Tag: memory foam mattresses

Buying a Memory Foam Mattress? Save Money By Using Your Current Foundation

If you are looking for a memory foam mattress, it is likely that you are doing your homework, learning about memory foam, shopping for quality memory foam, and even price shopping.  While you are doing that, you may be briefly thinking about the foundation for your memory foam mattress.  What used to be called a “box spring” is now a foundation.  It is the base that your mattress sits on.  Box springs, which actually have springs in them, have been replaced with what is now known as a “foundation.”  Foundations are generally made of wood and fabric and give a firm, supportive foundation for the memory foam mattress.

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The IFDs/ILDs for the Healthy Foundations 10″ Memory Foam Mattress

IFD (Indentation Force Deflection), also known as ILD, is the measure of the firmness of a foam. It is used in everything from memory foam to car seats.  IFD/ILD measure the deflection of a foam under a load.  The specific IFD test gives the foam a numeric IFD value.  The higher the number, the firmer the foam.  This means, for example, that memory foam will have a much lower number than a base foam for a mattress and a car seat will have a higher number than mattress base foam.

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Memory Foam Mattress Firmness: Soft, Firm, or Somewhere In Between?

Memory foam mattresses can come in many different firmness levels. When you are shopping for a memory foam mattress, it is important to know what type of feel you like. Memory foam can be very soft and marshmallow-like or very firm, just sinking in slightly when you lie on it.  There are multiple factors that determine how firm or soft a memory foam mattress will feel and not all of those factors are determined by the memory foam itself.  All memory foam mattresses are made in layers.  Memory foam is the top layer(s) and base foam are the bottom layer(s) that form the foundation of the mattress.  No memory foam mattress is made of just memory foam.  There is always some type of base foam beneath the memory foam.

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Protecting Your Memory Foam Mattress with a Cover

All mattresses, including memory foam mattresses, need to be protected with some type of mattress cover, also known as a mattress protector. This cover goes between the mattress and the sheets and protects the mattress from sweat, dirt, etc. For our purposes, we will call this protective barrier a “mattress protector.” You will also see it called a variety of other names, but the basic purpose is to protect the mattress so you are not putting your sheets directly on a bare mattress.

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Memory Foam and Odor

We often hear questions about memory foam and odor. Do memory foam mattresses have an odor? Yes, unfortunately, some do. This is especially true of the cheap memory foam mattresses, especially those from China. I have heard from some people who bought memory foam mattresses with odor so horrific that it actually made them sick. So how do you find a memory foam mattress that does not have an odor? How do you separate the stink bombs from the odor-free memory foam mattresses?

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Why the Bed-in-Box Movement is Not New

It’s interesting when new start-ups like Casper, Tuft and Needle, and Leesa (to name a few) claim to have revolutionized the mattress industry by selling direct to consumers online with a mattress that is quickly and easily delivered to their home for free and has a money-back trial period.  They claim to have “reinvented sleep” and to have recreated how mattress are bought, delivered, and returned.  Many of these start-ups have just opened in the last year or two.  So why does this seem like old news to me?  Because to me, it is old news.

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What Do Density and ILD/IFD Ratings For Memory Foam Mean?

We often get asked about the density of the memory foams we use in our memory foam mattress and memory foam topper pads, and once in awhile about their IFD/ILD rating.

And while we are happy to provide this technical data, I want to be clear that these technical specs alone do not give you a real indication of the comfort of a particular memory foam mattress or topper.

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Buying a Memory Foam Mattress: Beware the Comfort Guarantee!

When buying a memory foam mattress (or any mattress), you want to be able to ensure you find the right mattress.  That is nearly impossible to do with just a store trial.  In order to guarantee you find a mattress that is right for you, make sure you get at least a 90-day money-back trial with any mattress you buy.  (We do a 365-day trial, but 90 days is the minimum we recommend.)  Now, here is where it gets tricky sometimes.  Many companies will offer what they call a “comfort guarantee.”  A comfort guarantee is just a tricky way of saying “store credit.”  In other words, if the mattress doesn’t work for you, you can exchange it for another mattress in the store.  Many stores also allow you only one, maybe two exchanges which really makes this tough.  Even if you do get any many exchanges as you want, if the store doesn’t have a mattress that is right for you, you are simply out of luck.  We have heard stories like this from our customers and it is very frustration indeed.  If you have a comfort guarantee, comfort exchange, or store credit and the store doesn’t have a mattress that you like, you could be out hundreds or perhaps even thousands of dollars and still not have a mattress you can comfortably use.

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Memory Foam Mattress Intimacy

It is rare that we get this question, but people do have it. (Perhaps they are just embarrassed to ask.) The question is, “How well does intimacy work with a memory foam mattress?”

First of all, I find this question intriguing. Is there really any mattress (or surface) that is going to prevent people from being intimate? Is it really that difficult anywhere? Without going into details of mile-high clubs, the back seats of cars, and millions of other intimacy surfaces or surroundings, my first thought is to say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” but that isn’t even necessary with a memory foam mattress.  After many years and many thousands of memory foam mattresses sold, we have not heard this issue from customers or seen it in any reviews, until just now…

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Memory Foam Mattresses: Myth Versus Fact

As memory foam mattresses become more and more popular, there are more and more “facts,” or should I say myths, surrounding them. Let’s separate a few of the facts from the fiction and the myths from the reality.

Myth – All memory foam “sleeps hot.”

Fact – Although memory foam has a reputation for sleeping hot based on “leading brand’s” reputation for this, some newer more high tech memory foams have turned this to fiction.  Our memory foam has an open cell construction that increases air flow by 95% over traditional memory foam and wicks away heat and moisture three times faster than traditional memory foam.  In addition, the Healthy Foundations 10″ Memory Foam Mattress is also encased in a CoolMax cover.  CoolMax is a unique cloth by Invista that is on everything from athletic wear to bedding and wicks away heat and moisture.  Since our returns for heat are less than 1/2 of 1%, sleeping hot is simply not an issue for this memory foam mattress.

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