Mattress Forum

One of the bigger differences between inexpensive memory foams and the industry leaders is something called "consistent density". In a nutshell this is how it works:

Memory foam, like all foam, is a porous substance. It's like a sponge, comprised of a bunch of little holes. In inexpensive memory foam if you look at it underneath a microscope you see that some parts of the foam have big holes while others have smaller holes. Some parts have lots of holes where other parts have fewer. Over time, the parts of the foam with bigger holes or more holes will sink in where the parts with fewer holes or smaller holes will lump up. This is called an inconsistent density. It means if you take a cube from one part of the mattress and compare the density with a cube from another part there's some variance.

Very good industry leading memory foams look closer to beehive or grid patterns where the consistency is even. The process to make it this way is much more expensive and is a good chunk of the difference between a memory foam bed for $600 and one for $3000.

Tempurpedics are also the only memory foam mattresses out there that are tempurature sensitive. (They soften under warmth and firm under coolness) So while it's possible to get the memory foam feel until someone cracks the Tempurpedic formula, at the very least no other mattress will conform to your body tempurature as well as your shape and weight.

That said, half of the current models of Tempurpedic have removable, washable covers. Couple that with the fact that Tempur Material is naturally dust mite resilient and your chances aren't horrible. Here's a list (in increasing amounts of actual Tempur Material) of the Tempurpedics with removable covers as well as their Tempurpedic mandated Queen Size retail costs:

Advantage:      $1700

Classic:          $2100

Deluxe:           $2700

Rhapsody:     $3300

If you have questions about a specific one feel free to ask.

-Alex