Search for a new mattress, leaving Purple, Need suggestions!

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
21

Thanks Phoenix,

We went to the local store to experience another “pure” Talalay mattress, but found they no longer sell them. While getting ready to leave, we found a “Rest” Mattress (it caught my eye due to the technologies, and the 5 zones) (ReST 5-Zone Smart Bed w/ GelGrid™ | ReST Smart Bed).

Has anyone heard/seen/experienced these? My wife absolutely loved it, as her #1 favorite bed. I was messing too much with the options and didn’t quite get it to where I preferred it, but found that the topper being a memory gel, would likely be pretty warm. (Upon research, I found they sell a 2" Gel Grid + 2" Memory Foam instead of the 4 in Memory Foam, which likely would alleviate that, and sell the BedJet if needed) The bed is very compelling to me (yes, very expensive too). Curious to get feedback. (This bed was being bought from someone who regretted a recent sleep number purchase…while we were there, and another woman walked in looking for a sleep number replacement…)

We originally liked talalay purely because we were worried about the memory foam’s temperature and durability. We love the feel of the 3+inch memory foam though. This mattress has a 10 year warranty and you can replace just specific components as needed, as it fully unzips (and was shown to me, which was nice). So I don’t worry as much about the durability… And it having a significant comfort layer (4in) for my shoulder, in the bigger picture would likely improve a lot, with the shoulder zone being softened as well. The salesman was trying to help me address my shoulder problem, he actually recommended not even specifically this mattress, but no matter the mattress I use–try to lay on my back and just get OFF the shoulder. I mentioned that’s been hard my whole life for me, but when he took the adjustable base and slightly elevated head and feet, he explained that a few nights it likely would become my preferred sleep position. So he didnt try to push this mattress, or any for that mater, and at least for my shoulder focused on options—which I commend him for.

We struggle with moving forward with a mattress we simply cant find in the area, to lay on—or even an equivalent. FoxMattress recommended a specific mattress, and their “pure talalay” felt very stiff and uncomfortable—so I was really hoping to get a better feel of one, from this store we went to today.

Thoughts? At this point, I am thinking we might end up having to just buy something to try it. I just feel that is such a wasteful process.

Note: We also experienced this as a split top, which was kind of cool!. He advised against full split King’s…

22

Just out of curiosity did you also try the rest bed with purple grid? I’m curious how that feels, ive read mixed reviews. I know you said you are “leaving purple” so i understand if you didnt try it bc its not for you :smiling_face:

23

Hey there,

No, They only had the standard one. The one with the grid, is their proprietary purple, but I’ve even found out recently (by going to MattressFirm) that purple is imitating a higher end mattress that costs more than a Temperpedic. I forget the name, but its been around longer then purple—I guess their patent expired or something.

I am leaving purple because the mattress doesn’t work for me. But I have no issue with the grid concept itself. It would be my assumption that I would be getting the grid equivalent of Rest, purely to help ensure slightly cooler bed. It seems on the REST site, it doesn’t go much into it—but it does advertise it as more responsive and better airflow.

The only complaints I can find on the REST Bed is cost, and the technical curve on it.

24

I know you addressed this to Phoenix and hopefully he will comment as well but you are heading in the exact same direction I did so I’m hoping my comments will be helpful. Where I live in Canada I had no way to try a full latex bed (Flobeds caught my eye initially but I had no way to know if I would like full latex or not so I wasn’t going to risk $4k on a guess). Early on I did try 2 different spring setups but wasn’t able to make either of them work for me (disclaimer, this was before I understood dunlop vs talalay or the benefits of zoning so I do believe you can make a hybrid latex work, I just never got there). After striking out on springs I then thought perhaps making the support layer adjustable might be the key. So at that point I wanted to see how an adjustable layer might work for me and what the different available designs might have in terms of pros/cons for my own DIY project. Many of these airbed manufacturers originally made waterbeds then converted to air when waterbeds fell out of fashion. I obviously looked at the famous Sleep Number first and realized it has a major drawback because the single air chamber per side suffers from hammocking (there are tons of single chamber air bed manufacturers out there so lots of parts are available if something breaks). I also found some air beds that had a dual adjustable air chamber setup where the hip area is separately adjustable (examples of these would be Air-Pedic and Boyd). Finally there are designs where you have multiple adjustable air chambers (only example found of this was Rest). The Rest bed does have a good design because it allows a large amount of adjustability in many different zones which in theory should allow you to perfect your alignment while sleeping. I also like that they have pressure sensing technology built into the bed so you can even see the pressure on your body which should allow you to tune the comfort layer to alleviate any pressure points too (I don’t like that the bed automatically changes the air pressure based on the pressure map because it may put you into poor alignment to alleviate pressure points). So with all this going for it, what’s not to like? Well to start they are crazy expensive (split to king is almost $8,000 right now). The high level of complexity (2 air pumps with lots of solenoids, wired sensors in the bed, many air chambers/hose connections create more failure points) makes it more likely that things could break down the road and they could be very expensive to replace if it ends up on your dime. Finally this company has not been around that long (it was founded in 2013) so if they do go out of business parts will be nearly impossible to get.

This review gives a good overview of how it all works:

Here’s a good visual of what’s inside a Rest Bed:

2400×1000 281 KB

So after looking at the possible drawbacks that’s why I went back towards working on a DIY zoned Sleep Number design myself. My goal now is to use the latex in zones (like a Flobed, in similar areas like the zones on the Rest Bed, as seen in the graphic above) to counteract the hammocking effect of having a single air chamber. The Rest Bed is definitely unique and if your budget can handle it then that could be a turn key solution to your alignment issues (worst case you could also replace the top memory foam layer with talalay instead, possibly even in a split mode if your wife prefers the memory foam). If you do end up going that route then I’ll be very curious to hear what you think of it and how well it works for you guys.

I think the other gel buckling column bed you are talking about was Intellibed:

25

Hey, thanks for this great reply! I am glad you knew of the product, and had thought it out a bit. I too am curious what Sensei thinks. Just a quick tweak. You are right, a standard Split King is 7598 when on sale (Sales rep told me that they are predictable in there 1k reduction on holidays, the sales begin on the Mondays). Im curious if there is sales tax if I bought online. That’s something ill investigate. As for the parts durability your right, if not under warranty the cost may be a bit high—but, it is a 10 year warranty, and so if after 10 years, I need to spend 300-500, I actually am ok, because I am adding many years to a good sleep. To be honest, I think when my wife sells her next house, we would put half-down, and finance the other half as I use this to help improve her credit. My guess is ill be back at that retail store in the near future to re-rest…without my 2 year old, so i can lay on it for some 30+ minutes and let the bed auto-adjust.

Also, a side note about the auto-adjust. You dont have to enable that!. As they were walking me through the app, you have multiple options. You can pre-program a “back” program, a “side” program, you can let Auto adjust set a reasonable baseline, save and adjust it, etc. But what I liked a lot more, (and im a data guy, fair warning) it uses heuristics to measure hundreds of spots, to monitor your sleep patterns, and learn from not on you, but others. I asked the guy, and he mentioned that if my arm hurts, and it sees me tossing and turning, its going to learn from that. I can either have it auto-adjust, or I can use the nightly results to adjust accordingly. Dont think its automatic—that is optional. The sales rep suggested start with automatic to get a “reasonable firmness/config” and after a few nights, then slowly tweak each piece, and he said to start with my hips then shoulder (as he felt the other spots for my wife and I wont be a problem). Oh, and to you Mattrebuild, he called out that her and my hips and shoulders are a bit wide–and agreed that is the same issue he has and why this bed might be a good fit. (he mentioned his shoulder before i mentioned mine!).

I’m thinking I am eyeing a “Eastern King Split Top” which actually is 5899. We have a 2 year old, and as such the sales rep said—if you have a full split, not only are you paying more, but your taking away an opportunity for your kid to lay between you. He also made mention of how full splits “travel apart” and you would be constantly re-adjusting them back together. Though I am not horribly concerned about this, it is a good point. Also for intimacy, having the lower 3/5 not split, I could see some value. The rep still used the adjustable base, to raise one side of the beds feet, by some 8+ inches, and it allowed me to lay flat without much issue. But the rep was also trying to convince me that its not only cheaper, but that if my issues are rectified by laying on my back with a small include top and bottom, it would be a non-issue anyways. His feedback was he often hears complaints of split kings, but not top-split kings. I thought that was interesting. And of course, buying split-top king sheets doesn’t sound fun. But when you go the split-top, its basically the same price as the Temperpedic KING that I was eyeing, and significantly cheaper than a Temperpedic Split king. So I see it as actually possibly a cheaper option!. On a side note, and the reason I rant on this, is my wife when pregnant, hated laying on her black—flat. She would use some 7 pillows to position herself well, and proper herself up. This split-top king would solve that problem entirely. So, just a thought.

The sales rep did acknowledge the “flobed concept” likely would solve my problem, he ultimately just said–they are heavy, floppy, and your going to be unzipping and tweaking for a while. He did not take its credibility away, and thought extremely well of Talalay. They don’t sell it anymore because the company they sold switched to eCommerce a year ago. They sell a dunlop mattress now, but said it wasnt very comparable. I got to admit, this guy was very low pressure sales–and I appreciated that!.

26

Very interesting to hear about your actual in-store demo on the mattress. I would just double check on the cost of parts like the air pump, air chambers and the sensor mat with Rest Bed corporate if you had to replace them. If it’s anything like Sleep Number they can be shockingly expensive when you’re footing the bill so it would be good to do the homework up front so you know what you’re getting into. Also great to know the system has a manual adjustment mode so you can choose what works best rather than just relying on an algorithm, more options are always a good thing. I agree with the salesman on full splits, I prefer a single king mattress surface myself too. Full latex beds are definitely very heavy so he’s not wrong about that either but unless you are moving it around it’s not really a big deal IMHO. Ironically I almost bought a used Rest Bed on eBay a while back but they wanted like $3k for a queen and I needed a king so I had to pass. I even looked for the air chambers to see if I could build a DIY version of what I wanted myself but their parts must be custom manufactured for them because I couldn’t find anything even remotely close (including medical and hospital beds). I don’t know anyone who actually has one of these Rest Bed mattresses so definitely let us know how you make out if you do go this route.

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[quote=“darrylb” post=87326]Hey there,

No, They only had the standard one. The one with the grid, is their proprietary purple, but I’ve even found out recently (by going to MattressFirm) that purple is imitating a higher end mattress that costs more than a Temperpedic. I forget the name, but its been around longer then purple—I guess their patent expired or something.

I am leaving purple because the mattress doesn’t work for me. But I have no issue with the grid concept itself. It would be my assumption that I would be getting the grid equivalent of Rest, purely to help ensure slightly cooler bed. It seems on the REST site, it doesn’t go much into it—but it does advertise it as more responsive and better airflow.

The only complaints I can find on the REST Bed is cost, and the technical curve on it.[/quote]

The mattress that your thinking of that’s similar to purple but more expensive is intellibed. Intellibed licenses thier gel matrix from edizone llc which is owned by the founders of purple. I have a purple hybrid and an intellibed topper which has 2.5" of gel matrix. The feel is similar yet different, a little hard to explain you kind of have to feel it for yourself. They are both comfortable to me though although I do prefer zoned nano coils. I also like naturepedics 3" microcoils which i just have to figure out how to comfortably make it work in the stomach sleeping position which I believe I can with further testing.

I’ve read that the intellibed gel is denser/ more durable than the purple grid due to purple putting air in the hyper elastic polymer to make it lighter/ work as a bed in the box and to sell it at a lower price point and bring shipping costs down.

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Great idea to call them up, and get rough pricing for a few things. Also btw, the Rest has a washable mattress cover, that’s huge to me. Also, I had thought about it—worse case, and you were right, replacing the 4inch comfort layer with Talalay is always an option—though a few EXTRA hundred dollars from what we are already paying. I am not sure how much of a fan I am of the bedjet option (and its damn expensive). There is also the Chilpad, which is an option, which is even more $$!. But I’d probably not mess with the cover if I can avoid it…

Yeah we are leaning this way. Still curious what Phoenix and Sensei think. Ill probably go lay on it next weekend (again).

29

That’s exactly it!. Interesting, so Purple is the “original” in a sense, then.

I’d be curious what Rest uses, my guess is they license it too.

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[quote=“darrylb” post=87346]That’s exactly it!. Interesting, so Purple is the “original” in a sense, then.

I’d be curious what Rest uses, my guess is they license it too.[/quote]

Rest uses the same 2" grid found in the original purple mattress & the purple hybrid(2" model).

31

LOL makes me feel like I am not getting away from the Purple mattress. :frowning:

32

Yeah, maybe it’s not for you.

33

To me that’s not a deal breaker, but without being able to test, makes it hard. The 2inch grid on my current purple isn’t the problem, my problem is I don’t have enough for shoulder and hips, and support where I need it. (Not zoned, not enough comfort layer with give in it).

So with the 2inch memory gel below the 2in grid, it might be a solid balance…

REST will do a 30min live zoom call and go over the mattresses in further detail, I’m tempted/likely to do that.

34

I would focus more on why the Purple mattress doesn’t work for you right now. From what I understand you have issues with both alignment and pressure relief (ie bottoming out on the support layers below the comfort grid layer). Now the Rest bed should be able to fix all your alignment problems quite well (not sure about the design durability of a multi-chamber air mattress but that’s beyond what anyone could assess without lots of user reviews). I would guess the bigger problem you might run into on the Rest bed is the comfort layer. They really only offer either memory foam or the buckling column gel polymer (Purple is likely manufacturing this for them) so if either of those don’t work for you then you’ll have to modify it a bit to make it your ideal solution. The good part is the top is fully zippable so you could alter it yourself (perhaps using 3" of talalay latex) without ruining any warranties. Bad part is it adds even more cost but at this price range it’s like a Ferrari, if you want handle well and go really fast it’s probably not going to be cheap either. Just something to think about anyway.

35

Yep, completely fair—I actually sent a bunch of questions to REST about the mattress, including the option of buying w/o a comfort layer, or if they can sell a different comfort layer (amongst many other questions on cost to repair, etc.)

I am very tempted just to do the standard REST Bed, and get a bed cooler-worse case. I checked with ChiliPad and they say it would work fine, as would the bedjet. So, thats my worse-case option w/o interfering much with the comfort layer.

Ugh. Finding beds is a lot of work.

36

So, they responded to my contact us form! Pretty dang quick!.

  1. Pricing after 10 years. They were honest, they dont know. "We’re 7 years old, so we’re approaching that mark for the oldest ReST Beds in existence. I don’t have the specific cost of replacement components in hand, but rest assured, we put customer service first, so there wouldn’t be much, if any burden on you. " To me, this is an interesting response. Not a red flag, and I have seen vendors take a similar stance and it work in my favor. Ill give them a “passing score” for this… though I may follow-up a tad more on it.

  2. Gel Grid Topper: "One of the advantages of the Gel Grid topper is the cooling benefits. Because of the material and the air pockets, it allows heat to dissipate better than memory foam. It’s not the same as or licensed from any of the companies you mentioned, but the concept is similar. " So, its not the purple or licensed from purple, just a similar concept. I will be asking more about this specifically as this appeals to me.

  3. Cooling options - They said they just preferred Bedjet compared to the competitors, for what they wanted to recommend–but most the options work fine on a split-top king. Btw, BedJet being compared to the water-based ones (which require cleaning, or added water regularly, etc) is also cheaper, and been around longer, so I am content with that.

  4. No sales tax outside of GA–making that a bit of a win.

  5. Fees/etc: $199 delivery/install.

  6. Delivery: Due to Covid delays, delivery is 4-5 weeks out.

  7. About their “cloud”: most of the data is stored locally and custom firmware internally is used to control the pump, so the data isnt being routed to the cloud then back.

More to come!. Feel free to ask me questions to pass along while I pursue discovery.

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Note, the guy who emailed me back is the “Director of Marketing” and in his signature his cellphone and office number were provided. That is amusing to me. Often, even small shop companies don’t provide that easy contact info, or heck, a cell phone.

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[quote=“darrylb” post=87375]1. Pricing after 10 years. They were honest, they dont know. "We’re 7 years old, so we’re approaching that mark for the oldest ReST Beds in existence. I don’t have the specific cost of replacement components in hand, but rest assured, we put customer service first, so there wouldn’t be much, if any burden on you. " To me, this is an interesting response. Not a red flag, and I have seen vendors take a similar stance and it work in my favor. Ill give them a “passing score” for this… though I may follow-up a tad more on it.
[/quote]

I can’t say I’m impressed with that response from them at all. Marketing guys love to promise the world and that’s a bit what it sounds like to me. I mean what if I bought a used one (not under warranty) and it had a bad air chamber, could I buy one? What if I gave it to a family member and they needed parts (again not under warranty)? Could someone even get spare parts? What if I wanted to have an extra air pump or sensor map on hand in case of failure because I don’t want any downtime with my mattress? They surely must know the cost of the parts and just aren’t saying what they are.

Another concern is the app and how well it works. Does it function without any internet at all? How robust is the wifi system used on the pumps? Does it have issues with connectivity dropping your phone? Is Rest receiving complaints on the app functions, if so what are people mainly complaining about?

Not sure if you saw this or not:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mattress/comments/i2aq0i/a_few_months_ago_i_splashed_out_and_bought_a_rest/

Funny the guy in the video review complained about his shoulders and then ended up with a SleepEZ 13" latex bed in the end.

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100% fair. And I sent an email challenging the cost as well, amongst other things.

I read that reddit post, and saw the YouTube video with my wife. I was holding onto some of those concerns before I had even seen the post.

The sales rep when I tested the mattress said the number one complaint was connectivity/technology learning curve, but after watching that video, it became apparent that the software is extremely buggy, causing peoples connectivity/technology problems. The sales rep even mentioned connectivity issues on one side of the mattress, and mentioned they didn’t have time to work on it… so that may actually indicate heavily, that hasn’t gone away.

We are likely to go with a FloBed, I need to contact them and ask a few questions. Worse-case, if the FloBed fails us, I can always get a REST. But to jump to the most expensive option—and know there could be frustration along the way, makes me want to try the more likely solution, that happens to also be cheaper.

Does anyone have opinions as to split kings, how they are with kids, whether the two mattresses “travel apart” much, etc.?

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[quote=“darrylb” post=87375]So, they responded to my contact us form! Pretty dang quick!.

  1. Pricing after 10 years. They were honest, they dont know. "We’re 7 years old, so we’re approaching that mark for the oldest ReST Beds in existence. I don’t have the specific cost of replacement components in hand, but rest assured, we put customer service first, so there wouldn’t be much, if any burden on you. " To me, this is an interesting response. Not a red flag, and I have seen vendors take a similar stance and it work in my favor. Ill give them a “passing score” for this… though I may follow-up a tad more on it.

  2. Gel Grid Topper: "One of the advantages of the Gel Grid topper is the cooling benefits. Because of the material and the air pockets, it allows heat to dissipate better than memory foam. It’s not the same as or licensed from any of the companies you mentioned, but the concept is similar. " So, its not the purple or licensed from purple, just a similar concept. I will be asking more about this specifically as this appeals to me.

  3. Cooling options - They said they just preferred Bedjet compared to the competitors, for what they wanted to recommend–but most the options work fine on a split-top king. Btw, BedJet being compared to the water-based ones (which require cleaning, or added water regularly, etc) is also cheaper, and been around longer, so I am content with that.

  4. No sales tax outside of GA–making that a bit of a win.

  5. Fees/etc: $199 delivery/install.

  6. Delivery: Due to Covid delays, delivery is 4-5 weeks out.

  7. About their “cloud”: most of the data is stored locally and custom firmware internally is used to control the pump, so the data isnt being routed to the cloud then back.

More to come!. Feel free to ask me questions to pass along while I pursue discovery.[/quote]

It literally used to be called rest with purple. I looked at the website and now it just says rest with gel grid but in the pictures they use it’s still the same purple grid?! Doesn’t matter now since your going with flobed. Great choice, I just bought one of thier shredded talalay adjustable toppers and I love it :smiling_face: