This is Part 2 of my thoughts and experiences after sleeping on a Select Foam Cirrus Supreme-ES 11" Queen mattress for almost a month.
I’m a middle aged man, 6’, 210 lbs. While I’m in pretty good health, our higher-end 13 year old Sealy Posturepedic coil mattress, which came with a 20 year warranty, had pretty much reached the end of the road because it was giving me pretty sever lower back strain. I needed to buy a new mattress, but which one? Thankfully, my brother has the Tempurpedic TEMPUR-Cloud Luxe, and last year I had the opportunity to house sit and to sleep on that mattress for a week. Great support with a very plush, ultra-soft, super-thick comfort layer. I loved it and wanted one. Sadly, after trying one at a Sleepy’s store, my wife (who’s 5’5’, 120 lbs) didn’t. She wasn’t happy about sinking deeply into the bed. She also sleeps hot on occasion and insisted on a bed that would allow her to sleep cool. We needed a compromise. After looking at Tempurpedic’s beds, we decided to try the TEMPUR-Cloud Supreme Breeze. Not as plush but with with a heat-transfer design and a moisture-wicking cover. Total retail cost, $3,200. The best sale at Sleepy’s (a floor model) would have run us $2,200. We didn’t want a floor model.
We realize that we spend a third of our lives sleeping, and that we shouldn’t compromise but we needed a more affordable alternative. After reading the May 2013 Consumer Reports (useless!) and doing some internet sleuthing looking for alternatives, we found Sleep Foam. What we like about the company is that it tries to match Tempurpedic’s construction, mattress for mattress, and tells perspective buyers which bed is a best match. It takes the guess work out of the equation, reducing the likelihood we’d want to return the bed. We liked that. We also liked their risk-free 90 night trial with free return shipping. We had nothing to lose.
It’s been three weeks. While I don’t get that weightless feeling I had on the TEMPUR-Cloud Luxe, I have to say, I am sleeping REALLY well. While the Cirrus Supreme-ES is sold as an 11-inch mattress, we measured it at 12-inches. We like that, too.
Here are our pros and cons.
Pros: 1) We sleep amazingly well. Our heads hit the pillow and we’re out in 5 minutes or less. If we need to get out of bed during the night, we experience no tossing or turning when we come back. We’re back asleep in seconds. 2) The bed does sleep cool. That said, we sometimes don’t and it has nothing to do with the bed. (We had the same problem with our old coil mattress.) The good news is that if we get out of bed for a bathroom run, by the time we climb back into bed, the heat is completely dissipated. I have not experienced any back pain or strain at all, no matter whether I am sleeping on my back or on my side. After the bed arrived, I visited my chiropractor for an adjustment. With the old coil and spring bed, the adjustment would last a day. It’s been three weeks and I haven’t needed another one yet!
Cons: 1) The mattress arrived without a packing slip and without a written warranty. I don’t know whether it was an oversight or whether that’s the way Select Foam ships. I’ll need to check on this (maybe Pheonix can shed some light on this). 2) The mattress doesn’t have hand holds on the sides. They would have come in handy when setting the bed up. They obviously aren’t required since the mattress doesn’t get flipped, though I would like to occasionally rotate it to help avoid uneven wear. On the other hand, it’s a minor thing and adding them would add to manufacturing costs that would have been passed on to us so we can live without them.
Two caveats, neither having to do with the quality/comfort of the mattress we bought.
First, I read with interest a small number of posts on Sleeplikethedead.com and other sites about mold/mildew issues occasionally forming on the underside of memory foam mattresses. I have no idea whether these stories are true or coming from folks with buyer’s remorse or from crazies. The reports were mainly from Tempurpedic and Costco buyers. Tempurpedic uses a solid mattress foundation and the only place for moisture to go is out the mattress sides. Supposedly, it’s because Tempurpedic’s foam base doesn’t allow airflow to penetrate through the bottom of the mattress anyway. That may also be the case with Select Foam mattresses since they try to mimic Tempurpedic’s designs. I really don’t know, but Select Foam uses a foundation with wood slats to allow for air flow.
I assumed the posts to be true for argument’s sake because we live in a seasonally humid climate and we do sometimes wake up in a cold sweat during the night. We didn’t want our perspiration to seep down into the mattress where it could create an environment for mold/mildrew. So, we bought a “Protect-A-Bed Complete Mattress Allergy & Bed Bug” cover set from Costco (though we don’t worry about bedbugs, it also protects against dust mites-- they are a concern because of my allergies though supposedly the dust mites aren’t able live in memory foam. (Yeah, right, and white tail deer aren’t supposed to eat our “deer proof” shrubs but they do anyway.) It’s a breathable cover that is moisture/water “proof” (though I cannot figure out how something that thin can breath and be waterproof at the same time). It doesn’t create any noise issues (crunching plastic type sounds) either. We’re happy with it though we also covered over it with a regular mattress pad.
The second isn’t really a caveat as much as an observation. You know those old TV ads showing wine glasses on one side of a memory foam mattress and a bowling ball getting dropped on the other and the glasses don’t move? I’d like to see that same trick done with fitted sheets! They act a bit like a drumhead, so while the bed definitely doesn’t bounce like a coil mattress atop a box spring, my wife can still slightly feel me getting into bed.
So far, I would recommend Select Foam and the Cirrus Supreme-ES 11" Queen mattress. I will update my review from time-to-time.
