Sealy Flexgrid - Buckling Gel Knockoff

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
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https://www.sealy.com/mattresses/sealy-flexgrid/v/822/

I’m taking a shot in the dark here and wondering if anyone knows anything about this mattress.

It seems like information is incredibly sparse and Sealy pumped exactly zero dollars into marketing it, maybe because they dont have much faith in the market segment.

I know that Sealy uses low-quality foams in their mattresses. I don’t necessarily find this hugely concerning in this segment because all of the buckling gel mattresses do, and after trying many, I find Purple and Intellibed to reduce my back pain the most substantially, but also reduce my wallet thickness the most substantially, too.

Thanks for your time.

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Dont know anything about the Sealy.

A few engineers broke away from Intellibed to make Purple. Purple just came out with a new line. Pretty good stuff….but it pales compared to Talalay latex. But try it out!

John

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Hey John,

Thanks for the reply.

I have a latex bed and two latex toppers and they all destroy my back.

The bed is a Birch, which uses pretty good materials.

The toppers are a softer 2 inch Tal and firmer 2 inch Dunlop that I bought separately to try.

I’m not as convinced of the qualities of the material for me as some others are of the overall quality of the material.

Additionally, this is why I’m not as enthusuastic about DIY – the objective qualities or firmness of the materials have been a poorer guide to me than the ability to just try, in store or in a mattress trial, dozens of constructions with no monetary cost.

I’m mostly trying to see if I can sidestep Purple’s exorbinant costs due to market capture.

Arguably, I should just go with the comfortable mattress, but I’ve become convinced that Purple has poor durability, and that the grid-on-top design might be to blame due to seeing tearing in the grid multiple times. This won’t work as I’m a 220 lbs weightlifter.

Unfortunately, I’ve got to defer to what my body says.

Thanks again!

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Im 225 and bought a Purple 4. It was killing my back. I returned it.

Latex is not for everybody. I like Tempurpefic Luxe Adapt Firm and Aireloom M1 and M2 in plush or firm.

John

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Hey Human,
I will start by saying, I am not a big fan of the grids, gels and some of the “innovations” that dont seem to have longevity associated with them. But the best mattress for you, is the one that works.
I am not sure what will happen if the grid option mattress doesnt work for you. Or if you can successfully use a topper on top of it. In my mind, it doesnt seem to be a match, but then again, if it works, that is all that matters to the individual using it.
I did an experiment at home recently. Crude as it was, it was enlightening.
I took each of my three different pillows. A 100% Natural talalay, 100% wool and a 100% horsehair. I placed them perpendicular to my normal 2 pillow stack and slept on each on three consecutive nights.
Granted the Talalay is about a 20ILD so it is not as firm as I would order a talalay topper, for me it would be a 36 or 44ILD as we like firm and have a very firm mattress.
Anyway, the talalay, although soft and squishy, I bottomed it out, even at a 6.4" loft that stretched shoulder to hip. The wool and horsehair were absolutely great, firm, surprisingly soft on the body, but not hard, it actually contoured my body great.
The moral of the story is, with any mattress you can add a topper that can tweak the type of feel you are looking for without destroying your back as long as that mattress offers the support you need and is made with quality layers above the support spring system. A mattress is only as good as it’s weakest layer. Look for simple, thoughtful support, comfort and cover/panel, add a topper to tweak the final adjustment and you will be perfectly fine.
Good luck with your decision.
Norm

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Thanks, Norm. Your namesake is a legend that passed too soon.

It’s kind of interesting that nobody really seems to have a grip on exactly how durable these materials are.

Purple claims that the grid will outlast the other mattress components, but the only two used mattress Purple teardowns I could find on youtube show serious grid degeneration that is clearly worse than even low density foam. It wasn’t just compression, it was complete material failure. Rips, tears, compression, etc.

The problem is that this material failure is shielded by the layers of the mattress - including a silica sock, so you can’t actually know the level or rate of deteroriation in order to make a warranty claim.

That’s quite the fortutious situation for Purple.

That being said, the product feels comfortable in the showroom.

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Human,
Yes, I have read the claims about the grid material, but the tear downs do not seem to back that up. There are only a couple of them on youtube, but when you watch them, it is clear the folks tearing them down did not know they were there. That is worrisome. It makes you wonder how many never know that the grid had broken down leading to mattress and body issues. Of course, once a couple of different folks break them down, you would not expect more to do the same. I think it becomes “you have seen one, you have seen them all” nothing new to see.

For me, it is a bit surprising. If we believe that the grid material is so good and durable, why make it into the form of a grid so when a weight is applied to it, the grid flattens and collapses.

If I were making a mattress with this material, I would make it into a sort of solid micro coils size say 1-1.5 inch solid cylinders spread across the mattress in a tight micro coil format. You wouldn’t want little gel discs, that I have seen out there, but made in the dormeo mattress/topper or sleep ovation mattress style, but with the grid material. Sure it may cost a bit more, but just charge accordingly.

From my perspective, the grid design is akin to convoluted foam. A short cut to cutting costs by reducing the supportive nature of a foam by using less material for a specific comfort layer, rather than a solid piece of foam. Convoluted foam basically uses half the amount of foam in the place where a solid piece should be. I am sure some will argue that convoluted foam has its place, and I am sure there are times where it might be appropriate, but if the peaks and valleys are too wide the foams will end up compressing and flattening out. This will either shorten the life of the foam and the comfort of the mattress. If the peaks and valleys are more tightly spaced, when the peaks start to compress, they will have no room to spread out and compress completely and start to push back with support. The same goes for the grid. I would think that if they grid were made into solid cylinders tightly spaced, you may have a product that would have a similar affect, longer lasting and better supporting. Since I am not an engineer, I don’t know if my theory is viable. But it does make sense to me. LOL :rofl: :rofl:

My experience trying the purple was a bit different. My reaction and my wife’s was, what the heck is this stuff. I could literally feel the grid in the mattress and pillow. For us it took one try and a fast pass. That is something that could be said by anyone about any mattress though. If you lay on something that is not comfortable to you as an individual, it simply becomes a no go and move on. I suppose that is why there are so many different many mattress choices out there.

What’s most important that you find something that checks all your boxes. I love helping friends, family and other posters find their perfect mattress, pillows and towels. It has become a passion for me.

So, what is your next step. What direction are you leaning?

Norm

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Norm,

Agreed on the buckling gel.

Clearly, it can feasibly, potentually commonly, tear from normal shearing forces (be it sex or just shifting in ones sleep).

That absolutely puts it in the bottom class of materials durability for mattresses in my mind.

I suspect the grid sustains micro-tears and eventually breaks down.

If a Purple engineer could clear up these videos, that’d be great.

Anyways, I am an engineer, but not a materials engineer. That being said, what you’ve suggested seems relatively sound. I honestly think you could throw whatever on the wall and as long as it had some basic characteristics (deforms, reforms) you’d probably have a product that is sufficiently difficult to discern in terms of quality.

This is one thing I hate about the industry, the lack of scientifically verifiable claims. I agree with the more seasoned mantra that there is an aspect of personal preference because body types vary widely, but not so much that a population based study couldnt be conducted on various materials to determine their suitability in key criteria.

The whole “spinal alignment” thing also seems suspect to me because it feels similar to chiropractic pseudoscience. My spine is quite capable of bending comfortably, I am more interested in the physical dynamics and lateral pressure applied to my vertebrae on a mattress that hurts. This is difficult, but quantifiable.

Anyways, my whole rant is basically that I think even advice here isn’t particularly helpful for mattress hunting, and leading people down a path of DIY is probably not the right call, either. I don’t blame the folks in charge per se, I moreso think that it’s basically impossible to give good mattress advice beyond “dont use bad materials” because it isn’t a scientific business.

As for where I am currently leaning, I am considering keeping the Birch as a high quality core of coils and firm latex and trying out different toppers for back relief. I can afford a Purple, even an expensive one, but not one every 8 months.

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Hi Human. I’ve seen the Purple advertisements and also the video showing the breakdown of the grid pattern. I always wonder where the support is in that type of mattress. I agree with Norm that once you have a good supportive mattress, you can add a topper in whatever level of comfort you want, without losing the support your spine your spine needs. Weightlifting is excellent, but your vertebrae and discs need to be in a neutral position for recovery while sleeping. If not, you can damage your discs. I like traditional innerspring mattresses for that reason.

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Hi Cheri,

Thanks for the reply.

I assume the support comes from the same place as many mattresses: from under the comfort layer.

That being said, I also think its a bit more complex than that, with the comfort and support acting in concert.

Regarding the buckling gel grid specifically, I wouldn’t say that the material itself is profoundly unsupportive.

It’s soft, but hardens substantially under compression and pushes back.

That being said, their explanation of the technology is very market-y and doesn’t really inspire a great deal of confidence. The only claim to fame I think the buckling gel grid has is that it was legitimately used for medical applications, which have a much higher threshold for verifiability than consumer applications.

This is, of course, understanding that the medical applications of the technology used a higher quality grid material (intellibed) and didn’t use the grid as the comfort layer. That part, likewise, feels very gimmicky.

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