Best of a Bad Bunch?

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Unfortunately, I discovered this forum after purchasing a Posturepedic Ability (firm, “hybrid”) bed. As in most of the stories here, this felt great at the store, but after having it home for nearly 60 days we are both hating this particular bed. Not knowing any better, we purchased this bed from Sit 'n Sleep, and now only have a few days to do a comfort replacement. We are looking at the Serta iComfort Prodigy (which is currently on close out and appears to offer a reasonable value proposition) or the Simmons Comforpedic “Balanced Days” - a little more expensive but seems to be overall a softer more immediately comfortable feeling (at least in the showroom…)

I know that you dislike both of these manufacturers and beds, but for the sake of our sanity do you think you could offer some advice on the best of a bad bunch?

Thank you so much for this wonderful site - I wish I had found it and listed to your advice sooner…

/Peterr

2

Hi peterr,

Post #2 here has some suggestions that may be helpful when you are caught “between a rock and a hard place” and need to exchange a mattress at a mainstream store.

If you are going in the direction of a complete mattress (rather than a mattress topper combination) then careful and objective testing for PPP following the guidelines in the tutorial post will be very important and I would err on the side of firmness because all mattresses will soften over time and it’s also easier to fine tune a mattress that is a little too firm by adding a topper than it is to “fix” a mattress that is already too soft because this would involve removing or replacing some of the layers instead of adding to them.

The iComfort Prodigy may be a reasonable option if it is a good “match” for you in terms of PPP because it uses mostly good or reasonable quality materials in the upper layers (5 lb memory foam, slow recovery latex, and 4 lb gel memory foam) with the exception of 1" of what they call comfort foam which is low quality/density polyfoam. 1" is within the guidelines that I would usually consider to be OK for low quality materials and wont have a significant impact on durability unless the mattress is already on the edge of being too soft for you in which case even relatively small amounts of foam softening can put you outside of the comfort/support range that works for you.

You can see some of the specs of the Comforpedic Balanced Days here (click specifications) but I wouldn’t consider it unless you were able to find out the type and quality/density of all the layers that are listed. Without being able to confirm the quality of all the layers it would be a risky exchange IMO because you would have no way to assess any weak links in the mattress.

Phoenix

3

Thanks for your advice. I’ll let you all know what transpires…

/P

4

Hello,
I have gone to the link for US Mattress that does show specs. Thanks. I have called them and was told that their “Nourishing Comfort” is the same as “Balanced Days”.

Specs are below for Comforpedic Balanced Days/Nourishing Comfort from US Mattress:

Quilt - Top of Mattress

Evenloft Quilt Design
Fire Retardant fiber Fire-Safety Certified
1" 4.0lb AirCool Memory Foam With TruTemp Gel
1 1/2" 4.5lb Advanced AirCool Memory Foam

Comfort - Padding Layers

2" 4.5lb AirCool Memory Foam
2" Independent Support Technology

Correct Back Support System

5" AirCool Transflexed Core
Edge Support: Advanced AirCool Edge

We have also had a Sears rep (We can’t buy there due to comfort exchange with Sit n Sleep) give us a plastic list of specs for all Comforpedic, and their Balanced Days is exactly the same as what US Mattress lists.

My fiance then decided to call Simmons and try to ask a rep and was told the same specs.

My only question is the density of the base which we can’t find. Does anyone know this info?

There is also a web site "sleeplikethedead.com that has specs of all foam in all these mattresses including Prodigy, but again, no specs on the base. I have seen a thread somewhere on your site that has the specs of iIComfort being as low as 1.5 and I can’t find it again.

Below is the specs for IComfort Prodigy from “sleeplikethedead.com”

2.75" gel memory foam (4 lbs/ft),
2" memory foam (5 lbs/ft),
1" latex,
1" regular foam

So, my questions are

  1. Does anyone know the exact specs on the base of the IComfort Prodigy?
  2. Does anyone know the exact specs on the base of the Comforpedic Balanced Days/Nourishing Comfort?
  3. How important are these for longevity?
  4. Can I trust this information?
  5. What is your expert opinion on a transflexed core? You can click on it at the US Mattress site.

Sorry for the length of this but we are so very scared and really want to know as much as we possibly can before our unfortunate final purchase that is DAYS away…little nervous, can you tell:)

Phoenix, your reply to this would be GREATLY appreciated.

5

Hi Peterr,

The specs for the Nourishing Comfort don’t appear to be quite the same as the Balanced Days listed on the page I linked although they seem to be very similar. US Mattress is also one of the better sites on the net for listing specs and as many of the foam densities as the manufacturer makes available to them.

The specs don’t include the type of foam used in the 2" Independent Support Technology layer. They are also missing the density of the polyfoam base layer and the density of the polyfoam edge support used in the mattress.

Both sets of specs use about 4.5" of memory foam in the 4 lb range so this would be a medium quality/density memory foam that would be fine for average weight ranges although I would minimize the use of memory foam in the 4 lb range if you are have a heavier body type (over about 200 lbs or so) for durability reasons.

I’m guessing you mean this post?

They’re listed in the previous post I linked.

Hopefully someone (or Simmons) will provide them for you (along with the specifics of the “independent support technology”) but I don’t know them for certain.

The base layers play a less important role than than the comfort layers in terms of durability but with heavier weights the deeper layers will play a larger role. You can read more about all the factors that are involved in the relative durability and useful life of a mattress in post #4 here.

If it comes from the manufacturer then it would normally be trustworthy yes.

I would treat it like any other polyfoam of the same or very similar density. Transflection means that they precompress the layer several times to remove any “false firmness” from the layer and shorten the break in period.

Phoenix