Innomax airbed

[phoenix]

Hi Nailbreak,

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have to wonder, if Select Comfort has the same problem.

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.

Still though, I will not go back to a regular mattress.

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.

Phoenix