Kingsdown My Side Series 4

Greetings - first post and all! :smiley:

I see a thread for My Side 6, but none for 4 series, so figured I’d start one. I have contacted the manu to get exact data on the composition and here’s what I have:
14.75 inches pillow top consisting of
Convoluted Foam (I am guessing same thing as Convoluted Polyurethane Foam)
‘Cool Wave’ Foam (not 100% sure, seems like some kind of a porous design foam with more air flow through it)
‘Air flow cushion’ Foam (I guess an even more porous version of ‘cool wave’)

The above sits on top of individually wrapped coils.

What more can you, Forum (Phoenix primarily I presume?) tell me about said mattress? What exactly is in it and how does it compare to the better stuff? I would like to know your most in-dept opinion on this mattress and materials in use! :slight_smile:

Hi ThatDoePerson,

The layer breakdown for the series 4 is as follows (from the Sleepy’s website)

Mattress Build

.7 Oz. Fire Resistant Fiber
1 1/4" Quilting Poly
1 Oz. Clima Touch Fiber
1 1/2" Cool Wave Extra Foam
1" Super Soft Air Flow Cushion
1" Firm Kingsfoam
3/8" Visco Lumbar Support
9" Wrapped Coil System
1" Base Foam

The 1 1/4" quilting Poly would be soft low density … the kind that I try to avoid.

The 1 1/2" of Cool Wave Extra Foam (see the Kingsdown MySide glossary here for a “partial” description) is poly with “channels” and holes that are fabricated in it to encourage airflow. The polyfoam is an unknown density (meaning it’s usually safer to assume the density is low)

1" SuperSoft Airflow cushion is a foam (most likely polyfoam) which has holes in it for airflow.

1" Kingsfoam is unknown polyfoam

3/8" Visco Lumbar Support is memory foam of an unknown density (quality) which stays firmer because it is deeper in the mattress and away from heat and used for Lumbar Support.

9" Wrapped Coil system is a Pocket or Marshall Coil system likely good quality.

So all in all … you have over 5" of either softer low density polyfoam or unknown foam (likely polyfoam) in the mattress. This is exactly the type of mattress I would avoid unless you want to roll the dice and trust that the foam used justifies the price (which IMO isn’t even close).

The “story” of this mattress that tries to justify the price is all about the “science” of pressure relief and support and “cool” but what it neglects to say is that it is mostly about common sense and has already been implemented by many manufacturers in many different ways for a long time. These types of foam fabrications (and many others) are also available to any manufacturer and “coolness” features are part of better quality materials such as latex anyway and aren’t usually needed with materials that don’t have to “compensate” as much for their inherent tendency to sleep hot.

I like some of the concepts that Kingsdown (and others) are using in terms of more scientifically identifying support and pressure relief needs and some of the research they are doing (along with others) as well. I also like that they are a “little” more transparent than many major brands in terms of the descriptions of the materials they use … even though they are missing the most important specs.

I don’t like the overreliance on these systems and what I really don’t like is how they apply these concepts using lower quality materials. At these prices … it would be much more reasonable to expect much higher quality foams. These are the types of foams that are used in lower budget mattresses made by smaller manufacturers … not the highest quality foams that their prices would lead you to expect.

Phoenix

Thanks a lot for your information, Phoenix! :slight_smile:
As a side question, where on the site did you find this information? I cannot find this stuff specified on their site for an individual mattress.

Hi ThatDoePerson,

If you scroll down to the bottom of their description right after the size information you will see a link “Click Here for More Info”. If you click the here the description comes up.

To their credit they supply this information. Unfortunately … like most places … it’s not complete and doesn’t provide the specs that let you know the quality of the materials they are using.

Phoenix

So I wonder, what do you think should the true worth/cost of this mattress be - materials, considered?

Hi ThatDoePerson,

I sincerely doubt that it would be possible to buy this mattress for what I would pay for it because it would probably be below their cost. The reason for this is that I wouldn’t want that much unknown polyfoam in any mattress at any price because even if I did know the quality of every layer … there is no reason in the world to put that much polyfoam over an innerspring. I would much rather have a mattress that had a good quality innerspring that interacted with thinner layers of higher quality polyfoam. In other words I believe that the design itself is flawed and I would only buy it if I was forced to. How much would you pay for something you really didn’t want at all but were being forced to buy?

While I understand the “theory” because thicker comfort layers are a way to somewhat make up for the lower quality of the foam because there is more foam to absorb the weight, I believe that using higher quality polyfoam in thinner layers in the first place would take far better advantage of the qualities of an innerspring below it and make a much better mattress.

For example take a look at this manufacturer who makes a whole range of mattresses using any type of innerspring you wish (they even make their own pocket coils), uses much higher quality foams (including true HR foam which approaches latex in its qualities and durability), is two sided, well designed, comes with a box spring, and their most expensive model is under $2000 (queen).

So it’s a question I would have real trouble answering because I wouldn’t really want it at all. If I knew the actual density of every layer though … then at least I could make a meaningful price comparison with other mattresses of “like kind” and sort of compare it on a commodity basis with other mattresses … but they don’t release that information for obvious reasons.

Phoenix