Tempur Warranty Approved - Need Help Choosing Options Provided

Great forum by the way. I have been reading a lot of the posts and reference material while looking for a new mattress. I have been sleeping on a Tempur=pedic Deluxe King for the last 8.5 years. The last couple of years my mattress has dipped and I was in the process of shopping for a new mattress when I realized that I was still under warranty and decided to find my receipt and open a claim. Long story short, Tempur is going to warranty my mattress. They are giving me the option of an no cost replacement for either the Contour Supreme, Cloud Prima, or the Flex Prima. Now I have always liked my bed up until the last couple of years when it started to hammock and cause me problems. I always thought it was a bit on the firm side but my back was good and I slept well on it. It has gotten so bad now it is hard to tell what it must have felt like new. I like the feeling of memory foam molding to the body and I like the warmth of memory foam. I went to a couple of different stores to test the beds as nobody seems to have all three of that base model. I ruled out the cloud immediately as too soft. The Contour supreme and the Flex Prima are very different but they are both very firm. I tested the next model up for both the flex and the contour and they both seemed closer to my liking, but I am not in love with either. Not enough to spend another $1k for the upgrade. My thinking now is to do the exchange for either the Contour Supreme or the Flex Prima as it is no cost to me. If I get the mattress home and find it is a bit too firm, which is my concern I can always purchase a 2" or 3" topper in either the 4lb or 5lb density. That is what I am thinking and I am genuinely interested in what the experts here think. I know there is not a lot of love here for the Flex line but it is one of my options and I feel I need to at least consider it. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Hi wtfoxtrot,

There is more information about the 3 most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase (or in your case a warranty replacement) in post #13 here 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 suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or any exchange/return options that are available to you).

The first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

While I can’t speak to how any mattress will “feel” for someone else in terms of firmness, “comfort”, or PPP because this is too subjective and relative to different body types, sleeping positions, and individual preferences, sensitivities, and circumstances … outside of PPP (which is all about how well you will sleep on a mattress) the most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is it’s durability and in terms of durability a mattress is only as good as its construction and the type, quality, and durability of the materials inside it (which is all about how long you will sleep well) regardless of the name of the manufacturer or the name of the mattress on the label.

The Contour Supreme uses the following layers and components …

Comfort Layers
1" TEMPUR Comfort layer 5.3LB
2.4" TEMPUR Support layer 5.3LB

Support System
3" Poly foam Base 2.0LB
5.1" Poly foam Base 2.0LB

These are all high quality materials and there are no lower quality materials or weak links in this mattress that would compromise the durability of the mattress.

The Flex Prima is in a different category from most of the other Tempurpedic mattresses because it’s a pocket coil/memory foam/polyfoam hybrid which uses memory foam and polyfoam in the comfort and transition layers on top of a pocket coil support core. This would have a different and more responsive and resilient “feel” compared to most of their mattresses that use a polyfoam support core with memory foam comfort and transition layers.

Tempurpedic doesn’t disclose the quality/density of the memory foam and polyfoam comfort and transition layers in this mattress but there are several inches of lower density polyfoam under the memory foam (probably 1.6 lb density) which would be a lower density and less durable material than I would normally like to see in a one sided mattress (see the quality/durability guidelines here) and I would normally avoid any mattress that has more than “about an inch or so” of lower quality or “unknown” materials in the upper layers of the mattress (especially in this budget range) because it could reduce and/or compromise the durability and useful life of the mattress.

There isn’t a lot of love here for any of the Tempurpedic mattresses because they are not particularly good value compared to many other mattresses that use the same or better quality materials and are sold in lower budget ranges but most of them at least use good quality and durable materials so I would especially avoid the ones that use materials that are questionable in terms of durability.

Phoenix

Hate to butt in here but we just went through a warranty exchange with TP ourselves and thought maybe sharing our experience may help a bit. I’m sitting on our new bed as I type this and it’s only the 2nd night we’ve had it…it was delivered yesterday. 5 or 6 years ago we purchased a TP Allura bed and absolutely loved it…until about a year ago. That is when sagging started and we just put up with it until last week. Finally the sagging was bad enough that we thought it fell into TP’s warranty guidelines. The wife called them, she is much better at dealing with customer service than I, and they asked us to take photos and email them. The sag was 3/4" and we had told ourselves not to get our hopes up. The next day we found out our warranty exchange was approved. To tell you the truth by this time I had done a lot of research and I was hoping it wouldn’t be approved so that I could attempt to talk the wife into buying an all latex option. But like I said it was and so off to the mattress stores we went to pick our next TP. We narrowed it down to 2 choices, Contour Elite and the Contour Rhapsody Breeze.

wtfoxtrot we did try one of your options, the Contour Supreme, but it was way too firm for us and we even prefer a somewhat med-firm to firm mattress. The Rhapsody Breeze felt great but we were afraid it would soften up too much over time for us. The Contour Elite is what we chose. Now it’s just a notch below the Supreme on the firmness scale and a notch above than the Rhapsody Breeze. But we felt that even though the Elite may be a tad too firm for us at first, in time it should relax and become what we desire. Plus we figured it’s easier to make a too firm bed softer (latex topper) than make a soft bed firmer. Sure enough when the bed was delivered yesterday and I laid on it, my initial thought was, “man this is firm”. Still not as bad as the Supreme though. But we are good with our choice due to the reasons I stated above, It will relax and loosen up and in the meantime we are going to buy a latex topper either from sleeponlatex.com or Mulligan’s here in Portland. Swinging by Mulligan’s tomorrow to see what they have but not sure if they can beat the price of sleeponlatex.

Anyhow even though we didn’t buy one of the TP mattresses you are considering, I hope sharing our experience may lend some insight. Even though TP’s customer service is fantastic, if I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have bought one in the first place. I just feel like no matter which TP bed we were to get, we would be/will be dealing with premature sagging…kind of similar to what my body is doing now that I’m a few years away from 50. :wink:

Also remember that the Supreme you tried in the showroom probably won’t be as firm as the brand new one TP ships out to you, especially if it’s been sitting on the showroom floor for quite some time. I could be wrong on this, but it seems logical to me. I know that our Elite is noticeably firmer than the Elite at the store.

Wish you luck

Hi RJ,

Thanks for sharing the details of your Tempurpedic experiences … I appreciate it :slight_smile:

Even though you were “somewhat hoping” that your warranty wouldn’t be approved … it’s still good to see that it was.

You are right that there will be a break in and adjustment period with a new mattress and a brand new mattress is usually a little firmer than the mattresses that are on a showroom floor that have already been broken in (see post #3 here).

Phoenix

Hate to butt in here but we just went through a warranty exchange with TP ourselves and thought maybe sharing our experience may help a bit. I’m sitting on our new bed as I type this and it’s only the 2nd night we’ve had it…it was delivered yesterday. 5 or 6 years ago we purchased a TP Allura bed and absolutely loved it…until about a year ago. That is when sagging started and we just put up with it until last week. Finally the sagging was bad enough that we thought it fell into TP’s warranty guidelines. The wife called them, she is much better at dealing with customer service than I, and they asked us to take photos and email them. The sag was 3/4" and we had told ourselves not to get our hopes up. The next day we found out our warranty exchange was approved. To tell you the truth by this time I had done a lot of research and I was hoping it wouldn’t be approved so that I could attempt to talk the wife into buying an all latex option. But like I said it was and so off to the mattress stores we went to pick our next TP. We narrowed it down to 2 choices, Contour Elite and the Contour Rhapsody Breeze.

wtfoxtrot we did try one of your options, the Contour Supreme, but it was way too firm for us and we even prefer a somewhat med-firm to firm mattress. The Rhapsody Breeze felt great but we were afraid it would soften up too much over time for us. The Contour Elite is what we chose. Now it’s just a notch below the Supreme on the firmness scale and a notch above than the Rhapsody Breeze. But we felt that even though the Elite may be a tad too firm for us at first, in time it should relax and become what we desire. Plus we figured it’s easier to make a too firm bed softer (latex topper) than make a soft bed firmer. Sure enough when the bed was delivered yesterday and I laid on it, my initial thought was, “man this is firm”. Still not as bad as the Supreme though. But we are good with our choice due to the reasons I stated above, It will relax and loosen up and in the meantime we are going to buy a latex topper either from sleeponlatex.com or Mulligan’s here in Portland. Swinging by Mulligan’s tomorrow to see what they have but not sure if they can beat the price of sleeponlatex.

Anyhow even though we didn’t buy one of the TP mattresses you are considering, I hope sharing our experience may lend some insight. Even though TP’s customer service is fantastic, if I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have bought one in the first place. I just feel like no matter which TP bed we were to get, we would be/will be dealing with premature sagging…kind of similar to what my body is doing now that I’m a few years away from 50. :wink:

Also remember that the Supreme you tried in the showroom probably won’t be as firm as the brand new one TP ships out to you, especially if it’s been sitting on the showroom floor for quite some time. I could be wrong on this, but it seems logical to me. I know that our Elite is noticeably firmer than the Elite at the store.

Wish you luck[/quote]

RJ,
Thanks so much for the reply. We did decide to do a no cost replacement with the Contour Supreme. I expect it will be firm and there will be an adjustment period. If it needs a topper, then we will buy one. I am glad to hear that you had a good experience with TP as I am now waiting for my bed to be shipped and delivered. I will update the forum with my experience once the bed has arrived and I have had a few weeks to sleep on it. Thanks again for your feedback…