Select Foam vs. Tempflow

[phoenix]

Hi GrandMasterJ,

You are certainly down to a point where you are choosing between good and good and post #2 here may be helpful with making final choices based on your personal value equation.

A couple of comments that may also be helpful …

One of those chemicals (TOLUENE DI ISOCYANATE 80/20 (T.D.I.)) is a carcinogen. Perhaps the cause of my numerous and accelerated rate of eye floaters in only my 30s, but no true correlations can be drawn without evidence.

TDI is a component of almost all of the polyfoam or memory foam made in North America and is one of the two main chemicals that are used to make both polyfoam and memory foam. In its fully reacted state it normally isn’t an issue although it can certainly be toxic as a raw material when the foam is being made. A MSDS for TDI is here and a safety assessment document is here. The most common alternative is MDI which is also an isocyanate which is used instead of TDI and this is more common in polyfoam or memory foam made in Europe. There is a MSDS for MDI here. If a material has been tested for residual VOC’s through a certifying agency such as CertiPur or OekoTex then by most people’s standards the final product would be “safe” although this is also a question that is somewhat controversial and there are many people that avoid memory foam or polyfoam of any type because of their personal health concerns. There are also many other materials used in mattresses including fire retardants that are of concern to many people and are all part of how each person may answer the question of “how safe is safe enough for me”". There is more about this in post #2 here although these types of very complex questions can often lead down a rabbit hole of ever more complex and contradictory information and no specific or satisfying answers

Both offer warranties for a 3/4" indentation policy but Select Foam is Lifetime (10 years fully covered, after that it’s prorated at 50%) and Tempflow has a 40 year warranty (10 years full, prorated on a basis of how long you’ve owned the mattress after). I don’t expect to invoke either warranty before replacing the mattress due to it getting softer anyway.

Warranties only cover factory defects and aren’t connected to the useful life of a mattress and don’t cover the gradual loss of comfort and support that is an inevitable part of all mattresses and is the main reason a mattress needs to be replaced. You can read more about mattress warranties in post #174 here.

Tempflow promotes their “Bio-green” formula and pours their own foam (I believe? Or it’s mixed for them under tight controls) with an exceptionally low VoC concentration. Select Foam uses a Soy-based formula and informs me that because of this they have no VoC concentrations (how true is this?). Select Foam gets their foam from Premier foam.

Relief Mart who makes the Tempflow is a mattress manufacturer but they don’t pour their own foam which comes from a US foam manufacturer. You can read some comments about them in post #9 here.

Both salesmen (Jim from Tempflow and Juan from Select Foam) own one of their products and profess to love them. I asked questions about degradation of the foam density/firmness over a period of time (in order to judge longevity); I don’t remember Jim’s answer and Juan informs me that over 4 years he feels his mattress is 10% softer than new.

Without measurements this would be more of a “subjective” estimate but the useful life of a mattress is relative to each person and is subject to many factors including the suitability of the comfort choice you make and the sensitivity of each person to the effects of foam softening. There is more about the factors involved in durability and the useful life of a mattress in post #4 here.

One concern I have is that Select Foam has a BBB rating of C- while Tempflow (Relief Mart, Inc.) has an A rating. Maybe Phoenix would be able to assuage my fears of the low rating for Select Foam?

You can see some comments about the BBB in post #3 and #4 here along with points #1 and #5 in this post by a forum member and in post #4 here. Select Foam is not a BBB member which affects how they are rated.

I’m looking forward to hearing about what you end up choosing

Phoenix