Climbing into a deep, cushioned bed at the end of a long day is a pleasure plenty of people will happily pay for, and if that's the feeling you're shopping for, the Salus Daintree 10000 is built around it. Salus is the top-end label from Breasley, a Derbyshire bed maker, with three mattresses under it, and the Daintree is the one in the middle. Mattress Online has it as a pocket hybrid, graded Soft to Medium, with a box top. It's there for anyone who finds an ordinary hybrid thin on top: a quilted box top buttons on over the mattress, with gel memory foam and a layer of small springs inside it, and the mattress beneath has more gel foam and more springs of its own. All told it stands 39cm (about 15 and a half inches) tall. Lie down and you go into it slowly, the way you do with memory foam, until the little springs underneath start nudging you back up, so you end up cradled instead of stuck.
That lift-off top is what sets the Daintree apart from its siblings. The step-down Salus below it has a flat top with nothing to take off, while the Salus Sequoia 12000 above keeps a buttoned-on top like this one and goes 3cm deeper, with more mini springs packed into its top and a layer of full-size springs under the minis. The Daintree suits side sleepers of light to average weight best, and couples who'd like to stop feeling each other turn over. Give it a miss if you're past about fifteen stone and sleep on your back, because you'll sink through all that comfort before anything firm takes your weight.
How soft is the Salus Daintree 10000?
Softer than medium, and a good deal deeper than most beds at that grade. Mattress Online calls it Soft to Medium and Breasley calls it Medium Plush. Grades don't carry over from one maker to the next, so judge it by what's inside, and what's inside is a great deal of foam. There are three layers of Gelflex, Salus's gel memory foam, two of them in the box top and one in the mattress, plus a PlushFlex layer and a motion-absorbing layer near the surface. Your shoulder and hip keep settling for longer than they would on a standard hybrid before the springs stop them, and that long, slow sink is the best thing about the bed.
Under all that foam sit the springs the name counts: 2,000 in the box top, a double layer of 6,000 beneath the gel foam and another 2,000 below that, nearly all of them minis, each in its own fabric pocket and fenced in by a reinforced border. They give the surface its lively bounce. Above about 1,500 in a king, extra springs mostly add comfort, not support, so buy the Daintree for that deep foam over good springs and leave the number on the end of its name out of the sums.
I go by weight before position. Light side sleepers, under about nine stone, are who this softness suits most: a medium-firm bed barely lets your shoulder in, and the Daintree lets it sink right in. Between nine and fourteen stone on your side, you get a deep cushion with your waist still supported. Back sleepers of average weight who like a soft bed will be comfortable lying in it, though not on top of it. Heavier back and front sleepers want something firmer.
Couples do well here. All that foam sits over springs that each move on their own, so your partner can roll over without rocking your side of the bed. A wall of dense foam runs round the spring layers, and it keeps the edge firm enough to sit on while you put your slippers on.
The box top buttons on and lifts off
I'm glad it's a box top. Pillow tops I talk people out of, because that soft sewn-on pad goes on softening and causes more trouble than it solves. Box tops last better in my book, and I'm happy to recommend one. This one is quilted with wool and held down by a non-slip base and Salus's own buttons. Inside it are 2,000 mini springs between two layers of gel foam, which makes it closer to a thin mattress of its own than a pad.
Because it comes off, you can lift it away and air it on its own, which a stitched-on top never lets you do, and rotating the mattress beneath is lighter work with the top set aside. Take it off for good and you'd be left with a shallower, firmer bed, still with gel foam and its own wool-blend cover. I'd keep it on, since the top is where most of the Daintree's softness lives.
Gel takes the edge off the warmth
I like gel in memory foam. The particles mixed through the Gelflex draw a little heat away, and there are three gel layers here, two of them in the box top, one just under the wool quilting and one beneath its mini springs, while the wool-blend quilting breathes and the mini springs and the air vents along the border let air through the middle. It's still a lot of memory foam, and memory foam keeps your body heat close. If you run warm but love a foam feel, gel is the compromise I'd steer you to, and this is a good example of it. If heat is what wakes you most nights, choose a pocket-sprung bed with natural fillings instead.
At 39cm deep and 48kg, sort out the sheets before it arrives
Sunday is fresh-sheets day for me. Try that on 39cm of mattress with an ordinary fitted sheet and the corners ping off, because most are cut for beds of around 30cm, so buy deep-pocket sheets before delivery day. The weights climb with the size, from 48kg in a double to 54kg in a king and 68kg in a super king. Two people bring it in, so check your stairs and that awkward turn at the top of them before you order.
All the comfort is on one side. Rotate it end to end every season, using the handles stitched into the border, and never turn it over. I'd always choose a mattress I could turn, and at this weight rotating it takes two of you. There's no single or small double at Mattress Online, which starts the Daintree at a double. Breasley builds each one after you order, and the shop's 100-Night Comfort Trial exchanges it for a different mattress if it's wrong for you, provided you bought the shop's protector alongside it. Ask before you order whether a swap means waiting for a fresh build.
Is it worth the money? For a side sleeper or a couple who want to sink into a deep, cushioned bed, yes. You're paying for a very deep layer of good foam over high-quality springs, with a top you can lift off and air, and for a soft bed you could do a lot worse.
What to buy instead
Soft hybrid fans who can live with less foam on top should go for the Kaymed Smart Phase 2000 Pocket Hybrid, a cheaper bed from Mattress Online's own shelves. It's Soft to Medium too, with reflex foam and Kaymed's Smart Phase foam, made to soak up body heat and give it back, over a core of 2,000 pocket springs, and at 32cm it's kinder to your sheets. You lose the lift-off top and that long, slow sink, and it comes in a single, which the Daintree doesn't.
Hot sleepers who still want soft should look at the Hypnos Banbury Cotton Comfort, also graded Soft to Medium, with natural cotton fillings over pocket springs and no memory foam at all. Hypnos makes beds well and prices them fairly, in my book. Choose the Daintree if deep foam is the feel you're after, and buy the king if there are two of you, because a double is too narrow for two adults to sleep well.
