Foam Mattress, what are my choices?

Hi, I am a new member here, any suggestions and help will be very much appreciated.
I am currently in the market for a king sized foam mattress, the obvious choice would be Tempurpedic, but they are very expensive compared to other brands out there. A friend of mine had a foam mattress years ago from Ortho Mattress but he don’t recommend it, he recently just brought another from Tempurpedic for his dad and he told me the Tempurpedic is much better and recommended me to not go cheap and stay with Tempurpedic. My budget for this purchase is about $2000, which the TEMPUR-Cloud Prima is the only one that fits my budget in the Tempurpedic line. I have tried it in store and think its a pretty good fit, but I have also tried many other brands of foam mattress in store they all seems pretty comfortable except for a few that felt too soft. I am about 2 weeks into research and I have to say I am pretty lost. Should I take my friend’s advice and just buy the Tempurpedic or are there other brands out there that offers a foam mattress that is just as good or better in quality but at a lower price point?

thank you very much

Jack

Price does not indicate quality in the mattress industry! Your budget should allow for a quality memory foam mattress, or even some latex.

Tempurpedic overall isn’t necessarily a bad product and their foam QC is good. However, when you objectively evaluate their specifications (when you can find them) you’ll find there are a plethora of alternatives that are equivalent or better for a lower price.

If you take a few minutes and search this forum you’ll be able to find some of the quality memory foam companies available. You also might want to post your location and someone on the site might be able to recommend some good choices closer to your home in addition to some of the online alternatives.

Good luck,
Jeff

Hi jackliao,

I would keep in mind that there are different types of foam including polyfoam, memory foam, and latex foam and there are thousands of different “foam” mattresses of different types that are available in the industry but the Tempurpedic mattresses use memory foam in the comfort layers and then most of them use polyfoam in the deeper support layers of the mattress (although some of their newer mattresses also use an air bladder or an innerspring for support)

As Jeff mentioned, Tempurpedic generally uses good quality materials but they are in a much higher budget range than many other memory foam mattresses made by smaller manufacturers that use the same or similar quality materials and I would tend to avoid them along with the other major brands as well (see the guidelines here).

I would also echo Jeff’s comments that price is often not an indication of quality or durability of a mattress in the mainstream mattress industry especially.

The first place I would start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress that is the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for that are involved in each of them and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and value.

If you are comfortable with an online purchase then the mattress shopping tutorial includes several links to the better online options I’m aware of (in the optional online step) and if you let me know your city or zip code I’d also be happy to let you know about the better local options or possibilities I’m aware of as well.

Phoenix

Hello, I am also new here, and I now realize I am going to have to do a lot more research than I initially expected to. I live in an out of the way town in Wyoming and my job forces me to sleep in a bad motel bed every other night , so I want to get this right. I am going to go the online route, because I have no other options or time. I know I want a soft memory foam or latex or hybrid, and I too was told to pay for Tempurpedic. I can see now that much has changed since he (Brother) bought his years ago. Thank you for your list of online dealers: it has given me a great head start. I am currently in contact with a couple and am leaning towards Tempflow-they are asking good questions. I just wish they would have shown prices on their website, it bothered me a little and I’m not sure why, so maybe I’ll ask him about that. My other one is SleepEz because 36 years in business is a good sign. I just have to study up on Latex vs Memory foam. Anyway, it"s obvious a lot of work went into this site, so, thank you.

Hi deryk,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum! :slight_smile:

I switched your post to a new topic of its own so our conversation doesn’t get mixed in with another member’s questions and topic.

I wish they would as well but they have told me that they didn’t want to compete against their own local dealers who also sell their mattresses. I would personally prefer to see prices in online sites.

I also think highly of SleepEZ and they are also one of the members here which means I believe they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, and transparency.

Memory foam and latex perform and feel very differently from each other and while the best way to know which one you tend to prefer is based on some local testing … there is also more about how they compare in post #2 here.

I’m not sure where you are in Wyoming but if you let me know the city or zip code either where you are or any areas where you frequently travel to I’m be happy to link you to the local forum lists that are closest to you.

Phoenix

Hi Phoenix, seeing as how I have never slept on a memory foam, although I have tried in store, I may be getting ahead of myself . I’m thinking about buying a topper, first ,to see if I like that. Snuggle-pedic has a 2" topper- 1’ 4lb stuck to 1" 5lb. Another one on Amazon is 3" of 4lb. what do you think of that idea? By the way, I live in Sheridan, Wy. Thanks

Hi deryk,

A memory foam topper on top of a mattress may feel different than the same memory foam layer inside a mattress that uses different layers and components because every layer and component in a sleeping system can affect the feel and performance of every other layer above and below it.

I would also keep in mind that there are many types of memory foams that can have very different properties (see post #9 here and post #8 here) so a single topper on a particular mattress wouldn’t be representative of all the memory foam mattresses that are available.

If it’s possible you may be better off spending some time on a range of different memory foam mattresses (I would spend about 15 - 20 minutes on each of them so the memory foam has time to warm up) so you have a better sense of the range of memory foam mattresses that are available which may give you a better idea of how you like memory foam in general or whether you tend to prefer some types of memory foam over others (such as more or less temperature sensitive, firmer or softer, thinner or thicker layers or memory foam, or faster response vs slower response memory foams etc).

Of course the advantage of trying a topper is that you would have the chance to sleep on it overnight which would tell you more about that specific memory foam than just 20 minute “test runs” but again any specific topper wouldn’t be representative of the whole category of memory foams so you may find that you don’t like a specific topper but may like other types of memory foam or other memory foam mattress designs (or vice versa).

You are certainly out of the way and unfortunately the closest forum list to you is the Central Montana list in post #5 here but none of them are very close to you…

I did a quick check to see if there was anything that was closer to you and there certainly aren’t a lot of choices. While I didn’t have the chance to talk with any of them … based on the information on their websites (which isn’t always accurate) some of the local options that may be worth considering and the manufacturers they carry that I would focus on that may be more transparent about the materials in their mattresses (and subject to the quality/value guidelines here) include …

http://mossholders.com/ Sheridan, WY. They carry Northwest Bedding which may include some better quality mattresses. They also carry Serta which I would avoid completely as a purchase but would give you a chance to test some memory foam mattresses.

http://www.carrollsfurniture.com/ Sheriday, WY. They carry Natura mattresses which make some good quality latex and latex hybrid mattresses. They also appear to be knowledgeable about foam specs.

Time permitting I’ll try to make some calls tomorrow to see if there are any others that may be worth adding to the list.

Phoenix