I was of the understanding that memory foam mattresses required a solid wood foundation. The foundation you offer is a metal one. How does that affect the memory foam mattress?

Robert

Great question. We offer a rigid metal foundation from Leggett & Platt®. It does not flex when you lie down on it like traditional box springs. This is ideal for use with a memory foam or latex foam mattress because they are constructed to be used on a firm, flat foundation.

We decided to use the metal foundation because it is lighter, stronger, and more durable than the traditional wood foundation.

I've have actually stood on one and could only measure a 1mm deflection.

Tim

Dear Mr. Robertson,

Earlier today, my wife and I were about to purchase a king-size foam mattress from amazon.com (please see  http://www.amazon.com/King-Density-Viscoelastic-Memory- Mattress/dp/B000EPKLFA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) but then I came across your blog and wanted to contact you. Friends & colleagues recommended a Temperpedic model but find them to be expensive, especially since we have never had a foam memory mattress before. So when I came across this amazon link we thought it would be a lower risk since the cost is less. But I have some concerns about heat (I prefer cooler sleep conditions), and too much 'squishiness'. We are ready to make a buying decision and do away with our present bed as we are both having hip and back pain and tossing and turning numerous times all night. Can you please either email me back or call me at (000) 000-0000 (number omitted to protect customers privacy) to let me know your thoughts/recommendations? I am less concerned about lowest cost than I am in making a sound decision since sleep is so important to our quality of life.

Mr. Shaw,

Thank you for the email. I agree, Tempur-Pedic makes a great product and it comes with a larger price tag than other available options. There are many companies today that make lower priced memory foam mattresses of subpar quality. Then again, there are a few good mattress companies that offer an excellent product at a significant savings over Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Serta, and Simmons, the biggest national producers of memory foam mattresses.

I believe we produce exactly what you are looking for, a high quality product at an affordable price. We use 4 and 5LB viscoelastic memory foam in the top layer of our mattresses and 2.4 LB base foam. We make each mattress to order.  100% of our products are made in the USA, with materials made in the USA, so you know they won’t be made of substandard materials like many of the beds being imported from overseas.

Regarding sleeping cooler, many customers are happy with our Invigor Memory Foam Mattress. It has 1.5" of Super soft foam that limits the amount of heat build up in the memory foam. Our supplier has made technological advances in the cell structure of their foam over the last few years, letting the memory foam breath much more. This lowers the amount of heat that can build up in your mattress.

I will follow up this email with a phone call. Thank you and I will look forward to speaking with you soon.
Please call me with any questions: 866.886.6687

Sincerely,

Will

If you’ve ever been concerned about the chemicals that go into your memory foam mattress or the smell coming out of it, you will be pleased to hear about the CertiPUR Certification program!

The CertiPUR-US program is a response to the flood of memory foam products coming into the US market over the last few years. These products are inexpensive alternatives, but many people suspect they are also toxic and hazardous to our health due to the lack of governmental restrictions in importing countries. Many consumers in the US may have products in their homes containing dangerous toxins.

To qualify for a CertiPUR Certification a manufacturer must pass strict safety testing:

• Emissions tested
• Content tested
• Low emission (VOCs) for indoor air quality
• Made without prohibited phthalates
• Made without ozone depleters (no CFCs)
• Made without mercury, lead or heavy metals
• Made without formaldehyde
• Made without methylene chloride
• Made without PBDEs
• Durability and performance tested

This testing is good news for all of us. When you see a CertiPUR certification on a memory foam product, you can rest easy, knowing the health of your family is safe.

Hickory Springs is the exclusive foam supplier for My Luxury Mattress. You may view the Hickory Springs CertiPUR Certification published online here.

We recently purchased a S&F Camdenhurst Plush Euro Pillowtop. We have two complaints–we feel like we 'sink' into it and we get too hot. Our last mattress did not have a pillowtop but had a layer of padding built into the mattress. My husband thought it was too firm. But this new mattress is too squishy and too hot. We are allowed ONE swap and are pretty confused about what to get. Can you offer any suggestions?  - Theresa

Hi Theresa,

Foam mattresses are constructed in different ways. Each manufacturer uses different types of memory foam, different base foams, different thicknesses, different covers and quilting fibers. There are many variables, but I believe you're saying  you have plush (soft mattress).

Sometimes a pillow top mattress has a layer of fiber that can make you feel like you're sinking into the mattress. Over time this fiber layer will compress some, becoming a little firmer. If your mattress has a layer of quilting material, then it may get a little firmer over the next few months, though it probably won't be enough from what I hear you saying. I have also seen pillow tops with as much as 5 inches of memory foam on the top layer. This is probably too much for anyone that's not over 250lbs. With this much foam, your shoulders, but hips especially will sink into the mattress a little too far.

The more you sink into a mattress the more surface area of your body touches the mattress making it easier to heat up.  A firmer mattress may take care of this issue. Tight top mattresses are usually firmer because they use less of memory foam and have no plush quilting material.  Tight top mattresses use a single layer of material to cover the mattress so there are no quilting "bumps" as you see in a more plush mattress.

We make a 10" Bio Fleece Adjustable Firmness Memory Foam Mattress that may be a good solution for you. It is a tight top mattress that actually allows you to adjust the firmness after you have it in your house. This way, you won't be stuck with something either too soft or too firm. It also allows different firmness levels for you and your husband.

You may also consider using the Cool Flash Mattress Cover which reduces overheating, stays cool and comfortable. You lay the cover on top of your mattress and cover with a fitted sheet. But if you really want to cure the overheating problem, have a look at the Chili Pad. With dual zone heating and cooling, you and your husband can perfectly regulate the temperature of your mattress on any night night of the year, regardless of the weather temperature.

Please call me if you have any questions or I can be of further assistance.  1.866.886.6687

Everyday, we talk with customers who have concerns about the warmth of memory foam. One of our customers, Scott, wrote to me today:

"I currently own a foam mattress and it is very, very hot. I can't sleep on it and am sleeping in another room on a twin mattress on the floor. My question is this, what makes you so sure that your mattress would not provide the same result to us. We have tried mattress pads and toppers, still I can't stand the heat…"

Scott,

To answer your question, I couldn’t guarantee that you will not become hot, but may I suggest a few different options.

I would assume that you like your memory foam mattress, just not the heat, and I can completely understand wanting to find a cooler mattress and keep the memory foam.

We have constructed our mattress in house for around 8 years and have used many of the leading memory foam manufactures in our products at over the years, but in the last three years we have used only two different manufactures for the exact reason you’re talking about.  Our Invigor 11" mattress would be a good option.

I don’t know how you feel about latex, but one of the biggest sellers to our local customers is our memory foam/latex mattress. We use 2” of latex on the top with 2” visco underneath; this gives the best of both worlds.

If you like the feel of your current mattress, I would suggest the Chili Pad, which we are offering a 5% discount on in addition to the 5% you’re getting for joining the buyers club.  For a Queen, King or Cal King mattress, you can regulate the temperature on each side independently and can cool your mattress down to 46 degrees F.

Another option is the Cool Flash cover that uses the OutLast® material. Featuring micro- encapsulated spheres, the OutLast fabric will absorb and store heat within the spheres and then release the stored heat back to the surroundings.

Any questions, please call

866.886.6687

How Sleepy Are You? Take the NSF test to measure your general level of daytime sleepiness.

Leading memory foam mattresses retailers claim that their bed will help improve your sleep, cure insomnia, and fight sleep deprivation. But according to The National Sleep Foundation (NSF), “there isn't much published research on mattresses, or how mattress quality may affect how sleep feels to the sleeper.”

While NSF does not promote any scientific studies that show how a sleep surface will improve your sleep, they acknowledge that, “discomfort can make falling asleep more difficult and lead to restless slumber.” They encourage finding a mattress that is comfortable to you and replacing your old, unsupportive mattress.

If foam bed retailers do not have studies to support their claims to better sleep, they can certainly show their mattresses provide maximum comfort. The key measure of comfort in a mattress is pressure relief. Even weight distribution and elimination of pressure points are the pinnacle achievement of a great mattress.

Even distribution of pressure is the basis of claims to health benefits. The logic goes that with greatly reduced pressure points, a bed is more comfortable, sleep comes easier, rest is more satisfying, and we awake with more energy.

To show comfort and pressure reduction in technical terms, companies like Tekscan and Xsensor have developed pressure mapping technology. A pad, with hundreds of pressure sensors, is laid down over the mattress. Then a person lies down on top of it and a computer generated map is displayed on a screen showing color coded areas of different pressure. The image demonstrates, in an intuitive way, exactly how comfortable a mattress is.

Pressure mapping shows in a technical way the same thing people know intuitively when they lay down on a memory foam mattress. They conform ideally to your body and are really comfortable. Memory foam has dramatically risen to popularity in the past few years because of its unsurpassed ability to reduce pressure points and provide maximum comfort.

While most people will agree that a more comfortable mattress will naturally lead to better sleep, there is not a lot of scientific data to support this claim. There is much that experts don’t understand about insomnia, sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, restless leg, or other sleep disorders. Nevertheless, sleep experts will all agree that a comfortable sleep surface is a major contributing factor to improved sleep.

There is a lot of information to be found online about memory foam mattresses, though the bulk of it has been written by people that actually sell the mattresses. When you type “memory foam mattress” into the top search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, the top results are all companies selling memory foam mattresses. Yes, we’re in there : )

Much of this information is helpful and good, but what if you wanted at least some of your research information to come from an unbiased source? Well as it turns out, there is such a resource, but the information is hard to find.

The Polyurethane Foam Association (PFA) is a group whose mission is to educate customers and other groups about flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) and to promote its use in manufactured and industrial products. It is supported by its membership of US flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) manufacturers and companies that supply the raw materials for FPF.

So it’s not a 100% unbiased resource. After all, its goal is still to promote the use of FPF in bedding and furniture. But the group has a high degree of authority and trust within the industry. It’s a group of the top experts with a mission to help you get the facts about foam products.

Be warned, much of the information is written for industry insiders. It may be difficult to wade through the tech jargon / lingo and ferret out useful information. Some of the most useful information (like density, odor, firmness, viscoelastic foam) is in the Intouch articles section.

Europur is the European counterpart of the PFA. It has less information, but what is available, is less technical and perhaps more useful for the consumer preparing to make a large home purchase.

Hi, I was searching the web for some bed sheets, just plain white sheets, and I was blown away by the pricing and thread counts on eBay. They have 1000tc and 1200tc sheets for less than $50, but yours are twice that much. How is that possible? Are their sheet sets reasonable, or just cheap?

Wow. That raises a lot of issues. First, I want to say that I love eBay. I’ve bought and sold a lot of stuff there. But now that disclaimer is out of the way, here is the pseudo-dirt.

I’ve wondered the same thing as you. Our company manufactures and imports bedding, so how are resellers and stay-at-home-moms on eBay able to beat us on pricing? So I bought sheets from several different sellers on eBay and the mystery quickly “unraveled.”

Sellers there are re-labeling (if that’s not a term, it is a practice). They take the 200tc or 300tc label out of a package and insert a 600tc, 800tc, or 1000tc label. I actually sent 1 sheet set to a lab to have the thread count tested to confirm my assumption. At several $hundred$ per test, that’s as much confirmation as I felt like getting.

You can’t really tell the difference in the feel of a 300tc fabric and a 1200tc fabric, but the weight of the sheet set is a dead give away. We've handled a lot of bed sheets sets from different suppliers, and their weight is very similar. A queen 1200tc sheet set weighs about 8-9 pounds, while a queen 300tc sheet set weighs only 4-5 pounds, and a queen 600tc sheet set weighs about 6-7 pounds.

Re-labeling is just plain wrong, that’s for sure. But it’s more of a bad joke than an injustice. Prices for 1000tc sheets on eBay have plummeted from a fair price for an actual 1000 sheet set 2 years ago, then dropped to a fair price for a 600tc set, and now is a fair price for a 300tc set. So you pay for a 300tc sheet set and you get a 300tc sheet set. You just think you’ve got a 1000tc sheet set.

We've written a lot more about  bed sheets here.  In particular, we've written about the quality of multi ply threads in Egyptian cotton sheets. I think you will find this article interesting and helpful.

We’ve been shopping around for a memory foam mattress online, and there are a lot of reviews saying they are too hot. Are your mattresses hot? Is there a way to make a memory foam mattress cooler?

Memory foam is a good insulator, and that’s nice in the winter or for people who like to be cozy warm when they sleep. But what about keeping cool in the summer months, or people who have trouble sleeping because they get too warm at night?

All memory foam is composed of thousands of tiny cells with an open wall structure. Think of a sponge and the way they can soak up water. Sponges can soak up water because they have an open wall cell structure. Similarly, there are tiny holes in the cell walls of memory foam that allow air to flow between cells. This is what allows memory foam to conform so well to your body.

A lot of mattress sellers say that memory foam is cool because it has an open wall cell structure. And that’s true. Memory foam dissipates heat because it passes heat away from your body while you sleep. But still memory foam mattresses are warmer than traditional innerspring beds that everyone is used to sleeping on.

Some memory foam mattresses have “air flow” channels cut into the top surface or interior of the mattresses that allows air to move or “bellow” when you move about on the mattress. The idea is that this will allow heat to pass away from your body and keep you cooler. I agree with this concept, and I understand why it should work, but I’ve slept on a lot of beds in deciding which ones to sell in our store, and I’ve honestly not seen any difference in the warmth / coolness of mattresses with air flow channels.

The main thing that makes traditional innerspring mattresses cooler is a top layer of fiber fill. Fiber filling does a great job of preventing heat build up, promoting airflow, and whisking away heat from your body. Fiber fill is the polyester, Americore, or Dacron fiber batting which is quilted into the top of a mattress. It is super soft and comfortable, and does an excellent job keeping you cool, but is not as good as memory foam at reducing pressure points.

Memory foam is a superior pressure reduction material. For best performance, you want your body to be as close to the mattress as possible. A “tight top” memory foam mattress has a top layer of memory foam and then a mattress cover over it. The mattress cover is all that’s between you and the memory foam.

For better heat reduction, you can get a memory foam bed with a CoolMax, Bamboo, or Aloe Vera Cover. These special materials will wick heat and moisture away from your body.

A pillow top layer of fiber quilted into the top cover can also help keep you cool. This type of memory foam mattress will keep you much cooler because it has a highly breathable airflow layer right next to your skin.

I just moved into my new house, but I’ve got to go back and get some things from my old house next week. Can I order the bed now? How fast do your memory foam mattresses ship? I want to be here when it delivers so it doesn’t sit out in the rain. What do I do if the bed arrives with damage from shipping?

Jim Stark - Ashland, Oregon

Hey Jim. Most of the beds we sell are made to order. So when you order on our site, we make the bed and ship it within a few days, with a tracking # so you can monitor its progress online and know the exact day that it will arrive. Your mattress will deliver in 1-3 business days; some western states, like Washington and Arizona may take 5 business days to deliver.

Most of our beds are vacuum packed and can ship with a ground service: DHL, FedEX, or UPS. But a few of our beds cannot be rolled, so they must ship with a freight company.

If your bed will be delivered by a ground service, they will leave it at your front door. We have the option of requiring a signature before delivery. That way you can be sure to be present when the bed delivers. Just let us know when you order the bed that you want a signature delivery.

If your mattress ships via freight, then you will need to be there to sign paperwork upon delivery. Be sure to inspect the packaging for any signs of damage. If there is a tear in the box, then make a note of it on the bill of lading (paperwork), something like this:

“Box torn in 2 places. Contents may be damaged. Needs to be opened for thorough inspection.”

Freight companies will only honor claims for damages when it’s noted on the bill of lading. If you sign the bill of lading without making a note of damages, that means that you are accepting the shipment in good condition.

Whether your mattress ships via a ground service or freight, notify us immediately if it arrives with damages. We rarely have experienced items arriving with damage. It’s a small problem, but good to know what to do if it happens.

If you don’t have a covered porch (or other) to receive the package, then you will need to know the day it is scheduled to arrive. Be sure to watch for the package and get it out of the weather as soon as possible. The mattress will be covered in plastic, but water is a very tricky thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it found a way to seep in during a storm.