I would like to go with selectfoam.com as it gives ma point of reference and i really like tempurpedics feel of certain bed types and I like the idea of the infused gel foam similar to that of the icomfort. I am currently eyeing the regalis, aurora, and the grandis from selectfoam.com and was curious what would be the right fit for myself and my wife. I also plan to go to a local store and see which we like the best between the rhapsody/allura/grand but sometimes the salesman don’t give you good advice.
Here’s some info about us and our sleeping patterns-
Myself: Male, 6’ 5", sometimes sleep a bit hot, combo sleeper (mostly side, but also sometimes have a leg angled to the side and half on stomach, and sometimes i rotate to my back), I find when i sleep on my side a lot our current foam bed (novaform from 2005) leaves pressure points on my shoulder/hips that are annoying.
Wife: Female, 5’ 4", sometimes sleep a bit hot, combo sleeper (mostly side, but also sleep a lot on half side/half stomach, minimal back sleeping).
Additionally, I notice on selectfoams site that each of these 3 beds have different covers, are there any that have any significant advantages over the other?:
regalis: some cool underarmour type material (is it really that much cooler than the covers on the aurora/grandis?)
aurora: silk/bamboo
grandis: cashmere
Unfortunately there is no formula that can turn body types and sleeping positions or any other specs into the choice of the best mattress design for you except perhaps based on “averages”. There are just too many variables to do this with any kind of accuracy. There is more information about some of the “theory” behind mattress layering in general and how body weight, sleeping positions, and different preferences can affect the design that may work best for you in the mattresses section of the site but these are more generic and not meant to be specific for any particular person. They can give you an idea of the many interacting “influences” involved and can help guide your decisions and help you work with a manufacturer more effectively.
I would suggest having a more detailed conversation with them about which of their models “on average” may work best for you because you will find that any manufacturer will know much more about the specific models they make and how each one interacts with different body weights and sleeping positions than anyone else (including me).
While they would be the best source of guidance for their specific mattresses … I personally would rather use a reference point that I had personally tested as a guideline whenever that is possible because the feedback and cues from your own body can be more accurate than any “theory at a distance”. Because they design and test their models to be similar in both layering, feel and performance to the Tempurpedic lineup I would use this to your advantage. The key here is to test the Tempurpedic mattresses as objectively as possible. Post #1 here has some guidelines for testing for pressure relief and posture/alignment that will be helpful in this and increase your odds of making the best choice for your “blueprint”.
When you are testing … make sure you wear loose and thinner clothing which interferes less with your testing and also make sure you do your testing with a suitable pillow as well (either your own that you take with you or one from the store that is suitable for your body type and sleeping positions). Be prepared to spend at least 15 minutes fully relaxed on each mattress and in the case of memory foam a little longer because it can take longer to warm up and respond the way it does over the course of the night.
This kind of more objective testing along with more detailed feedback and conversations with the manufacturer will greatly improve your odds of making the best choice.
[quote]Additionally, I notice on selectfoams site that each of these 3 beds have different covers, are there any that have any significant advantages over the other?:
regalis: some cool underarmour type material (is it really that much cooler than the covers on the aurora/grandis?)
aurora: silk/bamboo
grandis: cashmere[/quote]
I know from my conversations with them that Select Foam is particularly interested in cooler sleeping covers and they are constantly evaluating covers to see which ones are the “best” in this. We have talked about this in “theoretical” terms on several occasions but practical experience is even more valuable because theory doesn’t always agree with what happens in real life. Of course all of this can also be very subjective and vary with each person because there are many factors besides just the covers involved in sleeping temperature and it’s very difficult to isolate all the different influences to know which component is having the most effect on any person’s experience. Once again though … they will have by far the most experience with their own components and are the best source of information about how each of them compares to the other. I have never slept on any of their mattresses so I have little practical knowledge of any of them.
Post #2 here along with post #29 here has a lot more information about temperature regulation and the many factors and material combinations that can make a difference. If sleeping temperature is one of your biggest priorities though I would let them know when you talk with them so you can use their knowledge of their own mattresses to your advantage and this may tip the balance between one mattress and another that otherwise may seem to be very close. I don’t have the detailed knowledge or practical experience with their specific covers to be able to to be able to meaningfully compare them other than saying that all of them have 'cooling benefits" rather than “heating tendencies”.
I was close to taking the plunge for selectfoam, however I did a ton of research last night and it’s left me a bit wary. I know they are on the approved vendor list, but I see they have selectfoam.com, memoryfoam.com (which used to be owned by a guy named Mark I almost did business with back in 2006 or so), and some other site regarding an IQ bed, and then of course the Brickel Mattress site.
I’m a bit concerned because of a few things.
Their memoryfoam.com site and brickell mattress sites both don’t talk about the infused gel beads that are listed on the selectfoam.com site, yet the mattresses are called the same thing. Example: “The Medium firmness Select Foam 13” Aurora HD™ mattress has a thick SELECT-HD pillowtop for soothing comfort, support, and pressure relief. Infused with Gel Beads, the Aurora HD™ sleeps up to 3x cooler than its counterpart, the Tempur-Pedic AlluraBed."
When I asked if they could send me a small square sample of their foam, their response was they couldn’t afford to be sending samples out. I accepted this but not sure if I buy it as I’ve been able to receive samples from other companies, such as the old memoryfoam.com (Mark) as well as Luxepedic etc. So this just didn’t sit very well with me.
So these are all red flags to me. If it wasn’t for your site vouching for the company I would immediately write them off as an option. Anyway I was curious if you could provide me with any additional insight? I didn’t want to post this on the forum as I don’t want to post anything bad about a company when I don’t have all the facts.
Last question, are there any other companies that would have beds similar to tempurpedic? I went to a mattress firm and I really like the rhapsody breeze (i like the cooling), regular rhapsody or the aurora. I know these both have a combo of the 7lb foam and the 5.3 lb, and some of the vendors I see if you’ve posted appear to be either latex only or just have the 5.3 lb foam.
I believe they purchased the memoryfoam.com site from Mark quite some time ago.
Post #2 here also talks about some of the questions you have mentioned.
You can also see some of their other sites (including Brickell which is their bricks and mortar store in Florida) in the members list here. I’m not sure why having multiple sites with a different focus would be an issue.
You could probably get better answers directly from them (and they’d be happy to address any of your questions) but I’ll make a few comments as “poor substitute”.
The memoryfoam.com site has their previous lineup that used memory foam and the selectfoam.com site has their new lineup that uses gel memory foam which is a more recent introduction. The Select Foam site is the “correct” one with their up to date information.
Some manufacturers may do this and some don’t. I don’t think most consumers would have the knowledge to be able to tell good memory foam from bad anyway to really make it worthwhile and in their case you have a money back guarantee with return shipping paid which would be a much more meaningful test than any small sample (which would tell you nothing about how a mattress sleeps) so perhaps it made more sense to them to go in this direction and not add the cost of packaging and shipping free samples into the mattress (or somewhere). This is a business decision that each business would make based on their thoughts about whether something makes sense to them from a business and cost point of view and like all business decisions some may think differently than others. The same would hold true about other options or benefits that each manufacture chooses to offer that other manufacturers may not because they each may believe differently about whether the cost justifies the benefit.
Besides the post I linked earlier, you can see some of my thoughts about the BBB in post #4 here (and post #3 before it with another members experience with them) and post #4 here (both of which talked about Select Foam). One of the other members of this site for years refused to become a member of the BBB on principle alone (many businesses don’t think highly of the BBB and their methods at all) and had an “F” rating because of one complaint that they didn’t even know about. Once they became a member … their rating changed from an F to an A overnight. This is “normal procedure” for the BBB.
I don’t consider anything you have posted as 'bad" or something that shouldn’t be on the forum. Buying a website from someone else that they believed would help their business or introducing a new mattress line with similar specs and feel as the old one and keeping the name for consistency would not be issues for me. I can understand how some people who don’t really know how the BBB works could consider this an issue (unless they look at the low number of unresolved complaints) but each of us needs to decide what is most important to us and what to pay attention to as part of our own “value equation”. For me, how businesses deal with the inevitable complaints they have (some justified and some not) and how they deal with the issues and challenges that come up in any business provides much more insight into the business and people than some of the things you mentioned but each of us as individuals may have different ideas about how to decide who to deal with.
There are many ways a mattress could be 'similar to Tempurpedic". One of these is the “feel” of a mattress which may use different materials. Another is the design of a mattress that may use the same quality/density materials and layering but have a very different feel. Many online merchants compare themselves to Tempurpedic simply because they know that consumers think that 'memory foam is memory foam" and they can get away with it. Some manufacturers are “similar” in both design and layering and feel which would be Select Foam (they refine their mattresses based on the feedback they get from their customers in side by side testing at Brickell where they are both on the floor).
A few of the better options for online memory foam mattresses are in post #12 here and if you call some of these most of them could tell you which of their mattresses are most similar to various Tempurpedic models and some may even be able to custom build a memory foam mattress with any layering you wish. Of course there are many more than this small list but they are some of the ones that meet my memory foam criteria in post #10 here and I believe have good quality/value.