great experience with SelectFoam

[Daemon]

Previously, I detailed my experiences with shopping for a mattress to replace my aging Tempurpedic Classic.

I settled on a king mattress from Matter Bros in Pinellas Park, Florida, a local manufacturer in business for decades. The mattress was extremely high quality and incredibly soft, but lacking in support. I spoke with the factory manager to make arrangements to get the bed rebuilt to my specs. Great customer service.

Unfortunately my schedule is so busy it would be quite some time before I would be able to make the long trip down to Ft. Myers to work on this. I had to have something immediately as I was waking up in so much pain every morning I really didn’t know if I would make it through each day. This isn’t a slight on Matter Bros, just my multiple back injuries coming to bite me.

I came back to the forum to see what mail order options I had, and remembered Select Foam. Browsing through their site I found that they had a mattress known as the Cirrus Luxe, which was supposed to be a close mimic of my all time favorite foamer, the Tempur Cloud Luxe. At over $3k off the Tempur price, I jumped on it.

First I have to say their their customer support is amazing. The person I dealt with, Peter, responded to my emails very quickly. Sometimes it was within minutes, but even late at night or on a weekend, emails I sent were responded to within an hour or two. I seriously don’t think these people sleep.

Peter shepherded my sale through the chain of command and had the mattress to me two days after the order went through. It shipped so quickly that it arrived at my business address before he even received the tracking info from the factory floor.

Score for customer service: A+

First impressions of the mattress were that it was a lot firmer than the previous Matter Bros mattress. Almost too firm, but it was exactly what my back needed. Between this biscuit and my physical therapy, I’ve been waking up 95 percent pain free. We’re sleeping quite cool too. Much cooler than a typical Tempur, and slightly cooler than the gel-impregnated Matter Bros mattress.

Score for initial impression: A- (marked down slightly for firmness, but still an A for comfort)

[phoenix]

Hi Daemon,

Thanks for taking the time to share such detailed feedback about your experience with Select Foam.

I agree with you about Peter and the customer service he provides. Like you I have called him late at night (sometimes very late) with a question expecting to leave a message and he answered the phone … always with a “smile”.

Phoenix

[Daemon]

Always glad to provide info to your mattress forum Phoenix, as it has been a tremendous resource for me.

At this point, I’m sleeping fine on my Cirrus Luxe. I used to wake up every hour or so to very carefully switch positions and hope I didn’t ruin my back for the next day. Now I might wake a couple of times for the more dramatic shifts like a rollover, but I’m comfortable throughout the movement. However, unless I received the wrong mattress, the marketing on their site is just that - marketing. There is no way this mattress could be confused with a Cloud-series Tempur mattress. Thats not to be construed as good or bad, or a slight on the quality of the mattress. Its just that if a person is looking for the Tempur feel they’re not going to find it here. This mattress feels like it has little or no memory foam on it. Strangely, it feels a lot like one of the Innomax mattresses I tried that had an odd “taut” feeling like there was a sheet of cardboard or a membrane of some kind between a couple of the layers.

When I get close to the 30 day mark I’ll post up some more info about my experience. I fully expect the break-in period to reveal more character to this bed, so anyone who reads this should keep that in mind, and definitely consider other reviews.

So far I rate the sleeping experience as a ‘B’, and I still recommend the company and their ‘A’ service.

Before I forget - anyone who hasn’t bought a vacuum-packed foam mattress is in for a shock and a treat when they open it. This thing came out of the box looking like a gigantic piece of chicken skin. I really thought they had screwed up and sent me a topper - a 150lb topper. I pulled the plastic apart at one end and the thing started to swell like a senator in front of a pork barrel. I split the rest of the plastic and pulled it off and listened to the foam taking in a long, dragging breath. Think Ed Harris when he pulls the hydrocarbon emulsion helmet off in The Abyss and takes his first breath.

Anyway, not really important, just hilarious after I got over the initial shock.

[phoenix]

Hi Daemon,

Thanks for taking the time to share another great update

However, unless I received the wrong mattress, the marketing on their site is just that - marketing. There is no way this mattress could be confused with a Cloud-series Tempur mattress. Thats not to be construed as good or bad, or a slight on the quality of the mattress. Its just that if a person is looking for the Tempur feel they’re not going to find it here. This mattress feels like it has little or no memory foam on it. Strangely, it feels a lot like one of the Innomax mattresses I tried that had an odd “taut” feeling like there was a sheet of cardboard or a membrane of some kind between a couple of the layers.

This may be connected to the wool fire sock they use in their mattresses (except for the Regalis) which is removable. It can affect the contouring and feel of the foam below it particularly in the initial break in period. If you were to call them, one of their “standard” suggestions with feedback similar to yours is to remove it at least for a while to see if you prefer the “feel” of the mattress without it.

Phoenix

[Daemon]

By wool sock, I presume you’re referring to the textured cover? If so, I didn’t see where that could be taken off. I’ll have to look at it again. Also, I put the stain protecting cover off my Matter Bros mattress on this so that may be adding to a buffer effect that limits the memory foam feel, but thinking back on when I first got it I remember laying on it without the protector or any sheet and it had little or no memory feel then.

I’m a little lost on the specifics of this mattress, since there was no documentation in the box at all. No warranty docs, no “care and feeding of your new mattress”, nothing. In fact, there was nothing on the box or anywhere on the mattress to indicate which one I had actually received, which has me wondering if I did indeed get the right one. The federal tag just tells me the material content, not the marketing name of the bed.

I just read Justso’s review of his Cirrus Luxe ES-13, the exact same one I ordered, and he says his feels identical or better than the Cloud Luxe, no mention of removing the cover. Again, I have to stress that there is no way anyone would ever confuse this mattress here with anything out of the Tempur Cloud series, much less the Luxe. Its not just the difference in the feel of the top layer, but also the mattress seems to have an odd bounce to it, a rebound that the better Tempurs don’t have, as they absorb energy instead of returning it to the occupant.

Think I should start running in place on this thing to help break it in? :lol:

[phoenix]

Hi Daemon,

By wool sock, I presume you’re referring to the textured cover?

It’s the fire barrier or “sock” around the foam and can be removed. If you aren’t certain I would call them and they can help (I haven’t seen it in person I just know that’s one of their suggestions when it’s appropriate).

I’m a little lost on the specifics of this mattress, since there was no documentation in the box at all. No warranty docs, no “care and feeding of your new mattress”, nothing. In fact, there was nothing on the box or anywhere on the mattress to indicate which one I had actually received, which has me wondering if I did indeed get the right one. The federal tag just tells me the material content, not the marketing name of the bed.

If you have any questions or concerns about any mattress purchase I would always call the retailer or manufacturer. They can give you much better guidance than I could because they are much more familiar with their own mattresses. The model of the mattress would normally be included somewhere in the information on the law tag (in the bar code or specifically named) but you can also see the thickness of the foam layers inside the mattress to make sure that it’s the right one (each model has a different construction). Their site has the information about each mattress as well. There is no specific “care and feeding” of the mattress outside of what would apply to any mattress. I would generally suggest rotating the mattress every couple of weeks or so for the first two or three months and then once a season after that. If it’s a king size you can rotate it 1/4 turn (it’s close enough to square to be able to do this) and other sizes would be 1/2 turn. Using a mattress protector or keeping the cover clean if you don’t (they are one of the few who don’t invalidate the warranty with a stain) would also be important.

I just read Justso’s review of his Cirrus Luxe ES-13, the exact same one I ordered, and he says his feels identical or better than the Cloud Luxe, no mention of removing the cover.

I would keep in mind that each person’s experience on a mattress is very subjective and can be very different and that there are also other factors that can affect the feel and performance of memory foam (see post #2 here).

Of course mistakes are also possible so I would definitely call and talk with them if you have any concerns about your mattress.

Phoenix

[Daemon]

We spoke with one of the guys there, and he also recommended removing the fire barrier. Evidently this thing is required by law in California but not the other states, so they put the barrier on all the mattresses just so they don’t forget to put them on the mattresses destined for California. Now, I have to ask - if the other 49 states get along just fine without people burning to death on a nightly basis, just what are they doing in California that would require this barrier? Just askin’…

I pulled the barrier off two nights ago. Evidently that barrier was the cause of the taut feeling I noticed. So far, we’re sleeping cooler, and the mattress seems softer. However, softer means less support on my lower back, so I’m definitely noticing that. And it still feels absolutely nothing like a Tempur Cloud of any sort. There is practically no memory foam feel to it, and its quite a bit more bouncy than any memory foam mattress I’ve tried. This isn’t a slight on the mattress quality, I’m simply saying that the marketing is a bit over the top with this thing.

SF told us to give it a few days without that barrier and then report back to them. Once again, I must recommend SelectFoam simply based on customer service. They don’t ignore calls or emails, and the answers arrive so quickly I’m always surprised.

[phoenix]

Hi Daemon,

We spoke with one of the guys there, and he also recommended removing the fire barrier. Evidently this thing is required by law in California but not the other states, so they put the barrier on all the mattresses just so they don’t forget to put them on the mattresses destined for California. Now, I have to ask - if the other 49 states get along just fine without people burning to death on a nightly basis, just what are they doing in California that would require this barrier? Just askin’…

The fire regulations (16 CFR 1632 and 1633) are actually federal regulations that have been a requirement for mattresses since 2007. They were modeled on California regulations but they apply to the whole country.

However, softer means less support on my lower back, so I’m definitely noticing that. And it still feels absolutely nothing like a Tempur Cloud of any sort. There is practically no memory foam feel to it, and its quite a bit more bouncy than any memory foam mattress I’ve tried. This isn’t a slight on the mattress quality, I’m simply saying that the marketing is a bit over the top with this thing.

The memory foam they use is manufactured by a different manufacturer than Tempurpedic and all memory foams have different properties from each other (temperature response, recovery time etc) but the “feel” of a mattress is also quite subjective and will vary from person to person (which is why you so often see people describe the same mattress quite differently). In the case of memory foam it can also depend on room temperature as well so I wonder if this could also be playing a role in the differences you feel.

In any case … it will be interesting to see if things change over the next few weeks now that you have removed the wool barrier (which would generally reduce the ability of the memory foam to adapt to your body profile) and you may find that as it breaks in more (especially the higher density memory foam) it will have a little more of the “memory foam feel” that you are mentioning.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Phoenix