Press a hand into this one and almost nothing happens, which tells you most of it. The Silentnight Aloe Vera Portloe is the entry rung of a five-mattress range at Dreams and the hardest of the lot: graded very firm, 672 springs wired into one connected sheet, breathable polyester fibre over the top, 24cm all in. Lie on your back and you're held flat, hips and shoulders at the same height. One owner called it "really firm with hardly any give", and that's the Portloe in six words.
The group it suits is small. Heavier back and front sleepers who've slept on very firm and want it again get exactly what they came for. Side sleepers should avoid it, and so should anybody light. It is the wrong bed for a guest room and the wrong bed under a child every night.
Very firm on a connected coil is the pairing I talk most people out of, and if you're guessing, consider yourself talked out of it. If you already know your back wants a plank, this is a plain, honest way to get one.
The grade is honest and the connected spring unit is the catch
Miracoil is the trade name Silentnight puts on an open coil, which means the springs are joined to each other by one continuous run of wire. Silentnight says it plainly on its own site: a connected unit is firmer and less responsive. Pocket springs every time, for me. Each one drops away under the weight on top of it and leaves the rest of the bed alone, while on a connected sheet your shoulder drags the springs beside it down with it.
Firmer is not kinder to a bad back, whatever you were told in the showroom, and that belief has sold more hard mattresses than any advert ever did. Weight comes first and position second. My partner sleeps flat on their back or their front, and a bed this hard bothers them far less than it bothers me. Ignore the word orthopaedic too: nobody has to prove a thing before printing it.
The owners who went shopping for a plank are the happy ones
Most of the reviews under this one are for the Portloe that came before it, and for once the caveat is mild, because the old model was the same grade at the same depth and weight. Read them for the feel. Owners who wanted firm got firm. Two found it harder than they could live with, one wished it were harder still, and I couldn't find one calling it soft. Believe the label on this one, which I can't say about every rung of this range.
Noise is the complaint worth knowing about. A few owners mention hearing the springs when they move or when a partner turns over, and Silentnight's own open-coil page accepts that connected springs can get noisier with age. If you wake at every sound, buy something pocket sprung, because wrapped springs have nothing to rub against. The same owners offer good news: an 18.5kg double is light for its size and one person can swing it round, and that helps, because there's nothing to grab at the sides.
Our Epping page runs the same spring unit at the same grade
Open our Silentnight Epping page before you order this one. It sells Dreams' next-day Epping, very firm again, with the identical 672-spring Miracoil unit inside, and it turns up in days where the Portloe keeps you waiting weeks. Dreams moves its offers around a pair like this, so one undercuts the other and then they swap. Price the two of them in your own size and take the cheaper. The Epping comes as a double or a king only, so anything smaller or bigger makes this one your answer.
At 24cm your ordinary fitted sheets fit it, and the 30cm monsters can't say that. Keep the gaps between your slats under 6cm, because Silentnight won't stand behind a mattress on a wide-slatted or mesh base. The Dreams 100-Night Comfort Guarantee hands you another mattress and never your money back, and the protector goes on from night one or they can refuse the exchange.
What to buy instead
If my caution landed, step across the range to the Silentnight Aloe Vera Castleton, which puts 682 individual pocket springs under a medium grade, so your shoulder gets somewhere to go. Its count is nothing to brag about, and it's still the better bed. If you're the heavier back or front sleeper it was built for, buy the Portloe or the Epping, whichever is cheaper the week you order. I wouldn't have either in my own room, but I'm a side sleeper, so I'm not the one it has to please.
