The wife and I have been sleeping on our Stearns and Foster pillowtop mattress for about 9 years now. It has held up well, but I still wake up a bit tired. Plus backaches and shoulder aches are a thing I live with most of the time. It is time for a change. We are very interested in the memory foam sets (Tempur Pedic, Bob O Pedic, etc). Does anyone have one of these mattresses? How long have you owned it, and would you buy it again? Thanks

Don

Hello Don. Seems like mattresses are a very polarizing subject, lol...even my hubby and I can't agree. We bought a Tempur Pedic about a year ago and I hate it...he loves it. I'm very hot natured and it seems like I'm "bogged" down in the foam and I get so hot. :suspense: Anyhow, I prefer the Sealy Posturepedic with the pillow top. Have you gone to test the mattresses? Some places will actually give you an in-home trial. Good luck!

We've had several conventional mattresses over the years - even tried a water bed (wtf). About six months ago we bought a Tempur Pedic - both of us love it. To us, it's much more comfortable than anything else we've slept on. Much more restful sleep - I previously had problems with lying on my side for lengthy periods, but the foam is much more forgiving than a mattress of conventional construction & pressure associated discomfort is a thing of the past.

You might also check out latex mattresses - the material is said to breath a bit more than memory foam as the cell structure is not as dense. A possible consideration if heat bothers one when sleeping. The sales folks asked us to try the mattress for a few weeks & that they would swap it out for latex if we weren't satisfied. We've not noticed a problem of any kind & are very happy with memory foam.

Note to RT - try the latex - it works great for other things too... :lol:

Me and the wife have the Sleep number bed and love it. Some nights I like the bed firm amd then some nights I like the bed soft. So I can change it. The wife has her own settings too. Highly recommend it.

Ive got a Comfort-aire (think Select Comfort-see above) air bed.....best investment Ive made in a household item. Wife has her side adjustable and so is mine. Its more $$ than the visco-foam, but the top IS viscofoam with the airchamber base...you get the best of both worlds


F

The wife and I have been sleeping on our Stearns and Foster pillowtop mattress for about 9 years now. It has held up well, but I still wake up a bit tired. Plus backaches and shoulder aches are a thing I live with most of the time. It is time for a change. We are very interested in the memory foam sets (Tempur Pedic, Bob O Pedic, etc). Does anyone have one of these mattresses? How long have you owned it, and would you buy it again? Thanks

Don

Oh yeah!! Bought it 6 months ago and both my wife and I love it! Went from a pillow top as well. I do not wake up in the middle of the night any longer and feel much better in the morning. The best part is that my wife can no longer wake me up when I am snoring by shaking the bed.

Actually the best part is that I wound up getting it for free. Jordan's Furniture had a promotion in April where if the Red Sox won the World Series the furniture was free. Just got my check last week!

We went the Tempur-pedic route about five years ago and for the most part, we absolutely love it. I prefer to sleep on my side and on the old mattress I remember I'd always wake up with arm having fallen asleep itself just from lying on pressure points... not only that but every other week I'd always wake up with a crick in this or that... Honestly, unless I'm just not feeling well, I've rarely had a bad night sleep in this bed. Probably the best part about it is that the wife and I can toss and turn all night and the other doesn't even feel it.. it doesn't transfer any kind of movement like a coil-spring mattress.

One point though... as RT pointed out... if you're constantly hot then this bed might not be for you... it has a tendency to hold heat. If anything, I'm always a little chilly so it doesn't bother me one bit. The wife on the other hand is a frickin furnace... there's a lot of times when she'll only sleep with a sheet, even in the dead of winter due to how well it holds heat..

Other than that... it's damn near a perfect mattress. When we had bought it I wondered how well it would hold up, if it would start sagging in places or start losing it's ability to form to your body... After five years I can say it's still holding up just as well as the day we bought it.

I bought an expensive stearns and foster set a few years ago, my wife is a believer in FIRM mattresses.
Personally I don't care, I just have to get used to sleeping on whatever we have.
She wouldn't go for pillow top anything, too soft.
The S&F is still a good mattress but we have it in our spare room. She got a sleep number bed and made me swap it out with the S&F, actually I quite like it.
Putting it together it looks really cheap, but it sleeps great.
I never tried one of those foam things, but once you figure out your sleep number, this thing can be a real life saver. I started doing more exercise, which actually probably helped more than the bed, but the combination is unbeatable.
I'd sleep through the night if I didn't have to get up to use the bathroom and if my kid could sleep all night :(

Oh, and if you have kids, be sure to check the control to make sure they didn't change the sleep number.
My son did that last weekend and I almost couldn't walk for 2 days because it was way too low and I was so tired I didn't notice!
I aired it back up and was golden 2 days later.
They are pricey though....

I am currently in the market for a Sleep Number bed. I did find one company that sells a bed similar to the Sleep Number. Heavenly Foam Comfort Select Number Bed. The HF is very similar to the SN beds. HF also has the option to add TRIPLE Zone Adjustable Air Mattress. Head/Back/feet, at half the price of a SN bed.

I have a 4" memory foam topper on my bed. It's real comfy, but I'm not sure if I would want a whole mattress made of it. We had memory foam pillows too, but I couldn't get used to them.



What I have always wondered is why none of the luxury car manufacturers have used this in their seats yet. Imagine a seat that forms perfectly to your shape and provides good support. I think it would be a great idea that would be both comfortable and functional in a luxury performance car.

What I have always wondered is why none of the luxury car manufacturers have used this in their seats yet. Imagine a seat that forms perfectly to your shape and provides good support. I think it would be a great idea that would be both comfortable and functional in a luxury performance car.

Why fix something that isn't broke?

And would you rather smell new leather, or new foam :thepan:

Why fix something that isn't broke?

Of course not. We'll just wait until the Germans or Japanese introduce it and then try and play catch up.
It's become the American way.

:D

And would you rather smell new leather, or new foam :thepan:

Do you smell the foam they use in cars now?
Memory foam is still covered the same way, be it in bedding or car seats.

I have a cheap 2" piece of bare tempurfoam under my cheap pillowtop on top of my cheap, hard-ass mattress. It's great (except it makes weird noises durring love-making on it, which can be disconcerting; I think this has something to do with all that crap sandwiched together) -very comfortable and you can lay in one position for a long time. I want a thicker piece of tempurfoam but for some bizarre reason 2" is $30 and 4" is $229. I also have a big piece of thin foam (less than 1/4 inch) between my mattress and box sping. I have no idea where it came from; it was with the mattress/box sping combo when I got them (formerly in my parents' guest room). Its purpose in life is to keep the mattress from moving about atop the box sping, and it does cut down movement in this fashion by about 85% or so.

I had a sleep number bed, the wife and I disliked it. So we got a Tempur-pedic one. Have never looked back. We love it!

Why fix something that isn't broke?

And would you rather smell new leather, or new foam :thepan:

Visco elastic foam is extremely sensitive to temperature changes.
Up here in Ontario, when a visco mattress is delivered in the cold temperatures, it can take many hours to soften and adjust to room
temp.
In sub zero temps, a car seat using visco foam would be hard as a rock.

Visco elastic foam is extremely sensitive to temperature changes.
Up here in Ontario, when a visco mattress is delivered in the cold temperatures, it can take many hours to soften and adjust to room
temp.
In sub zero temps, a car seat using visco foam would be hard as a rock.

Good thing there's bum-warmers...

I have a 4" memory foam topper on my bed. It's real comfy, but I'm not sure if I would want a whole mattress made of it. We had memory foam pillows too, but I couldn't get used to them.

my roommate has one of the full mattresses and on the box (which is still in the garage) it says that there's a layer of harder memory foam under a softer top layer. I gave it a try once & now I wish I could afford one!

Thanks for the input folks. Especially AMGoff who answered my durability question. That is a huge concern of mine. I am off work today so I stopped by some stores to check out the mattresses. I first stopped by Sleepys to look at the Tempur Pedics. Holy shit those things are expensive. the cheapest king size model is $2400. But I checked it out anyway. I liked it alot. I then went to Bobs Discount Furniture store and looked at the Bob-O-Pedics. The most expensive model was only $2500. They had three levels and I checked them all out. I happened to really enjoy the middle of the road model, which will run $1900. The comparible TP runs about $3300. Plus the BOP has a 20 year non-pro-rated warranty. I just need to read the fine print to assure myself that permanant foam compression is warrantiable. I am taking the wife to Bobs this evening to see how she likes it. I hope she does as I think it really is going to help me sleep better.

Don

I used to sell beds for a living at lechmere (yes lechemere) we had a wide aray of bedding. Most people would come in for the $399 queen set on sale and leave with some type of stearns and foster. These days conventional spring beds are pretty much the same as they were back then. They have different damask covers and some newer memory foam in them. If you are going to buy a spring bed ask the sales person what gauge the wire is in the bed and ask to see the sample, ask them about how the box spring is made and what type of wood its made of. I don't have much experience in the new sleep number beds, but they are pretty cut and dry. Just ask about warranties and if its a in-home or you pay the shipping. You would be suprised about some warranties. They make you pay the shipping to them and they pay back to you. I think those air membranes come out. I hope that it helped some.

Gene

Thanks for the input folks. Especially AMGoff who answered my durability question. That is a huge concern of mine. I am off work today so I stopped by some stores to check out the mattresses. I first stopped by Sleepys to look at the Tempur Pedics. Holy shit those things are expensive. the cheapest king size model is $2400. But I checked it out anyway. I liked it alot. I then went to Bobs Discount Furniture store and looked at the Bob-O-Pedics. The most expensive model was only $2500. They had three levels and I checked them all out. I happened to really enjoy the middle of the road model, which will run $1900. The comparible TP runs about $3300. Plus the BOP has a 20 year non-pro-rated warranty. I just need to read the fine print to assure myself that permanant foam compression is warrantiable. I am taking the wife to Bobs this evening to see how she likes it. I hope she does as I think it really is going to help me sleep better.

Don

I forget the exact reason why, but I can say that we shelled out the extra dough for the real thing - it probably came down to the warranty and my initial worries over quality and durability. That's not to say that any of the knock-offs are necessarily bad - if you can find one that's constructed to spec and has a decent warranty I'd say go for it. Like anything else, even the quality of knock-offs gets better after so many years.

My only other tidbit would be to find a smaller, "mom and pop" type of furniture store (though there aren't many of those around any more), especially one that has low turn over on tempurs... as there lies the "haggle room," I know that's how we got ours. I remember ended up saving a couple hundred dollars over the likes of Raymour and Flannigan by going to one of the local shops in county... then again that could just be a local anomaly - I'm sure the little, privately owned shops around here don't sell very many tempurs to the average redneck set around these parts.

Whatever you do, just be sure the knock-off is constructed to match spec... I know my brother bought (and initially bragged) his, as we put it, "fancy space bed" for less than half of what we paid for ours. The poor dolt didn't even realize that it was nothing more than your run-of-the-mill coil bed with a couple inches of foam glued to the top... it's been about 10 months, he's already complaining and trying to figure out why his isn't as good as mine. Granted, he's not the brightest bulb in the box..

Still... like anything else, you get what you pay for...

Well the wife and I went back to Bob's and she tried out the mattress. She loved it and we ended up buying it. The mattress in king size, low profile foundations, two memory foam health pillows, a mattress protector cover, delivery and tax, came to $2,413. I get it next Friday. We were able to take the new pillows home with us and used them last night. This morning I awoke without my normal neck and shoulder aches. So I am extremely pleased. I just cannot wait for the bed to get here. Also the bed comes with a 20 year non-prorated warranty. Anytime in the 20 years if the thing has an issue, I get a new one for free. But I am pretty sure that I will have to pay a delivery fee. That isn't an issue though. For anyone who cares, the Bob-O-Pedic feels identical to the Tempur-Pedic. I layed on both within minutes of each other, and couldn't tell a difference. I will update this thread once the mattress arrives and I have slpet on it a few nights. I am so pumped

Don

You guys need to be careful on the memory foam beds... Some of those are not thick enough, and /or the material is not high quality. Some of the cheaper Memory foam mattress' have the foam with larger air bubbles . These larger spaces will break down over the years (little as 2-5 years), and will not provide the support you will get from denser memory foam material (20+ years). Total thickness of the pad and rating is also important when looking at memory foam beds.

Well I have had the new bed now for 8 nights. I have nothing negative to say about it. I am getting a better sleep, and waking up less achy. The wife and I are 100% pleased with the purchase, and have no regrets. The price is very high for a mattress, but how do you put a price on good sleep?

Don

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it.... if (and it can be a big if sometimes) the bed is built spec for spec as a Tempur then you shouldn't have any problems down the road... then again I don't really know if Tempur uses any sort of proprietary methods during manufacturing, so who knows. All I can say is that our Tempur has held up magnificently over the years we've had it and I'm still getting the best sleep I've ever had... the best bit about it is still the fact that I can't feel the wife when she jostles around whatsoever. The only point I differ on is the pillows... I don't like the foam pillows at all... first they seemed to make my head sweat while I was sleeping and secondly, I much prefer the big, soft down pillows the wife always picks up... it's like laying your head on a cloud!

Humm, interesting thread. The info is very helpful as I am also interested in a foam bed of sorts. Thanks.