New York Renovator

I always wanted one of those *real* memory foam mattresses. I’d endured the spring coil for many decades before the darling husband shelled out the big bucks for a memory foam. We got a Tempurpedic on sale, and I did a review shortly after. It remains one of my most popular blog posts, surprisingly.

We’ve had ours for almost two years now! Has it really been that long?! But I’m happy to say that it’s still very, very nice. And SO comfortable.

Because of herniated spinal disks and sciatica, I was in a lot of pain with the regular spring coil bed. Since we have had a memory foam mattress, I have not had one “big” bout of back problems. So I’m very partial to the memory foam.

What really stinks is the foundation. We got a generic brand name foundation for the set, and after 6 months, it started squeaking like crazy. Apparently, the foundation is constructed of cardboard and plastic ribbing! Very cheap. We’ve replaced the foundation set every 6 months for 18 months (warranty) until the furniture store said they wouldn’t replace the foundation anymore, and we’d have to buy a new set. :-p I won’t get into how much that totally stinks. I guess I could sue them for breach or warranty, perhaps….

Anyway. The memory foam mattress itself is outstanding. After two years, here are some things I’ve learned.

The memory foam mattress IS a little hot. It’s constructed of some kind of plastic something or other, and therefore retains heat very well. I am a hot person by nature, so I get overheated sometimes. It’s not blistering hot as some reviewers would have you believe, but it’s a pretty toasty mattress in the winter, and warm in the summer. On the plus side, if you live in a cold climate or your house is cold all winter, this is THE mattress to get.

Livvy loves the mattress

The complete bed set sits lower than the average bed. So you drop into it at night and crawl up out of it in the morning. I’d rather have a higher bed. Someday, I’m going to build a bed frame out of solid lumber. This will raise the bed and replace that lousy, squeaky foundation.

The memory foam does soften over time. When we first got it, it was firm. It’s loosened a little. It’s still very comfortable, but it is softer. Also, when it’s cold, the bed is firmer, and when it’s warm, the bed relaxes. The material is sensitive to temperatures.

The mattress is extremely heavy. VERY heavy. It takes two guys to haul it up the stairs, and even then, I wondered if they were going to spill back down again….

Overall, I recommend the memory foam mattress. You can no doubt get much better deals online than retail. It was expensive, retail. You cannot use regular box springs with the memory foam, though– it must have a solid foundation. I recommend you stay far away from the generic no-brand labels and stick with the big names for the foundation. Or, build your own solid wood bed frame.

Wow! I cannot believe this– Buy.com now sells memory foam mattresses! I bought my memory foam mattress about a year ago now. We love it, but I bought it from a local furniture store and it cost us an arm and a leg (and then some). It’s been great for my back (herniated disks) and I haven’t had a relapse on my back since we got the mattress, hallelujah! I’ve been thinking about getting some of these mattresses for my kids, because they are so healthful. But the local stores sell them for outrageous prices. Spending that amount for FOUR children is… well, I could get a few new cars, instead! :-p

I was perusing some of the good sales at Buy.com, and look what I found! They now sell memory foam mattresses. These guys are totally amazing. The Memory Rest “Cool Temp” 10-inch Twin Size mattress is selling for $244 and comes with FREE shipping. Wow, I don’t think that can be beat anywhere.

You’d have to build or buy your own foundation. Memory foam mattresses cannot be placed on the typical coil box spring– it must be a firm, solid foundation, or the foam mattress will sag. We bought our mattress and foundation new, and have had nothing but problems with the foundation. We have to replace it every six months or so, it’s SUCH a poor design. We have a 10 year warranty on it, so every six months, that’s where it goes… it’s costing the manufacturer money to constantly send us new foundations, but they should FIX the problem. Then, we’d all be happy. But after the warranty runs out, we’re building our own foundation, and the same thing goes for the kids’ beds. My stepdad once built us kids solid wood bunk beds (with a cheapo rubber foam mattress) and those beds were rock solid. I’m going to do the same for my kids, and it’s not hard to make, either.

Anyway, if you’ve been waiting for a great deal on memory foam mattresses, here it is, right in your face! The prices are great!

We’ve had our Tempurpedic mattress for several months now. I thought I’d now give the promised update. You can read my first review that has my first impressions of the mattress and box spring set.

We bought the mattress AND the box spring AND a new queen-size frame for this bed. Because I have a herniated disk in my spine that sometimes flares up, the regular old spring-coil mattress was causing more problems than helping them. We bought the Tempurpedic with the hopes that it would improve my back (or, at the very least, not strain it as the spring-coil was straining it).

I’ll shoot straight and clear, first thing: I love the Tempurpedic mattress.

The mattress itself has softened a lot since we purchased it five months ago. It’s still extremely comfortable. It’s also warm and cozy. I’d read online reviews that said the mattress was uncomfortably hot, but I have not found that the case so far. Of course, we haven’t been through a summer with the Tempurpedic yet, and New York winters are MIGHTY chilly. I’m finding that I look forward to going to bed every night, cuddling up in the mattress. It’s so soft and comfortable! Where I used to get sore spots at the pressure points with the spring-coil, I have nothing but comfort with the Tempurpedic.

The bad side of the Temperpedic mattress is the box spring. It’s a DISASTER. We had to get the split box springs, because my stair case ceiling is so low that a regular box spring could never fit through and up to the bedrooms (these old houses, you know). When we first moved to this house, we had to break apart the bedroom window and hoist our spring-coil mattress and box spring up a rope and through the window. No fun. So we got the split box spring, with the saleman’s assurances that this was just as comfortable.

Lie!

This box spring is awful. You can’t roll over without the box spring squeaking and groaning in protest. It is durn-tootin’ NOISY! I mean– if the windows were open, the neighbors standing outside could hear me getting in and out of the bed. It’s a horrid sound, like the sound of very dry wood scratching over each other, very LOUDLY. I just dread moving on the bed. It wakes the kids!

So I am 100% DISSATISFIED with the box spring. It STINKS. We paid a good chunk of change for the set (we could have gone to las vegas for a weekend, it cost that much!). I’m considering using my old box spring from the old spring-coil set (it’s still in our upstairs hallway because we have to either bust it up or break open our window again to get rid of it). The Temperpedic box spring is a rip-off.

So there ya have it. I expect the Tempurpedic mattress to continue to soften a little, with time. That doesn’t bother me, as I like the cushy feel (especially after enduring the hard-as-concrete spring coil mattress for so long). But I’ll never get another box spring like this. It’s awful.