Hello and thank you for such an informative site and active forum. This website has been a wonderful treasure trove of solid information. My wife and I are on the hunt for a new mattress and after spending weeks researching online and recently checking out a few models in person this is where we are at:
We currently have a 10 year old canāt recall what model firm spring bed with a 2" memory foam topper, this topper replaced our previous 4" one as it got too soft, and was WAY to hot. The current one is a Serta from overstock.com. Itās ok but not ideal. We HATE the bed, can deal with it with the topper but need a new one, we are both tired of tossing and turning as well as waking up more tired than when we went to sleep.
Earlier in the year before researching we checked out Sleep Number while visiting the South Florida Fair as they were a vendor there, liked it but was unsure of an airbed, however we were only beginning our search and talks of a new bed so didnāt put much stock or time into it. However learned the rough price range we were looking into. As well as learned that we very much enjoy the adjustable frames as we watch a lot of TV in bed and work on our laptops a lot in bed, so therefore we spend a lot of time sitting up in bed and the adjustable bed will make that much more comfortable.
Recently this past month we got more serious about buying a new bed, I began researching vast amounts of information on the web about Sleep Number, Tempurpedic and several other brands. I read review sites, as well as personal reviews anywhere I could find them. I read through consumer complaint sites and forums all over to get a solid idea of the companies, peopleās experiences and general information about the products.
We went to a Mattress Firm store here in South Florida this week, spent a solid hour and a half or more in the store trying out the various Tempurpedic beds, agreed that we both like a very soft feel to our bed, not firm, not medium but soft for sure. We also very much loved the āBreezeā models which are substantially cooler feeling even after laying in one of them for half and hour to test to see if the heat would eventually build up. We agreed that the Cloud Luxe Breeze model was amazing, although the price along with the premium adjustable base was NOT amazing at around $9,000. We are willing to spend that much if we need to but itās a little stretch over what we would like to spend. However we have found that the price of good sleep is worth every penny.
We followed up that visit to a City Mattress store where we were introduced to a latex mattress. Prior to this visit I have read about them online through my research, but never felt one. We progressed through them until we hit the Pranasleep Guru, http://www.pranasleep.com/om/sub-collection.asp?collectionID=84 . This one is OVERLY expensive but the store manager was willing to offer a decent discount to get it in our price range compared to the tempurpedic cloud luxe breeze. So although this bed at a king size is around $14k, we were able to negotiate a price around $11k. My wife loves the feel of the bed, not as squishy as the cloud luxe breeze, nor as cool as it which is a bummer, we do enjoy the softness and the coolness. However my wife brought up a good point, she tends to roll over several times a night, now that may be subjective to the comfort of our current mattress, not sure. She mentioned it was way easier to roll over in the Guru rather than the Cloud luxe breeze. So for her, thatās a plus.
After reviewing your buying guides, reading about a hundred or so threads on this forum, and reading your articles about comfort layers, support layers and the manufacturers suggestions. I know you donāt recommend any of the major players. Although I believe you mentioned that Tempurpedic is high quality, its just low value due to cost. If I am willing to pay the cost, to me I guess that makes it an ok choice as far as quality is concerned disregarding value. Would you say that if to me the PPP works out ok as long as the buyer is ok with the value in the end?
We are going to take your recommendations to check out a local retailer in Miami today, Brickell Mattress, they sell the recommended Select Foam brand as well as latex mattresses. I am interested to see what they have that compares to the Cloud Luxe Breeze.
Please let me know, should I not find anything today at that store, the two options I have currently am I dealing with two quality mattresses, disregarding price? I know Pranasleep has mixed reviews, and is generally not suggested in the past by your mattress forum, however I know you mentioned they increased the quality by changing out the polyfoam in the V5, and the Guru is a different product, that I could not find any mention of on this site nor many others online, so I am very interested in your thoughts on this mattress.
[quote]Hello and thank you for such an informative site and active forum. This website has been a wonderful treasure trove of solid information. My wife and I are on the hunt for a new mattress and after spending weeks researching online and recently checking out a few models in person this is where we are at:
We currently have a 10 year old canāt recall what model firm spring bed with a 2" memory foam topper, this topper replaced our previous 4" one as it got too soft, and was WAY to hot. The current one is a Serta from overstock.com. Itās ok but not ideal. We HATE the bed, can deal with it with the topper but need a new one, we are both tired of tossing and turning as well as waking up more tired than when we went to sleep.[/quote]
It certainly sounds like after 10 years on your old mattress itās time for a new mattress ā¦ and Iām glad you found us :).
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 personās needs and preferences or the criteria that are most important to them can be very different ā¦ 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 āreal lifeā (outside of the many āmarketing storiesā that you will hear about them) based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you than the many other options or types of mattresses you have available.
I would also purchase an adjustable bed separately from a mattress (unless you would purchase one of the adjustable beds that are available at the store you are dealing with anyway if you were buying it separately). There is more information about choosing an adjustable bed in post #3 here and the main adjustable bed topic that it links to that can help you choose an adjustable bed based on price vs features comparisons and also includes some retailers that you can use as good sources of information about the features of the adjustable beds they carry and as pricing references as well (in post #6 in the main adjustable bed topic).
I would be very cautious about using other peopleās reviews or experiences on a mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how suitable a mattress may be for you or the durability of a mattress and in many cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else either in terms of suitability and PPP or in terms of durability (see post #13 here). Reviews about the knowledge or service at a particular store can certainly be helpful but when it comes to the specifics of a mattress they wonāt provide you with the type of reliable information you will need to make an informed choice about how well you will sleep on a mattress, how long you will sleep well, or the āvalueā of a mattress purchase compared to all the other options that are available to you either in your area or online.
As you know from your reading I would tend to avoid the types of chain stores and major brands you were looking at (see the guidelines here).
You can read more about gel memory foams in post #2 here. They will tend to feel cooler to the touch and can sleep cooler when you are going to sleep at night but once temperatures equalize they wonāt generally maintain their temperature regulating properties over the course of the night. There is also more about the many variables that can affect sleeping temperature in post #2 here (including the type of mattress protector and the sheets and bedding that you use which in many cases can have just as significant an effect on temperature as the type of foam in a mattress).
You can read more about the pros and cons of memory foam vs latex in post #2 here and as your wife noticed one of the benefits of a more resilient material is that itās easier to change sleeping positions which can be an important factor in āhealthy sleepā. Having said that ā¦ when you are in these types of budget ranges I would make some VERY careful value comparisons because once you are past about $3000 or so for a mattress only in queen size (or the equivalent in a king size which would be about 15% - 25% more) then there is certainly a law of diminishing returns and itās unlikely that a mattress in this budget range will be a better āmatchā for you in terms of PPP and how well you will sleep or more durable than many other mattresses that are in much lower budget ranges ā¦ many of which would be using the same type of materials and components. There is more about more āpremiumā or āultra premiumā mattresses in post #2 here and in post #2 here that may be helpful.
There is more about the most important parts of the āvalueā of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses and if I was in your shoes I would make some VERY careful value comparisons between other mattresses that are available to you to make sure that you have a very compelling reason to buy a mattress in these budget ranges that would make enough of a difference in āreal lifeā to justify the significantly higher cost ā¦ even compared to other mattresses that use the same amount of the same or very similar materials.
I would also keep in mind that the āvalueā of a mattress purchase (as far as price which is only one part of value) depends on how your āfinal priceā compares to the āfinal priceā of other mattresses that are available to you not to how they compare to a āregular priceā that nobody probably pays anyway. There is more about negotiated prices in post #6 here.
You can see my thoughts about Tempurpedic in the posts that are linked in post #2 here. The short version is that for the most part they use good quality and durable materials but for most people they wouldnāt be in a particularly good value range compared to many other memory foam mattresses that use similar or better quality materials that would be just as durable. I personally would have a great deal of difficulty justifying a Tempurpedic purchase unless for some reason my needs and preferences were so unusual that there were no other alternatives available that would be just as suitable and ācomfortableā in terms of PPP and used materials that were the same or better quality that would be just as durable as the Tempurpedic line ā¦ and this would be very unlikely.
I think this would be a very good idea. Youāve probably seen this already but just in case you havenāt, the better options or possibilities Iām aware of in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area (quality/value guidelines I linked earlier in this reply) are listed in post #2 here.
It sounds like you may have read at least some of these already but you can read more about the previous versions (up to version 4) of Pranasleep in post #3 here and in post #2 here and in post #3 here and in posts #1 and #2 here and a forum search on Prana (you can just click this) will also bring up more information and feedback about them as well.
As you mentioned they changed the design in version 5 and the top layers of polyfoam are now higher density and are no longer what I would consider to be a weak link in the mattress in terms of durability but they are still in a significantly higher budget range than other similar mattresses and the top layers are still polyfoam so you would still be feeling and sleeping on polyfoam as much or more than latex. There is more about the new version 5 in post #19 here.
The Pranasleep Wahe Guru has 11" of latex and is a 15" mattress so I would need to know the specifics of the missing 4" (most likely 3" or polyfoam on top and an inch on the bottom of the mattress) to be able to make any meaningful comments about it but assuming that the 3" on top and the inch on the bottom are the same as the other Pranasleep ālatexā mattresses my thoughts about the Guru would be very similar to my thoughts about the rest of their lineup in the posts I linked earlier in this reply in terms of durability and the āvalueā of their mattresses.
In other words ā¦ both of the mattresses you mentioned use good quality materials and for most people wouldnāt have any obvious weak links in their design but are āquestionableā in terms of their āvalueā compared to many other similar mattresses that are available to you that would probably be just as suitable in terms of PPP, just as durable, and would likely be much better āvalueā choices.
Thank you again for the wonderful information. The trip down to Brickell Mattress was great. Pedro stayed an hour after closing time to take care of us and provided a wealth of information. I believe at this point we have decided against the latex mattress even though itās generally regarded as a higher quality material just due to itās stiffness. Those mattresses without sufficient amounts of polyfoam on top of them do not allow me to sink into them enough to get proper alignment.
I am 6ā2" and 220lbs. So I am a large guy, moderately built with wide shoulders. I require a comfort layer with enough give to allow my shoulders and hips to sink in pretty good yet fill in between. This is where the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe Breeze and the Select Foam CIrrus luxe 13" do very well for me. I also however need to balance the needs of my wife. She finds those two mattresses comfortable as well, however tough to roll over in, and I agree with her but I do not roll as much so to me thatās not a problem I would be concerned with. For her, she found the Select Foam Cirrus Supreme 11" more comfortable and easier to roll in. I would agree itās easier to roll in and just about as comfortable, if we choose to go with that one, I certainly would be happy. We didnāt have enough time to then check out the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme to compare it to the Select Foam Cirrus Supreme but Iām sure itās pretty close. So why didnāt we just buy the Cirrus Supreme?
Well, at this point we are in discussion about price, product and value. As I have mentioned in my first post, The value point, Iām not as worried about, Iām not rich by any measure, and given the choice, the $2200 Select Foam sounds much better to me than the $5700 Tempurpedic. Now I can afford the $5,700 mattress should we choose that one however once we have made the choice, I want to be assured it is the one that feels amazing for both of us. So the product is the main focus of the conversation. Now here is yet another variable, we have a family member who works for Tempurpedic, and with the family discount, we can get 50% off, so the retail price then comes pretty close to the Select Foam, so again the āvalueā comes back real close in margin.
We have narrowed it down to those 4 mattresses, and even though I know the Select Foam is a better value for the money, and I love the fact that itās a natural Soy based foam rather than petrochemical based. I am not sure it will provide us with the same cooling effect as the Breeze versions of the two Tempurpedic mattresses mentioned above. After laying in the Select Foam mattress for just 15 minutes, I could feel the heat begin to collect a little bit, not too horrible, but noticeable, where as the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe Breeze, had no such effect even after about a 30 minute test the other day. This is an important fact due to where we live, in South Florida itās not only hot but humid as well and we have to keep the A/C on 69 degrees at night to not only keep it cool enough but to keep the humidity down. Now on this same point, I am concerned with how the āBreezeā technology actually works. I have Googled my brains out trying to find a cut away or actual detailed explanation on it without the marketing bull crap and I have had no luck. My concern is that the āBreezeā technology is some sort of thin gel material on top of the mattress that will break down over time, so it may feel great for the first year, but after that it will be just like the non āBreezeā version. Do you have any insight into this technology?
I think we now at a point, where we need to go back to one of the stores to try to compare in detail the two Tempurpedics (Cloud Luxe Breeze and Cloud Supreme Breeze) since itās easier for us to find a local store carrying those. Once we can narrow the choice down between those two, we can take the choice back to Brickell Mattress to decide between the Tempurpedic and the comparable Select Foam.
Itās possible that the latex mattresses you tested didnāt have a comfort layer that was either thick or soft enough since latex itself comes in firmness levels that range from ultra soft to very firm and there are many people with a similar body type to you that sleep very well on a latex mattress but the choice of materials or the type of mattress that you decide on is always a preference choice rather than a ābetter/worseā choice. Latex also tends to be less widely available than memory foam so your experience with latex would be limited to a smaller range of mattresses.
There are many variables that can affect sleeping temperature and not all of them are specific to the mattress (such as the temperature or humidity in a showroom or the clothes you are wearing when you test a mattress). Itās also not possible to quantify the temperature range that you will sleep in on a specific mattress because of all the variables involved and there arenāt any specific tests that allows consumers to compare different mattresses in terms of temperature regulation so you are limited to comparisons of the materials in more general terms along with the knowledge and experience of the manufacturer/retailer you are dealing with and ābest judgementā.
I would keep in mind that gel memory foam will tend to have a temporary effect on temperature that typically only lasts while you are going to sleep at night and not over the entire course of the night and memory foam in general will tend to sleep warmer than other types of foam materials.
The Breeze technology generally has several components that would include anything in their mattresses that contribute to cooling. Tempurpedic doesnāt disclose all of the information you are looking for and they prefer to just tell their āstoryā without disclosing the why or how behind the story but the Breeze memory foam in the Cloud Luxe is their regular Tempur ES 4 lb memory foam with a very thin layer of gel that is ācoatedā on the memory foam that penetrates the memory foam slightly (see post #6 here) and the Breeze cover is made from Coolmax which is a synthetic fabric that is designed to help regulate temperature through its ability to wick moisture efficiently (see post #17 here).
The Select Foam Cirrus Luxe has gel that is dispersed throughout the memory foam (not just the top surface area). I donāt know the specifics of their top cover material so you would need to check with them for this.
I would keep in mind that the mattress protector and sheets you use will also be part of the many variables that will affect temperature regulation when you actually sleep on the mattress.
You can read more about soy or other āplant basedā foams in post #2 here.
Phoenix
NOTE ADDED: Because of ongoing customer service issues and delays Select Foamās membership has been terminated and I would read the warning here before considering them.