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Ran D. St. Clair · 05-02-2011, 10:49 PM

I have purchased 4 foam mattresses for the stealth camper even though I only needed 2. It's not entirely the sellers fault but the industry as a whole could benefit from some standard method for describing the general soft/firmness of the mattresses. The mattresses I bought all varied widely from somewhat too firm for my taste to way too hard for my taste. Then again, my preference for a soft mattress may be somewhat unusual, I don't know. I know I am a side sleeper and anything other than a really soft mattress eventually causes my shoulder joints to hurt. The best solution I came to was at this web site:

http://www.foamforyo...mMattresses.htm

They have lots of technical data here:

http://www.foamforyo...%20Foam%20Specs

But to be fair, none of that does you any good unless you have something to compare it to.

What eventually worked the best for me (though still not perfectly) was on this page:

http://www.foamforyo...oamMattress.htm

The standard grades of foam, which include "Standard Soft Foam", "Medium/Soft High Density", "Premium-Medium High Density", and "Luxury Firm" at least gave me a sense of scale. The descriptions that went with the grades were also somewhat more meaningful than what I found for most other on line type mattresses. For example, "STANDARD SOFT FOAM: This mattress is ideal for children, babies and lightweight adults. It has a soft feel depending on the weight of the sleeper." The typical description from other web sites is usually meaningless and self contradictory like, "wonderfully soft while firm and supportive...."

Even the Standard Soft Foam mattress wasn't as soft as I would have liked, but it was the softest I found and reasonably close to the mark. From there you can easily customize the feel with a mattress topper of some sort. In my case I bought a 1.5" thick memory foam topper from my local K-mart to get where I wanted to go. Something like that is close to $50 for a twin mattress so it’s not cheap. They also have soft polyurethane foam "egg crate" style toppers that are similar in firmness and closer to $10.

I will also mention that the mattress pad can make a big difference. By mattress pad I only mean the quilted top protective cover that fits over the mattress like a fitted sheet. It's not really so much of a pad as it is a protective cover. I say it makes a big difference because it can make the mattress feel significantly firmer (not so much softer as you might expect). Unless it is stretchy, it tends to distribute your weight over a wider patch of foam and you won't sink in as much. That is true even for a regular mattress pad, but is probably even more true for one that is intended to protect the mattress from liquids. (Not to be gross, but even adults sweat, not to mention other things...)

In my case I also have a 12V heated mattress pad, which is great for warming the bed very energy efficiently, but it also makes the bed feel firmer.

For those that don't already know, most of these foam mattresses come rolled up and highly compressed to make them easier to ship (which they are). Once you get them you pull them out of the vacuum pack bag, lay them out, and they expand to full size over the next 48 hours (mostly within an hour). The process does sometimes result in some dimensional variation of the finished product though. One of the mattresses I bought is 3" short (72" instead of 75") because the foam never fully recovered. That is probably more likely to be true for the softer grades of foam though. In fairness to the folks at Foam N' More, they were willing to work with me to cut the foam 3" extra long before stuffing it into the standard 75" mattress cover to compensate for this issue. Also in fairness, they should already have known this and should have compensated without me having to ask them to.

By the way, I think foam mattresses are great. It's possible to spend well over $1,000 on a mattress that is no more comfortable than a $150 foam mattress. My favorite foam mattress is now about 40 years old and aside from the cover being a bit faded it is still the most comfortable mattress I own. I don't know why people assume that foam mattresses are going to break down or become uneven just because they are cheap. That's not my experience anyway.

To be continued.

05-02-2011, 10:49 PM	#281
Ran D. St. Clair Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 212	Mattress Mayhem I have purchased 4 foam mattresses for the stealth camper even though I only needed 2. It's not entirely the sellers fault but the industry as a whole could benefit from some standard method for describing the general soft/firmness of the mattresses. The mattresses I bought all varied widely from somewhat too firm for my taste to way too hard for my taste. Then again, my preference for a soft mattress may be somewhat unusual, I don't know. I know I am a side sleeper and anything other than a really soft mattress eventually causes my shoulder joints to hurt. The best solution I came to was at this web site: http://www.foamforyo...mMattresses.htm They have lots of technical data here: http://www.foamforyo...%20Foam%20Specs But to be fair, none of that does you any good unless you have something to compare it to. What eventually worked the best for me (though still not perfectly) was on this page: http://www.foamforyo...oamMattress.htm The standard grades of foam, which include "Standard Soft Foam", "Medium/Soft High Density", "Premium-Medium High Density", and "Luxury Firm" at least gave me a sense of scale. The descriptions that went with the grades were also somewhat more meaningful than what I found for most other on line type mattresses. For example, "STANDARD SOFT FOAM: This mattress is ideal for children, babies and lightweight adults. It has a soft feel depending on the weight of the sleeper." The typical description from other web sites is usually meaningless and self contradictory like, "wonderfully soft while firm and supportive...." Even the Standard Soft Foam mattress wasn't as soft as I would have liked, but it was the softest I found and reasonably close to the mark. From there you can easily customize the feel with a mattress topper of some sort. In my case I bought a 1.5" thick memory foam topper from my local K-mart to get where I wanted to go. Something like that is close to $50 for a twin mattress so it’s not cheap. They also have soft polyurethane foam "egg crate" style toppers that are similar in firmness and closer to $10. I will also mention that the mattress pad can make a big difference. By mattress pad I only mean the quilted top protective cover that fits over the mattress like a fitted sheet. It's not really so much of a pad as it is a protective cover. I say it makes a big difference because it can make the mattress feel significantly firmer (not so much softer as you might expect). Unless it is stretchy, it tends to distribute your weight over a wider patch of foam and you won't sink in as much. That is true even for a regular mattress pad, but is probably even more true for one that is intended to protect the mattress from liquids. (Not to be gross, but even adults sweat, not to mention other things...) In my case I also have a 12V heated mattress pad, which is great for warming the bed very energy efficiently, but it also makes the bed feel firmer. For those that don't already know, most of these foam mattresses come rolled up and highly compressed to make them easier to ship (which they are). Once you get them you pull them out of the vacuum pack bag, lay them out, and they expand to full size over the next 48 hours (mostly within an hour). The process does sometimes result in some dimensional variation of the finished product though. One of the mattresses I bought is 3" short (72" instead of 75") because the foam never fully recovered. That is probably more likely to be true for the softer grades of foam though. In fairness to the folks at Foam N' More, they were willing to work with me to cut the foam 3" extra long before stuffing it into the standard 75" mattress cover to compensate for this issue. Also in fairness, they should already have known this and should have compensated without me having to ask them to. By the way, I think foam mattresses are great. It's possible to spend well over $1,000 on a mattress that is no more comfortable than a $150 foam mattress. My favorite foam mattress is now about 40 years old and aside from the cover being a bit faded it is still the most comfortable mattress I own. I don't know why people assume that foam mattresses are going to break down or become uneven just because they are cheap. That's not my experience anyway. To be continued.