I’d like to first thank the posters here, especially Phoenix, for the great knowledge and helpful tips for shopping. I never knew mattress shopping was such a science! After stumbling across this site and reading several posts, I took your advice and went off to several stores to find the perfect bed. After all was said and done it came down to the Tempur-pedic Rhapsody vs. Tempur-pedic Cloud (base model). I like a more firm mattress and fell in love with the Rhapsody, while my wife likes a softer mattress and thus loves the Cloud. We both agree though that we’d be happy with either.
I’m assuming based on the research I’ve done here that the Rhapsody is more firm because it has about 4 inches of HD foam vs. the Cloud which has about 3 inches of foam, with 1 inch being lower density. Please let me know if this is wrong and if there’s a better way to figure out why one is softer than the other.
Because I don’t want to spend $2K-plus on a Tempur, I did some more researching and found Easy-Rest, a company in OR that I’ve seen mentioned here a few times for their HD foam and high value: http://www.easyrestinc.com/. They claim their Luxor-Pedic models compare to both the Tempur Rhapsody and Tempur AlluraBed. The 3 versions of their Luxor-Pedic are 3" of 5.3lb foam on HD base (medium firm); 4" of 5.3lb foam on HD base (medium soft); and 5" of 5.3lb foam on HD base (soft).
Based on my experience so far I’m thinking that the 4", 5.3lb foam (medium soft) is the closest to matching the Rhapsody, and may even be close to the Cloud, possibly a perfect medium. One mistake I don’t want to make is getting a model that is close to the AlluraBed, which we both found extremely too firm. Before going further though I’d like to get your opinions. Are my assumptions okay? Does anyone have experience with Easy-Rest? Are there other “value” mattress I should look at that compare to the Rhapsody and Cloud?
I also want to say that I’ve contacted Easy-Rest to ask questions about distributions and retailers as I’m on the east coast (DC). They’ve been extremely helpful and have offered to work with me in locating a retailer that will ship to me if I choose their product. Great customer service.
The easiest way to assess the relative firmness softness levels of the Tempurpedic models is to use their own ratings which indicate both the softness of the mattress and how well it conforms to a person’s body shape. Both of these along with other factors (such as temperature sensitivity and speed of response) are part of the subjective feeling of “softness” or “firmness” and different people will have different ratings (because they may be sensitive to different factors or have different body types or sleeping styles)even though the Tempurpedic ratings are technically correct.
the Tempurpedic Cloud is the firmest of the Cloud series and is rated as being medium-soft and medium conforming. This is the same “softness” as the softest of the other lines (excluding the new Simplicity models) which is the GrandBed which is also medium-soft but is “high” conforming (more pressure relieving). The Rhapsody is the firmest of the HD line and is medium-firm and is also “high” conforming. The Allura as a reference is in between the Rhapsody and the GrandBed and is medium softness and also high conforming.
So the cloud would be softer … faster responding (which many people translate into softness) and also less conforming (doesn’t “match” the shape of the body and distribute pressure quite as evenly).
The Easyrest site doesn’t make any direct comparisons to the Tempurpedics and comparisons like these are often marketing copy done by individual retailers. The information on the Easyrest site says the Luxorpedic has a “medium soft feel” and is “high conforming”. Each manufacturer uses the same words differently but if their “medium soft” is the same as Tempurpedic’s “medium soft” then it would be most similar to to the Tempurpedic GrandBed which is rated the same as the Luxor-Pedic in both categories. Of course the layering is different so the “overall feel” may be similar or different depending on how each rating was determined. Of course a rating like soft, medium, firm is relative and subjective so whether one medium-soft was the same as another medium-soft would be open to question and may vary from person to person depending on how they interact with each.
The comparison with both the Rhapsody and the Allura may indicate that the retail outlet is trying to say that it is in between the two because clearly it can’t be the same as both and because there are so many other variables in memory foam besides just “feel” and “conforming” such as response rate and temperature sensitivity, they would probably each have their own “overall feel” that different people would describe differently. The firmness of the base layers will also have a lot to do with how a memory foam mattress feels and Tempurpedic doesn’t even rate this at all except in their Simplicity line which uses the same memory foam layer on top and changes the feel of the mattress into a soft, medium, and firm version by changing the firmness of the base foam.
What I can say though is that Easyrest meets all the qualifications that I use to determine an “acceptable” choice including using high quality memory foam and CertiPur certification and I think they have much better value than any of the Tempurpedics (and many others as well). Like you … all my conversations with them they have also been very open and helpful.
Have you tried the Easyrest or are you thinking of ordering it online? If you haven’t tried them (so you could “assign” your own rating which would be more accurate for you than a rating added by someone else) … I would call Easyrest and ask them which they think on average may be closest in “feel” to the Tempurpedic model you wanted to approximate (it wouldn’t “match”). I would tend to trust their “ratings” more than a retailer that may be more interested in saying something that you or other customers want to hear (although it could be based on something like several of their employees making some careful assessments and comparisons for the sake of giving a subjective comparison their “best shot”).
Post #12 here has a list of a few better online outlets and at least one of them designs their mattresses with very similar layering and densities to the various Tempurpedic series to better approximate the feel of each. Because there are other layering and material “pathways” to a similar subjective “feel” and also because a better target is always PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) rather than trying to match another mattress where the differences in different foams and layering are significant … it may also be worth calling some of the others to see if they can provide some subjective comparisons to the Tempurpedics as well.
One of the “risks” of dealing with an online outlet where you can’t try the mattress first is that you are completely dependent on the accuracy of what they say and you may not know for sure if what they are saying is more educational than marketing. If you can find 2 or 3 or 4 outlets that seem to be saying the same thing with “integrity” or if the manufacturer themselves will give you their best opinion … then their Tempurpedic comparisons may be more believable. Without this … then any price advantage has to be offset by how much you trust the subjective comparisons they are giving you.
There may also be some local options where you could test a memory foam mattress for yourself and that may have similar quality and value.