Only buy the Highgrove Solar Ortho Dream Mattress if your budget is very tight, and even then treat it as a stopgap. Anyone who can stretch should buy Highgrove's Solar Orthopocket 1500 instead. Extra firm is a specialist feel that suits few people, and an open coil is the wrong way to get it, because the springs are wired together and carry every movement across the bed. It isn't a guest bed either: visitors need a firmness most people can sleep on.
Extra firm, from an open coil
Inside are rows of hourglass springs, each joined top and bottom by a spiral wire, with a thick rod-edge wire round the unit. Highgrove upholsters it in Belgian damask over white fibre fillings and hand-tufts it to pre-tension the surface, which is part of what makes it so firm. It's 27cm deep and double-sided.
The "Ortho" in the name is a word on a label. It doesn't describe a standard, and in practice it usually means firm. Turnable is the one part of the build I like, since two sides share the wear.
Who it's for, and why that's so few people
If you're heavy, sleep on your back or front and already know you need extra firm, it will do the job. I'd still treat it as a bed you replace, not one you keep. Side sleepers will be sore at the hip and shoulder. Couples will feel each other turn. If a sore back is why you're shopping, a harder bed is no fix; I'd start almost anyone on medium-firm and work from there.
Owners are very happy; they're mostly people who wanted a hard bed, though a couple found it softer than the extra firm label led them to expect. Don't buy it for a shared bed. One owner bought one for a son, and that's the use I'd argue with: I'd never put a child on an open coil every night.
One owner tells a story I liked: the assistant in the shop said she personally preferred a pocket-sprung mattress, but recommended this for the extra-firm feel they'd asked for. I'd have sold them the pocket sprung. The same owner reports sagging in places after a couple of weeks, loose tufts and soft sides. One report, but early sag on an open coil is the complaint I'd take seriously. My worst mattress was an open-coil hand-me-down, already twenty years old, and I slept in the divot between its springs.
Two sides to sleep on, and nothing to turn it by
Nothing in the spec or the feature list mentions turning handles. One owner went looking and found none. Turning it means gripping the border, so do it with a second person. It repays the effort: one owner has had theirs for years and turned it round to get the most from it.
The pocket-sprung way to extra firm
If you need extra firm, buy the Highgrove Solar Orthopocket 1500. It's the same idea from the same maker, double-sided and extra firm, with pocket springs that move separately instead of a linked coil. The extra money buys those springs, turning handles and 29cm against this one's 27cm.
