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The saga begins. I bought the foam from Foam Factory, www.foamdistributing.com. I had seen mixed reviews on this site, but the price was right. Thank you for your help. I ordered last monday (6-22-09), it arrived today, 7 days after the order. Based on things I saw on this forum this weekend, I weighed the boxes before opening. Here's what I ordered, top to bottom, with my calculated estimate what the weight should be: $145 76x80x2" Memory Foam 4.5 lb King 31.6 lb $252 76x80x3" Memory Foam 5.5 lb King, 58 lb $ 50 80"x76"x2.5" Lux-R egg crate, 8.1 lb. (I assume a 2.5" egg crate is 50% air, 50% foam) $163 80"x76"x4" Lux HQ foam, 40.4 lb. OK, great. The shipping memo said total ship weight was 142 lb, I calculated 138 lb, we're happy. Today the foam arrived, and I weighed them. Flipping the bed upside down, I will start with the bottom layer first. My happiness drops as I go up in the foam. Weight of the boxes, as calculated, printed on the boxes, and weighed, then calculated density from the measured weight Layer calc wt Ship wt Actual wt Density 4" Lux-HQ: 40.4 lb 42 lb 39 lb 2.70 lb/cf OK< nominally 2.8 but I can deal. 2.5" egg crate 8.1 lb 13 lb 8 lb 1.78 lb/cf note this is the only one that was not in the box when weighed. Nominally 1.8, OK. 5.5 lb memory 58 lb 56 lb 48 lb 4.54 lb/cf So the 5.5 lb foam is really 4.5? Not what I ordered. 4.5 lb memory 31 lb 31 lb 13 lb 1.84 lb/cf NOT A TYPO! And still in the box. It felt the same weight as the egg crate but it's much bigger. Customer support opens at 10 AM EDT tomorrow; I will be phoning. I have opened the base and egg crate, they are airing out. They are keepers. The memory foam layers are still in their boxes so I can return them easily. Their "5.5" lb foam was 4.5 lb; their "4.5" was 1.8!! I will report how well their customer support responds. Thanks for all the help you already gave me, this site is a wonderful resource. |
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Dr_Mike, What was your final configuration? I am considering buying a similar configuration without the top 4.5lb memory foam topper because we like a firmer sleep. My wife and I are 200+ lbs and side sleepers. Would there be any benefit to getting 4" of the 5.5 lb foam? Any help or guidance is appreciated. |
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Webbiscuit - Final configuration? Don't have one yet. My wife loves what I described above. I hate it. Since she's visiting family, I'm messing with the bed. I have a 1/2" layer of Lux foam (ILD 50) with a 2.5" layer of HD-36 eggcrate (ILD-35 for the solid foam) on top of the original Lux and egg crate, replacing the 3" 5.5 lb memory foam. But after two nights with this configuration I don't have a verdict; I loved the original for the first week. The idea with the egg crate was, the two layers add up to 3", so I can cut the memory foam and this stuff in half, and have side by side layers for that part of the bed, then put the 4.5 lb memory foam on top so there's hopefully not that sharp of a transition between the two sides. My side, her side. Plus the egg crate layer may make more air flow through the memory foam so it won't sleep so $#^% hot! I'll write in a week or so to say if I love it or hate it. My advice: First, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying things on a whim/guess. Your mileage may vary, a lot. I loved the Sealy in the store, loved the original layout for a week, then started waking up sore. My wife loves it. I'm a 275 lb back sleeper, she's a (classified, but less than me, not heavy but solid, that's safe to say right?) side sleeper with sciatica. Second, I am a human furnace, she is a human heat sink. Seriously, after a while when one of us was tossing and turning, so we slept in separate rooms, she complained that she got the cold room. We used the probe thermometers from the kitchen to measure, and whichever of us got what room, my room was about 3 degrees warmer in the morning. I think the memory foam is bloody hot. She loves it. I think she's part reptile. But I wear shorts in winter when she's in a sweater. How hot are you? Third, my current appraisal is similar to, but less severe than, my initial one. I feel I'm making a U shape in the bed. I may do further surgery to make it firmer in the middle. I know, this is dead opposite to what JimSoCal does. I'm not convinced I'm not imagining it. I just feel my lower back is sinking too much. We'll see how I feel in a week. Fourth, when I just pulled either memory foam layer off the old bed my wife swore she bottomed out. Must be the side sleeper thing. Don't know how the foam will hold up to her elbows, I swear she sharpens them. Fifth, if I'd bought the store mattress I'd have returned it in the first week, and be out a pile of money. Whereas I just spent another hundred and change, and got foam to: (a) play with new layers on this bed, (b) replace the foam on our Ikea futon, and (c) do mattress surgery on our 8 year old queen, now our second bed. I may end up hitting $900 to build a mattress and upgrade two others. Bummer. Sixth, you are you. I am me. The only way to find out what you like is to sleep on it. For a week, plus. Seriously. Go to the store, see what you like there, and try to emulate it. Then plan on modifying it once you know what you like or hate about it. If I could do that through the local store I would. I can't so I won't. My back isn't 30 anymore, and I cannot settle for "you paid for it, sleep on it." Sleep well. |
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Think very carefully about the amount of money you want to go down the drain before buying memory foam through them. The foams smelled bad andmay have caused my parents to get muscle aches and coughing. It is possible to return but the shipping cost is already $110 or more (very expensive due to the large size of the package) for a queen size 3" foam. Additionally it is impossible to pack the foam into a box to send it back. When I read this from other people I thought that maybe they weren't careful about the foam but now I understand why it is impossible. I was very gentle and was able to pack it into a large box but after a few mintutes the foam (being in a rolled up position) cracks right inside the box. Thus I couldn't return the darn thing and lost all my money for nothing.
If you don't like to listen to my advice above and would still like to know what it was like, the foam had a nice texture like angel food cake, which is why it was so fragile and broke apart easily. The gentlest move could cause a tear in the foam. I weight the foam and it was 46 pounds. The smell was not very noticeable at first but it did give me a headache after lying on it for 20 minutes. I heard that this is common because even tempurpedic beds can cause some people to hate the smell. The firmess of the viscomax seemed to be a little bit softer than the tempur pedic brand. I don't like sleeping on a memory foam pad and neither did my parents. It felt as if the hips/butt area was not supported at all, causing lower back pain. This message was modified Jul 28, 2011 by looking4abed
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Looking 4 a bed -
We had our mattress from the initial post, to July 2016 when we moved. Our foam held up just fine over that time; we simply decided it was old enough to start fresh and not move it.
So far as packing it to return it, stuff it into a "contractor grade" garbage bag, shove a vacuum cleaner nozzle into the bag, and let nature take it's course. Only slightly less professional than what they do in the first place!
- M |
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Also, when we moved, Amazon had a sale on cheapo mattresses; we bought 2. They are under 2 years old, and are pretty well shot. Back in the day, I spent $900 for mix and match, and got enough foam for two beds and a sofa upgrade. The mattresses lasted 7 years and were going strong. Two years ago, I spent $320 for two mattresses which are shot now. I'm back on this forum expressly to find out what I bought 9 years ago, I'm pretty much buying it again. And Foambymail is still in business, so I'll go with them not out of any loyalty per se, but just because I was happy with their product for a long time, and until I see they have changed, I'll keep sending them my business. Expect a minor update in a couple months...
- M |