I have the King size Innomax.
Although the air pressure is good and I sleep good, that is until I roll to center. Why is 24 inches of the center, from the top to the bottom very firm?
It seems like I have crushed down (I weigh 186 lbs) the pillow top on the side, and the center stays firm. Note: My Innomax is only 3 years old.
The only solution I can think of at this time, is to rip off the pillow top and throw some blankets over the air bladders.
With an overly firm center I cannot recommend purchasing a pillow top for airbeds, just purchase a thin top mattress.
It seems Innomax should improve their pillowtop, so the center will not stay so firm.
I’m not sure if the issues you are having come from the air bladders in your mattress being firmer in the center (to prevent roll together for couples who sleep in the middle of their mattress) or from one or more of the foam layers in your mattress softening more on each side of the mattress than in the middle.
If it’s from the foam layers then it’s not uncommon that the foam layers on each side of a mattress that are used more often have softened more over time than the middle of the mattress which generally isn’t used as much. While I don’t know the specifics of the foam layers in your mattress this would be particularly common with mattresses that lower density and less durable foams. If this is the case it may be worth considering replacing any foam layers in your mattress that have softened or broken down.
It’s also possible that your issue could be coming from a split king foundation that may be firmer in the middle where the edges of the two twin XL foundations meet and may be sagging on each side so this would be worth checking as well.
Have you called and talked to Innomax about your mattress? They may be able to help you track down the reasons for the issues you are having and help you resolve them.
Yes, Innomax sent me another pillow-top, about 2 years back.
I do understand about the center portion that is, if there’s a foam split down the center, to separate the two air bladders. However, my air bladders come together in the center.
My pillow-top is the culprit. It seems there is a design flaw, whereas my pillow-top should be weaker in the center, allowing for the two sides to wear down evenly with the center.
I do have a solution though, as I can remove the pillow-top, throw a couple of blankets or comforters on top of the air bladders, then the sheets. And, I can wash the blankets periodically.
I have to wonder, if Select Comfort has the same problem.
Still though, I will not go back to a regular mattress.
Unfortunately foam manufacturers don’t make foam layers that are “weaker” in the middle. The best solution is to have foam layers that are stronger and more durable so that the foam softens more slowly and the firmness of each side of the mattress remains closer to the firmness of the middle of the mattress (although all foam materials soften or break down over time so there will always be some difference between areas you sleep more and areas you sleep less over longer periods of time).
Most air bladders also have some firmer reinforcement around the perimeter of the bladder (which would include the inside edges of twin bladder systems) to keep the edges from collapsing.
While this certainly wouldn’t be the same as your original mattress and it would probably be more effective to replace the foam layers with higher quality and more durable foam … if any solution works for you and you sleep well on it then you certainly can’t argue with success.
While they don’t disclose the density of their foam comfort layers … they would almost certainly use even lower quality/density and less durable foam materials than Innomax which would be more likely to soften and break down prematurely. Most of their dual chamber mattresses also have a firmer foam center wall in between the air bladders and underneath their comfort layers.
You can see my thoughts about airbeds in general this article. While any mattress can be a good match for a specific person because each person’s needs and preferences or the criteria that are most important to them can be very different … in general terms I would tend to avoid them unless there is a very compelling reason that an airbed would be a better choice for you in “real life” (outside of the many “marketing stories” that you will hear about them) than the many other options or types of mattresses that are available to you.
If you are committed to an airbed and you are convinced that there are no other types of mattresses that will meet your criteria then there are some other airbed options available to you that are listed in post #3 here that may be in a much better quality/value range than Sleep Number/Select Comfort.
Thanks, you have been very informative. And, in understanding the foam of the pillow-top a little more, I have come to the conclusion that I was right. My pillow-top did break down.
Fix: The pillow-top should be in three (3) pieces, and every six (6) months or so, rotate.
Having 3 separate pieces in a pillowtop could result in some shifting and bunching of the foam layers since the splits would be underneath where you would normally sleep and it could also affect the feel of the pillowtop layer because of the edge effect (the edges of a foam layer tend to feel softer than the middle of the layer).
The “best” solution would be to use more durable foam materials.
I don’t think that there are very many people that would be comfortable sleeping directly on an air bladder for all the reasons I mentioned in the article I linked in my earlier reply which is why airbeds have foam layers on top of the air bladders.
Read your article, and I like the idea of having three (3) air bladders; where the center air bladder would compensate for the foam on the sides getting softer with use.
Thanks again for very enlightening answers: air beds, water beds, regular mattresses, even with horse hair, foam, or carved wood logs… Think I will do some re-reading of your article and references.
I’m not sure if you are referring to the 3 zones that I mentioned in the article but the center zone I mentioned there would be a side to side zone (not a top to bottom zone) which can help provide firmer support under the heavier parts of the body (hips/pelvis) which tend to sink into a mattress more deeply can help provide better spinal alignment over the course of the night.
The deeper layers of a mattress also provide primary support while the upper layers provide secondary support and pressure relief so they have different functions and changing one won’t necessarily improve the feel or function of the other layers (and in some cases could make things worse). There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.