Hi runnerb0y,
You are bringing up some very interesting questions that go right to the heart of all the different ways that one mattress can match another one and all the variables that may be involved … including environmental conditions in the case of memory foam and the differences in the perceptions and experience of different people that can help account for the wide variety of experiences and opinions about how closely one mattress “matches” another one.
There are a couple of reference posts that deal with some of this. The first of them is post #9 here which talks about all the different ways that one mattress can “match” another one and the potential effect of even seemingly smaller differences in components, materials, and design.
The second is post #2 here which talks about some of the variables that can affect a new memory foam mattress while it is still relatively new and breaking in (and you are still adjusting to a new mattress) and some of the “non mattress” issues that can also change how one mattress feels compared to another one. One of the most common of these it that you are probably using your mattress with a mattress protector and sheets which weren’t on the Tempurpedic you tested in the showroom which can both change how a mattress feels and performs. The Tempurpedic may have felt closer to your current experience if you add the same protector and sheets as you are currently using.
In the case of the Select Foam Cirrus Luxe vs the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe there are several things that can affect how they compare.
First of all … the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe you tested was likely already completely broken in and your Cirrus Luxe is still in the process of breaking in. Higher density foams can take longer to break in than lower density foams and in some cases it can even take 6 months or longer for a new mattress to feel like it did in the store. In some cases you will hear of people who purchased a Tempurpedic mattress that were convinced that the mattress they received wasn’t the mattress they tried in a showroom and in those instances where they stuck with it (usually with the guidance of a retailer who was familiar with this type of feedback and knew that their experience would change over time) they discovered that 6 months or a year later their mattress felt the way they remembered with the showroom mattress and they were grateful they stuck with it. For other people the initial adjustment and break in period before the mattress feels the way they expected can be much shorter.
Your Cirrus Luxe also uses similar quality/density foams but they also have some different properties than the Tempurpedic foams and gel foams in general are also less temperature sensitive and faster responding than most non gel foams. This also leads to a different “feel” even if the support/alignment and comfort/pressure relief is similar or the same. In other words the first two P’s of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) may be similar but the other parts of a mattress that you can feel that are more about preferences may be different. There is more about some of the differences between memory foams made by different manufacturers in post #9 here and post #8 here.
In addition to this … they also have a different cover and a different fire retardant sock which can also affect the feel and performance of the mattress (the Cirrus Luxe uses a wool fire retardant which can affect the temperature that reaches the foam more and may take longer to break in as well).
If you were to take the cover or even the fire retardant material off a Tempurpedic Cirrus Luxe you would also find that it changes how the mattress feels compared to having the cover on like yours although it may change it in slightly different ways. At the current stage you are in you are finding that the Cirrus Luxe without the cover and fire barrier feels closer to the Tempurpedic with the cover but this will also continue to change over the course of time as the foams in your mattress soften a little more and the cover loses more of its stiffness.
Matching one mattress to another is partly an “art” and partly a “science” and it can be particularly difficult when you take into account the different perceptions of different people and that how a mattress matches after a year or so is the real goal and that each mattress may take a different pathway to reaching it’s “final” more stable feel and performance after it breaks in.
The “bottom line” is that a year or so down the road your mattress will likely feel closer to the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe that you remember than it does now even with the cover on (assuming that you have been using the cover for a while so it has also broken in) but this process will be a gradual process until it “catches up” to the Tempurpedic you tested. It’s also true that it will never be exactly the same in all aspects and some people will notice the differences more than others because there is no way to avoid the fact that the foams and some of the other components will still be different in some ways even when they are completely broken in and that the people who design the mattresses and the customers that they use to help them assess their comparisons will never agree on which iteration of a mattress is closer to the mattress they are trying to match and different subjective perceptions will always be part of the process of “mattress matching”.
Phoenix