split King	$3,198

If you’re on a tight budget and do weigh between 300-500 pounds, I’d encourage you to take a look Saatva’s financing option through Klarna before you compromise on quality with something cheaper. They offer 0% financing for qualified buyers. In this heavier weight range, many mattresses just aren’t going to hold up the way they would for someone of average weight, and you can end up spending far more in the long run when you’re right back to mattress shopping in a few years.

Who We Recommend the Saatva HD Mattress For

This mattress is the second most expensive in the lineup, but, before you let that scare you off, it’s totally worth it if you do fall in that 300-500 pound range. That’s because you’re paying for the level of quality capable of offering you that solid support you need. 

On the other hand, if you fall below this weight range, you’re probably better off saving some money and going with another option. The only exception I can think of is someone under three hundred pounds who likes a really firm mattress and sleeps primarily on their back and/or stomach. 

Overall, I think the Saatva HD mattress could be the right pick for you if:

• • You carry a lot of weight and need a mattress that will hold up with solid support.
  • You sleep hot.
  • You need something with a little bounce to help you move around and get in and out of bed.
  • You’re not a big fan of the memory foam feel.
  • You like to keep your carbon footprint low.
  • You sleep on your back and/or stomach.
  • You are a combination sleeper who has limited mobility.

You may be interested in: Saatva Solaire Upper Flex Queen Review

Our Final Verdict

For those of you who ultimately decide to buy the Saatva HD mattress, you get 180 nights to try it out. If you decide it’s not for you, all you have to pay is a $99 transportation fee to cover the mattress pickup, but you’ll be completely refunded on the purchase. If you do like it, you’re covered for 20 years with a non-prorated warranty that covers defects in workmanship and materials. 

When dealing with high-grade materials like latex, mattresses can become pretty heavy and unwieldy, and that’s why I like that Saatva offers free white glove delivery. It includes in-home setup and the removal of your old mattress. For a heavier person, the support offered combined with the zoning offers a great sleep surface for someone who likes a more responsive mattress. 

For those looking for the sinky memory foam feel, I think these products may be more up your alley. You can also consider adding a memory foam topper. They usually range anywhere from one to four inches in thickness and offer that little extra hug before the same strong Saatva HD support kicks in.

Aside from these potential minor setbacks, the Saatva HD offers an excellent combination of zoned support and contour that’s excellent for the weight range it’s designed to accommodate.