Crap or Not #3 – Tempur-Pedic Mattresses
Posted by Cap on August 14, 2006 |
Crap or Not? Tempur-Pedic Mattresses and Pillows
Aka “memory foam” for the generic and cheaper brand.
Some people seem to swear by this thing. The infomercial often touts that sleeping on these mattress will make you feel like you’re sinking into a cloud. Or, slowly drowning in the sea—as how I felt when I tried it.
The often found polyurethane based material was original designed for NASA for use in the space program (was it ever actually used?), hence the wacky mention of “the only mattress recognized by NASA and certified by the Space Foundation.”
Spiffy.
Said mattress can be found for over thousands of dollars. Every salesman you’ve met will tell you that “9 out of 10″ people loved it. Hype aside, memory foams have many medical application, especially for those who have to be bed bound for long periods of time.
Hmm. Crap or not? You can vote on the top left of the blog.
Poll Result:
Related Post:
26 Comments to “Crap or Not #3 – Tempur-Pedic Mattresses”
Leave a Comment
Hey, Business Week Online Readers »
« Stop Buying Crap #13 – Back to School Crap
August 14th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Crap.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
but, it’s visco-elastic!
August 14th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I wouldn’t go so far as to buy a whole mattress out of the stuff, but the 2 inch thick pads you can get are a godsend. My father got one cheap and tried it out, I quickly stole it when he was out on a business trip. I’ve started packing my pad instead of a sleeping bag on any mission trips I go on because sleeping bags aren’t soft… my pad is.
The single biggest edge I give the pad is it takes the ‘edge’ off dorm room beds… I have friends who have egg crate(Suckers…) who will visit me just so they can lay down. It really is one of those ‘try it and see’ and if you try it too long it becomes one of those expensive comforts that make you feel good.
I can’t recommend the 2″ pads enough…
August 14th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
My brother was in a diving accident in college and his neck was badly injured. He went through 10 years’ worth of chiropractic, massage, physical therapy, magnets, acupunture, many mattress and pillow combinations…believe me, he tried everything. 5 years ago he bought a tempurpedic mattress (and pillow) and his neck is 90% better.
I was rearended in 2000 and suffered whiplash. I went through many of the same treatments as my brother, with limited results. I housesat for him for 2 weeks and fell in love with Tempurpedic. I did bought a tempurpedic pillow and mattress pad (couldn’t afford the mattress) and my neck has been SO much better.
I’m open to the idea that you pay much more for the Tempurpedic brand and there might be memory foam companies that have products of similar quality for less money, but I’m convinced that in 20 years, no one will use a spring mattress.
GreenAeon says: “I have friends…who will visit me just so they can lay down.” This is so true! Many a party at my home has shifted to the bedroom just so everyone can take turns laying on my bed (no funny business, I swear!). Tempurpedic really is that comfortable!
August 14th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
I hate spending on big ticket items like this one. My wife has neck problems though, and (unfortunately for me) she controls her own spending. She has also had back and neck problems for many years. We spent a few thousand on a Tempurpedic. I was skeptical, but after a week found that I had more energy throughout the day, and that her neck problems have really diminished. The problem is that when we travel or stay elsewhere, she finds herself discomforted by other mattresses.
But if I might suggest, if it’s for medical reasons like our situation, definitely NOT crap.
August 14th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
I agree with GreenAeon, the two inchers are great!
As for the bed, the picture is very beautiful and marketable…. but I wouldn’t but it, there are better deals.
August 14th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
And another vote for GreenAeon…our 12 year old bed was starting to feel its age. (I think the “pillowtop” must have deflated.) We went mattress shopping and were tempted by the Tempurpedic mattresses. We were a little concerned that the change from going from a traditional mattress to a Tempurpedic one would be too much of an adjustment resulting in some sleepless nights. Later that day, we happened to stop by a Wal-Mart where they had the el cheapo Tempurpedic knockoff pads. $99 for a queen size. We figured that we could try the pad and see if we liked it. Well, over a year later, we love our el cheapo pad and have no plans anytime soon to replace our mattress.
August 14th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
when you spend half your life sleeping it is worth it to have the best!
yes i worked in bed sheets and linens at macys for a summer:)
noah
August 15th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
hmmmmmm. you know my mom’s in a situation like Paco, got involved in a rear-end and till this day still have neck/shoulder pain. Not sure if she ever tried out any of those pillows, but I think I’ll ask.
GreenAeon does have a point on those pads too, they can extend the life of your current mattress as Lisa mentioned or improve them considerbly, so I guess that’s not so bad.
I still wouldn’t spend so much on an entire mattress, but like Noah said—half your life.
That’s a pretty good sales phrase :P
August 16th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I bought a knockoff from ebay and love it for sleeping. For other things that happen on a bed, the motion deadening effect is significant…
August 24th, 2006 at 5:05 am
My wife gave me a tempur-pedic pillow for my birthday and I love it. She’s got one too and we take them with us when we travel. We also spent over 3 grand on our mattress set (Kingsdown, not Tempur-Pedic) and it is worth it. You probably won’t live any longer and may sleep well enough on any old bed but we’ve never regretted the investment. At 6-8 hours of sleep a night plus other activities it is virtually an essential luxury (an oxymoron, I know). It is our island paradise. Practically speaking, we sleep way better.
August 24th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
Definitely crap, especially when you can get the Bob-O-Pedic for so much less. Personally, I would never buy a matress made of foam, no matter how special NASA says it is.
September 30th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Memory foam from Wal-mart has its very similar quality at a reasonable price. I go for it and sleeping better.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Noah said: “when you spend half your life sleeping it is worth it to have the best!”.
Who spends half their life sleeping. I’m lucky enough to spend 1/4 my life sleeping, since I get about 6 hours sleep at night on average. And no, I’m not an insomniac.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:05 am
The wife and I bought our 10″ queen memory-foam mattress from Overstock.com at $600 shipped (June ’06). Tempur-pedic queen mattress lists at $1599. Later, we saw an 8″ queen memo-foam mattress for $250. So here’s my comparison:
For the price of 1 Tempur-pedic queen mattress, you could buy:
2.7 mattresses [Yes, almost 3!] (10″ Q, brand=?) from Overstock (if they had enough, or still have them)
or
6.4 mattresses [Yes, more than 6!] (8″ Q, Walmart brand?)
Tempur-pedic (according to my dad, an owner of a T-pedic king mattress) has a 20-year warranty. In 20 years (for $1600), you could buy 1 mattress every __:
7.4 years (if Overstock deal)
or
3.1 years (Walmart)
[All else held stable: price, availability, inflation]
By the way, the Overstock bed? Sleeps great! No more back pain!
October 19th, 2006 at 11:59 am
First I just can’t stand when someone ‘votes’ and has no knowledge or experience, just free time to vote, as in “Crap. I would never buy a foam mattress”. Right. thanks for your input. These types of posts (and possibly mine) are why the internet is crap.
Anyway, I have tried and did buy a foam mattress. Not the tempurpedic, but an angelbeds.com because I’m cheap.
I prefer it to any bed I sleep in and am always happy to return home to it.
My exprienced vote is “Not Crap”.
October 26th, 2006 at 8:55 am
My wife and I tried the foam matress. If you like your house warm all year, it might be soft enough. I like a nice, cool sleeping environment, and the Tempur in Tempur-Pedic is for temperature. The bed was too firm and we returned it after 3 weeks (the shortest amount of time they would allow at the store that we purchased it from, giving it a full trial). We have since gone to the air-bed. My side is set at one level, my wife changes her side almost daily. Love the air bed. Tried all of the rest first. We were ready to give up.
November 18th, 2006 at 6:30 am
I have one of those over stock memo foam beds. Beend sleeping on it a little over a year, best purchase I made this decade easily.
Useful and comfy.
One huge downside is traveling, once you get used to the memo foam bed, just about every other bed will leave you sore as hell in the morning. From motels to 5 star resorts, I wake up in the morning like the mafia beat me with ball bats in the night.
This is the reason why my parent’s declined my offer to get them a set, they do quite a bit of traveling.
November 27th, 2006 at 11:29 am
agreed. the generic brand stuff isn’t crap, and it’s just as good as Tempurpedic.
in short, don’t buy the name brand and you’ll save yourself 50-70%.
my wife & i have been sleeping on a generic memory foam mattress for 3 years (bought on eBay), and it’s great :)
December 1st, 2006 at 12:05 am
I slept on a tempurpedic mattress for 6months. But i give it a thumbs down.
However…i have been sleeping on a tempurpedic pillow for almost two years. I won’t go a night without it. (I have the small travel pillow size)
i recommend anybody to check out their pillows.
Dave
http://www.honestforum.com
March 10th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
where do you people live that these mattresses cost a few thousand. i have seen them in the low 2000′s
May 24th, 2007 at 10:06 am
They have queen-sized ones for $250? Damn, I got ripped off. I’m trying to remember if mine was $300 or $500 (it was almost two years ago), but I fear it’s the latter. It was the same thing–queen-size memory-foam mattress. Also, it was remaindered or overstocked or returned or whatever it was to be in the back room, not the showroom, of the furniture store.
My bed, which I’d had since I live in my parents’ house, had broken a few support beams (I did a flying double-twist dive onto it when I first got it). When I moved out, I went to the Home Depot and sprung for some replacement 2x2s, this time made of nigh-indestructible red oak rather than cheap-ass pine. (I could have gotten poplar for much less, but the total cost was under twenty bucks, and I liked the way it looked.) My father had a countersink bit for his drill, so we made them look pretty much exactly like the ones that were replaced.
Err, in summary, generic mattresses are good, and a little bit of construction work can save a lot of money.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
We spent hundreds on a pillowtop mattress. I found the mattress topper on sale and bought it. It was great. On day we took the pad off the bed and the bed felt like sleeping on wood. The topper is great
March 21st, 2008 at 8:42 am
I have one, its just another mattress to me. Firm but comfy.
it is good for relations though :)
March 27th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I have worked in the mattress industry and Tempur-Pedic hands down are the best mattresses in the world. There is nothing else that will perfectly align your spine and allow you to sleep longer and deeper. There are many knock offs out there and trust me they are not the same. Tempur-Pedic has never patened their design so they are not required to disclose the way the material is created. The molecular structure in the visco is completely different than “Memory Foam”, and if you want to talk about price their are plenty of mattress out there that are far more expensive than Tempur-Pedic and dont offer nearly as much health benefits.
April 17th, 2012 at 5:00 am
Hey There. I discovered your weblog using msn. This is a very neatly written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your helpful info. Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely return.