Hello! My fiance and I are on the verge of purchasing a new mattress, and hope to pull the trigger on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. This site has been so helpful! We went to a local big box mattress store just to test out Tempurs – we don’t want a Tempur (thank you, Mattress Underground), but do want foam and wanted to have a point of comparison for the online foam mattress retailers. We preferred the Tempur Cloud Prima, and based on that and some research have narrowed our choices to three:
Selectfoam Cirrus Prima
Novosbed Classic
Rocky Mountain Sundance
Any insight into these companies, and anything to flag about these particular mattresses? Thanks!
There are three distinctly different types of foam (memory foam, polyfoam, and latex foam) that each have very different properties but if you are looking at the Tempurpedic Prima as a point of reference then memory foam would seem to be your preference.
I’m assuming that you’ve read the mattress shopping tutorial but two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
[quote]based on that and some research have narrowed our choices to three:
Selectfoam Cirrus Prima
Novosbed Classic
Rocky Mountain Sundance
Any insight into these companies, and anything to flag about these particular mattresses?[/quote]
Rocky Mountain uses 3" of 4 lb memory foam and both Novosbed and Select Foam use a combination of 4 and 5 lb memory foam and all of them use at least 1.8 lb polyfoam as a support core (you will need to check to find out the density of the support core for Selectfoam and Rocky Mountain since they don’t list it on their site) so there are no lower quality materials or weak links in any of these mattresses that would compromise the durability or useful life of the mattress relative to more average weight ranges (lower 200’s or less).
The Select Foam and Novosbed specifically compare their SELECT-Cirrus Prima and Classic mattresses to the Tempurpedic Prima in their description so it would be reasonable to expect that they were closely comparable in terms of firmness.
NOTE ADDED JAN, 2016: Novosbed has now introduced their new simplified choice mattress which has replaced their previous models and have also become a member of this site.
Rocky Mountain doesn’t include another mattress as a reference point for their Sundance mattress so you would need to call them to find out which of the Tempurpedic mattresses would be the closest comparison to the Sundance.
When you are dealing with an online retailer or manufacturer and you can’t test a mattress in person then I would always make sure that you talk to them on the phone before making a purchase. The most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Select Foam and Novosbed both have free return policies so if the mattress you choose doesn’t turn out to be as suitable for you as you hoped for then there is little risk outside of the time you spent sleeping on it and/or returning it (and the cost of any packaging materials).
Rocky Mountain has a 90 day return policy but the customer is responsible for return shipping which would be through common carrier and could be significant.
While Select Foam certainly makes some great quality/value mattresses … as you have hopefully seen in the link in their description in the online memory foam list that is linked in the tutorial a few of their customers have experienced delays and customer service issues after their purchase including with refunds and I would certainly take this and the frustration that can go with it into account and factor it in as part of your decision about who you are most comfortable dealing with (see post #4 here). NOTE ADDED: Because of ongoing customer service issues and delays their membership has been terminated and I would read the warning here before considering them.
Once you have narrowed down your options to a list of finalists that are all choices between “good and good” and none of them have any lower quality materials or “weak links” in their design relative to your weight and if at that point there are no clear winners between them (which is usually a good indication that you have done some very good research) then you are in the fortunate position that any of them would likely be a suitable choice and post #2 here can help you make a final choice based on your local testing or mattresses you have slept well on, your more detailed conversations about each of them, your confidence about PPP and the suitability of each one, the quality and durability of the materials, their prices, your preferences for different types of materials, the options you have after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange or return the mattress or individual layers, any additional extras that are part of each purchase, and on “informed best judgement” based on all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.
