I think I was had

Ok, so I’ve consulted this website numerous times in the last month or so. I was/am in the market for a new memory foam mattress. About 10 years ago, we purchased a memory foam mattress from a company called “Lasting Impressions”. We were extremely happy with our purchase but in the last two months the mattress has seemed to degrade. We were sinking in and waking up sore and unrested. It was time. So I went on the hunt. I tried to find something closely resembling what we purchased before and the only thing I came up with was a custom job from the foam factory. I know, I should have listened to the Phoenix. Long story longer, the top layer of of our new mattress is supposed to be 5lb of visco elastic memory foam, bit it doesn’t feel anything like what we’re used to. For comparison, I have a Tempur pedic pillow that I love. It’s nice and firm, just like our old mattress used to be. I was expecting the new mattress to feel the same but it doesn’t. To make matters worse, it’s a custom height so non returnable. Is it possible to remove that top layer of foam and replace it with a Tempur pedic topper, or something similar? Thanks for your feedback.

Hi mrsmatt.

Welcome to our Mattress Forum. :slight_smile:

You are quite fortunate that you were able to get 10 years out of your memory foam mattress which is a reasonable lifespan for this type of mattress. Sorry to hear that you’ve started to experience pains due to foam breakdown and that the replacement mattress from the foam factory that isn’t measuring cannot be returned.

Attempting to find something that is exactly the same as your old mattress is often a frustrating and futile exercise especially if you are trying to do this on your own. There is more information in post #9 here about the different ways that one mattress can “match” or “approximate” another one. The best way to do this would be under the guidance of an experienced manufacturer or retailer, who has some knowledge of the previous mattress you slept on and has the experience to best approximate a mattress feel based on all the specs and your personal needs and preferences you may provide.

It looks like you are trying to find a way to make the mattress you purchased work for you. Something like this is called “mattress surgery” but you’d need to arm yourself with the knowledge, resources and understanding of how to do this to maximize your chances of success. This path is as bit as involved as the path of researching for a new mattress. Even still, there will still be some risks involved because once again you have to have enough understanding of what are your needs the interrelatedness of the layer thickness, firmness/softness, and how a layer will interact with the layers below and above… also until you actually sleep on the mattress replacing the layer(s)… you won’t know for certain whether it’s the best choice for you in terms of PPP.

The best you will hope for is to find something “in the range”, but realize that only your own careful personal testing or a detailed conversation with an experienced and knowledgeable manufacturer/retailer that has your best interests at heart will reveal whether or not the feel you are looking for is close to what your desires and need.

If you decide to go for mattress surgery … it would be well worth contacting the manufacturer and explaining what your situation is and what you are trying to do. Hopefully, they’ll be willing to assist you and offer some insights as they know their products better than anyone else. At least they can tell you the thickness and density of the memory foam layer and if it is glued to the layer underneath. Also, they can inform you about the layering of your current mattress and. I’d also ask them about the density and thickness of each layer within the mattress.

I’d be prepared to answer questions about the current mattress. Is it too soft/too firm? Is it causing pain? What type of pains? What is it you are hoping to achieve by altering the mattress? What are your specific stats in terms of body type, BMI, sleeping positions, etc.

Either way, before making the call I’d make sure to do some reading on finding out information listed here so you can compare the quality of the materials and components to the durability guidelines here to make sure there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress that would be a cause for concern relative to the durability and useful life of a mattress.
Also, the tutorial post here has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices.

I’d be curious to know if they are willing to assist you…

Phoenix

Thanks for your response Phoenix. I don’t know the specs of my previously loved mattress; however, the one I purchased has 7 inches of “Lux poly foam” (2.8 #, IFD 50, Support factor 1.9), with a 4 inch piece of memory foam (5 #, IFD 14 +/-) glued to the top. We’re both larger athletic builds and prefer a firm memory foam. I did so much research on mattresses. I got samples from them and weighed them on my digital scale. I figured out the weight ratio of the 2 inch sample and compared it to the weight of a cubic foot of 5#, and it was close to the weight it should be. I thought these specs would tick all our boxes. I guess I just don’t understand why their 5# memory foam isn’t nice and firm the way our other mattress is/was, or my tempur pillow. To be honest, it doesn’t seem to respond the way memory foam usually does. Is that typical of lower price foam? Thanks again.

Hi mrsmatt.

Thanks for providing the additional specs of your foam factory mattress. You did a good job checking out the memory foam density. :wink:

To recap… your (11") custom foam factory mattress that feels unsupportive has the following configuration:
4" memory foam of 5 lbs/ft3 at 14 IFD (soft)
7" Polyfoam of 2.8 lbs/ft3 IFD 50, support factor 1.9

The 7" of high-density polyfoam should provide adequate primary support for your BMI and also meets the the mattress durability guidelines..
While the 4" of memory foam layer meets the durability guidelines, unfortunately, the soft comfort choice for memory foam (14 ILD) seems to be problematic for the “more firmness” you are used to.

I do not know what the comfort specs of your previous Tempur mattress are, but it may be that the MF comfort layer was either thinner, firmer (higher ILD), or both. May be that you also had multiple layers part of the mattress design. As you probably know all of the layers of foam work together in a completed mattress and there is no way for me to tell how each layer of foam impacted the comfort that you felt at the time as there are many interconnected variables some of which are connected with your own stats, sleeping style, and personal preferences.

You did not mention anything about a possible return so I am guessing that your custom mattress doesn’t have this option. You’d still have the option of performing mattress surgery and trying to remove the top layer (which may present some difficulties as the layer is glued to the polyfoam layer below) and then you’d need to find appropriate comfort layer(s).

I know you don’t have many options available but I hope this helps a bit with finding a way to move forward. Let us know if you have additional questions
Phoenix