Brooklyn Bedding Cool Luxe - Off gassing 4+ months after purchase

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

Hello everyone.

I purchased the Brooklyn Bedding 13" Cool-Luxe after months of careful research. My major reasons for choosing this mattress were the following:

  1. Reviews mentioned much less (if any) off gassing
  2. Made with CertiPur-US Foam (supposedly extremely low VOC with no harsh ingredients/chemicals)
  3. 100% risk free guarantee
  4. Made in USA
  5. Price (lower than most other brands)

Anyway, when I received the mattress (which obvious came compressed), I immediately opened it, and laid it out on the floor in a spare bedroom. I immediately noticed a very harsh VOC odor, kind of sweet, and kind of sour at the same time. I unwrapped the mattress completely, and turned on the ceiling fan on the highest setting, leaving the room open to air the mattress out. I let the mattress air out for approximately 6 weeks, hoping to remove some of the VOC odor.

At first, it seemed like the smell was reduced, although still present. I then went out and bought a mattress encasement, “SafeRest”, and added it to my mattress before using.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BACOYU/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It should also be noted that the mattress sits on top of a platform bed, and has adequate venting from below (planks are about 2 inches apart).

It’s been a few months since I started using the mattress, and so far it’s comfortable, BUT - the odor from the mattress has progressively got worse. It’s actually so strong now, that if I lay some clothing on the bed for a few hours and come back, the smell has transferred to the clothing!! If I put my nose near the mattress, even with the encasement and sheets on it, I can still smell the harsh VOC smell, which now is starting to smell more pungent and sour than before.

I tend to be fairly health conscious, and have made a VERY low VOC home, with virtually no harsh chemical products in my bedroom whatsoever. This mattress, although comfortable, is starting to worry me tremendously.

Does anyone here have any suggestions? Does anyone else have the same mattress and have the same problem, or are you experiencing no VOCs? Maybe I just got a bad mattress? I’d like to avoid having to return the mattress, but if that’s the last option, I guess I’ll have to call the company.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

2

Hi biodole,

My post probably won’t help your underlying issue, which is an odor that you don’t like…

However, just for clarity: Not all odors you can smell are “VOC odors”, and in fact many VOC’s you cannot smell at all. Check the first paragraph:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/indoorair/voc/

The summary being, while you may dislike the odor tremendously, it may or may not be caused by VOCs, and,
Even were you to smell nothing, since many VOCs don’t have a smell, you could still have a high VOC environment.

I’d say you’re probably best calling Brooklyn Bedding. There aren’t a lot of great solutions, short of airing out the room, for removing an objectionable smell in a mattress. The other option is essentially enclosing the bed in a heavy plastic bag, which can have an impact on comfort.

3

Hi biodole,

I would echo dn’s comments and it’s unusual that someone would have an issue with the smell of the Cool Luxe you purchased (as you mentioned most of the feedback indicates that the odor is less than “normal” for a memory foam mattress) but there can be some variance between mattresses and different people can also be more sensitive to certain odors.

In addition to talking with them … post #3 here also has some suggestions that may be helpful.

Phoenix

4

Hi Phoenix,

You linked to the wrong page with the post #3. Feel free to delete this post if/when changed.

5

Hi dn,

Oops … thanks for the heads up.

I’ll leave these two posts up for a while before deleting them in case someone has already read the original link so that they know to click again and read the right one :slight_smile:

Phoenix

6

Hello -

Thanks for the replies.

However, I’ve already tried airing out the mattress, as mentioned, for quite some time under ideal circumstances prior to using it.

I’m not sure if this smell is “normal”, but for it to permeate into my clothing, from just sitting on top of the bed, seems highly unusual.

Does anyone else here have these issues with BB cool luxe? I’ll contact the company and see if there’s anything we can do.

7

Hi biodole,

[quote]I’m not sure if this smell is “normal”, but for it to permeate into my clothing, from just sitting on top of the bed, seems highly unusual.

Does anyone else here have these issues with BB cool luxe? I’ll contact the company and see if there’s anything we can do. [/quote]

There are really only two main possibilities that I can think of that may be happening (outside of something being spilled on the mattress which doesn’t appear to be the case here).

The first is that your mattress is somehow an “anomaly” (which can sometimes happen with different batches of foam) and the second is that you are more sensitive to some types of smell than others who don’t smell what you are smelling.

Either way though … I would definitely talk with them.

Phoenix

8

Hello Biodole,

Thank you for the information. I am not sure the reasoning for the odor, I would be happy to look into this for you as we have had no other issues like this with any of our mattresses in the past. Please feel free to contact me directly and I would be happy to assist you.

Best Regards,
Mario Sevilla
Brooklyn Bedding
480-323-8831

9

Hey Mario, thanks for the reply.

I’ll be giving you a call this week sometime. I really appreciate it. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of it.

Thanks!