First of all, thank you for the wonderful wealth of information found on this website, it has been an incredible source of knowledge and information.
My wife was in a recent car accident and we’re looking to get her a new mattress to help relieve some of her night pain. We have an occupational therapist who took us to a Sleep Country to try a few beds. I realize now after reading this site that Sleep Country does not provide the best value but unfortunately we don’t have the freedom to try different stores.
From a comfort perspective, we narrowed down our search to four mattresses:
Cost and value aside, I’m looking for some advice on what is generally considered to be the best quality and longest-lasting mattress amongst these 4. In terms of personal preference, all 4 were comfortable and it’s tough to choose between these choices.
I would be aware that “comfort” can be very subjective and testing mattresses only for “showroom comfort” can be a very unreliable way to assess how well you will sleep on it in “real life”. I would make sure you are familiar with the testing guidelines in the tutorial post so that you have a higher chance of choosing a mattress that is a good match in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) since testing for more subjective ideas of “comfort” alone can have a lower chance of success than random chance alone (see this study).
Post #13 here has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase and outside of suitability (PPP) … the most important part of a mattress purchase is the quality and durability of the materials in a mattress (not the brand) because this will determine the durability of the mattress as a whole and the useful life of a mattress relative to each person.
Because a mattress is only as durable as its construction and the durability of the materials inside it … the only way to know the durability of a mattress relative to other mattresses you are considering is to know the type and quality of all the materials inside it. Once you know this information you can identify any weak links in the mattress using the guidelines here and make meaningful comparisons to other mattresses. Without this information you would be making a completely blind purchase in terms of durability. There is also more about all the many variables that affect durability and the useful life of a mattress in post #4 here.
So you would need to find out (or confirm) the type and quality of all the layers and components in each of the mattresses you are considering to make an informed choice about a mattress in terms of durability.
Some comments about each of the mattresses you are considering:
While Tempurpedic doesn’t disclose the quality of their materials on their site … to the best of my knowledge the layers are …
Support System
8.25" dual airflow system (probably also 2.2 LB)
Same comments as the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme Breeze.
Optimum Sealy Posturpedic Elation Gold:
Cover
Stretch Knit Cover
Comfort Layers
2" Gel Infused Memory Foam 3.7 LB
4" Gel Infused Memory Foam 4 LB
Support System
7" Gel OptiCore 1.5 LB Density
These are “just barely” in the density range I would be comfortable with for most people unless they were in lighter weight ranges. 3.7 is a little below the 4 lbs I would normally suggest but is “close enough” and then there is an additional 4" of 4 lb memory foam below this which is a medium density memory foam so overall it has 6" of medium density memory foam which would be less durable than the Tempurpedics.
Dormeo 8500:
As you can see in post #33 here … Dormeo also doesn’t provide their specific foam densities but to the best of my knowledge (and based on their previous lineup) they are …
The 1.5" of lower density 3 lb memory foam is also “on the edge” but still in the “OK range”. The rest of the materials are good quality/density but it’s somewhat of an unknown how the octaspring construction will fare in terms of durability compared to the same density materials in a solid layer because they haven’t been out for long enough to know with certainty.
Overall … if you were making a choice based strictly on durability (which I don’t believe is a good idea) I would say that the two Tempurpedic models would be the more durable of these 4 choices although 4 lb memory foam isn’t as durable a material as higher density memory foam in the 5 lb and higher range.
Phoenix, this has been incredible useful information. I was leaning towards the TEMPUR mattresses and this confirms what I was thinking. However I also want to see if we can find a mattress with that 5 LB or higher density.
Just curious what the numbers on this one are as well:
Comfort Layers
1.2" Tempur-Breeze HD 7.0LB
2.8" Tempur-Climate support layer 5.3LB
Support System
Dual Airflow system
4" 2.2LB Convoluted poly foam
4" 2.2LB Convoluted poly foam
I also have some information that indicates that Tempurpedic may now be using 1.5 lb polyfoam in the base layers of at least some of their mattresses but this is “unofficial” and they no longer disclose the density of their base layers.
All of the Contour collection uses 5.3 lb memory foam or higher while the Cloud collection all uses some 4 lb memory foam.
Yes … higher density memory foams will generally be more durable than lower density foams (up to about 6 lb density or so after which the additional durability benefits level off). The tradeoff is that the contour series are also firmer than the cloud series and for some people may be a less suitable choice in terms of PPP.