Hello all,
This is my first post I first want to extend my thanks to Phoenix for providing such a wonderful resource in this site and it’s forum. I’ve learned more by reading articles, reviews, and excellent forum content than I could have ever imagined. Forgive me if this post gets long-winded, but I’d like to illustrate firstly, why a website like this is so valuable and secondly, I’ll explain where I’m at in my decision to make a purchase. I welcome feedback on all counts.
Q: History - Why Is a Site Like this So Important and Valuable? A: Let me tell you why!
About ten to twelve years ago, when Tempur Pedic and a handful of others were the big players in the game, there was virtually no information online about the nuts & bolts of what makes a good memory foam bed - certainly nothing even remotely close to this site and others like Sleep Like the Dead. About the most information available was some snazzy insider terms on cheap websites that gave you buzzwords like “ILD” and “5 pound foam bed,” and certainly that no one made a memory foam bed like Tempur Pedic did. There were a LOT of crap “off brands” that were quasi-competing with the Big “S” companies, and I say “quasi-competing” because they were really just competing to separate your money from your wallet, but not coming anywhere near close to competing with the quality of product as Tempur Pedic was putting out. Well, I had an air chambered bed at the time by a now defunct company called Nautilus Sleep Systems that went out of business in 2005. It was the biggest piece of garbage I have ever slept on and I simply cannot believe I slept on it as long as I did, but I still lived at home and was pretty strapped for cash at the time. When I finally laid on a Tempur Pedic, I was sold from moment one, but the price just absolutely floored me. But I wanted a Tempur Pedic. BAD! Even back in the day, the price was way out of my league. So I immediately began searching for competitor “off-brands” that would fall within my budget. What that search turned up was almost every site in the known internet telling me that their bed was 'just like the Tempur Pedic." I searched and searched online, trying to wade my way through the sea of propaganda about how great this or that bed was, and finally I was bamfoozled a warehouse in South Florida called “The Memory Foam Outlet.” This guy talked the talk on beds. I spoke with him on the phone, and he made me feel very secure about the quality of his foam and that I’d be crazy to buy a Tempur Pedic, and that there was no difference in his bed and Tempur. So, I bought an 11" deep, king-sized bed from him, at $980, that included two free memory foam pillows. A week later, the bed shows up vacuum sealed. I excitedly open it and what appears? One huge 76x80 turd mattress that was absolutely, positively nothing like a Tempur Pedic bed. Also, there were no pillows in the shipment. I called this joker up and of course, no answer on the phone. I called for two weeks straight to no avail until finally, he answered. I gave him a piece of my mind and told him I wanted to return the mattress for a refund, which he wouldn’t give to me. I was stuck. It also took me over a month of calling him to get my pillows, which showed up and were discount single-size floss pillows that came off the discount bin at Wal-Mart. Utter garbage. I was so sick to my stomach I couldn’t relax for two weeks. I had been taken. The bed finally began to loosen up, but is an extremely firm memory foam top that doesn’t conform, it just bows around the body. I finally just gave up on calling him and kept the bed. I wanted a soft bed, one that cradled me, and this thing does nothing of the sort. All in all, it was just an okay bed, but okay was the best compliment I could give it. At the time, I was a back sleeper and it worked alright, but I knew I was screwed and just wasn’t going to get the Tempur Pedic experience I so wanted. Live and learn. But when I transitioned to side sleeping, the bed became awful - like sleeping on a sheet of plywood. I wake up every morning and my feet are sore and my toes tingle in pain. The one and only positive I’ll say about the bed is that it doesn’t sleep hot, at all. But I have to get rid of it and I finally want to right a 10 year old wrong.
So why do I write this story? To tell all you readers of this forum that what Phoenix has provided is simply marvelous, and it wasn’t around last time I was in the market for a bed. Not even close. He, and others on here, have provided a security net so that I don’t hang myself this time around (I hope) in purchasing my next mattress. It’s really invaluable, considering that purchasing a mattress is a rather blind experience if you don’t do your homework.
My next Mattress - and opinions
So I’ve read through the material on the website, and others, and have gone to the mattress store (which felt like a used car dealership experience) and laid on several different mattresses. I laid on a few of the Tempur Pedic line that felt great, then I laid on the Cloud Luxe and it was a show stopper. I asked the salesman to leave me be for a few minutes and the experience just got better. I absolutely am sold on the Tempur Pedic Cloud Luxe. However, I wasn’t going to spend $4299 for the bed, and of course, the pressure tactic in the store was “well we have one on clearance that was returned and is in brand new condition for $3100, but you need to act fast because it won’t stay at that price for long.” Nice try, but no cigar. I walked out and continued my search.
I located some reputable mattress sellers on eBay and I was even willing to spend the money on one to finally get that authentic Tempur Pedic feel, until I came across this site and read about the Cool Luxe from Brooklyn Bedding. It looks like the real deal, but, there’s this persistent voice in the back of my head saying: “just get the Tempur Pedic, don’t screw around again. Didn’t you learn once? Is it going to take making the same mistake twice to teach you?” I’ll admit that everything looks REALLY excellent on the BB Cool Luxe, However, when in the mattress store, the salesman told me that “gel memory foam is all the rage right now, but it will never feel exactly like Tempur Pedic’s foam, I don’t care how much these guys out there making beds to compete with them want to tell you it will. Tempur Pedic will never use gel in their mattress tops because they say that there’s no way they can honor a 25 year warranty using gel material in their tops that accelerate the breakdown of the foam. Also, the addition of gel will not give that same “hugging feeling” that the Tempur foam will. It just won’t. There’s many good memory foam makers out there, but they simply don’t have the same research, material and innovation as Tempur Pedic.”
Now I realize that’s a sales pitch, and a good one, because it can work on gullible suckers like me coming off a real bad experience trying to chase the rabbit of getting a Tempur Pedic experience from a non Tempur Pedic mattress. Truth be told, I really don’t know if what he said was right or wrong. I’m willing to entertain the Cool Luxe, but I really want it to be exactly like the Cloud Luxe if I pull the trigger to buy it. I laid on a Serta iComfort at the retail store and it wasn’t even close to the Cloud Luxe. Not even in the same ball park, and it had a gel memory foam top. If that’s the same feeling I’m going to get out of the Cool Luxe, then I’ll scrape together the money and just buy the Tempur Pedic.
But I’m willing to listen to anyone who wishes to opine on my dilemma. I really want this purchase to go well, because I’m willing to unload a chunk of money to get the bed I should have gotten a decade ago.
I looked at the Ultimate Dreams 13" Gel Memory foam, and while the ratings were great, I saw too much of the “it’s firmer than the Cloud Luxe” and that’s a deal-breaker for me. I also don’t like that I can’t return it, but I can return the Cool Luxe if I don’t like it. The Cool Luxe looks like a much more well put-together bed than the UD bed, and it says it compares perfectly with the Cloud Luxe. I hope so.
I’m going to keep searching the forums looking for real reviews on the Cool Luxe bed.
All in all, thanks a million once again for providing such a great resource. I’ll post my entire experience on here once I finally buy my mattress, in the hopes that it’ll help someone down the road secure a good purchase and not make my same mistakes in the past.
All my best,
Justin
