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Hey Guys, I have been a long time lurker of the forum. I have got a lot of great info from here so I thought I would give something back. I have never really seen any posts about air mattresses so I thought id share my experiences with my new Comfortaire IC 900. Last year I bought a new Miralux queen mattress from Sleepy's (got talked into it by a rep) I found it alright to sleep on but my wife (who has fibromyalgia) was in misery for most of the year because of this mattress. So we decided to take the plunge (again) and find a new mattress and use the one we bought last year for our guest room. Anyway I wanted to do all my research this time around after getting somewhat burned by Sleepy's and was looking at mattresses for months. Being my wife has Fibromyalgia her doctor recommended a sleep number bed. My wife has a hard time getting comfortable in bed and often moves around and something that may feel comfortable to her one night may put her in a lot of pain the next night. That is why we started to look into the sleep number because we could change the firmness based on how she felt on a particular night. I started to do my research and found sleep number beds have horrible reviews and horror stories of mold going on the air bladders. Also that there is a big piece of PU from running down the center of the bed that at first feels like a big hump in your bed and over time breaks down causing a hammock effect. I also read the quality of foam the use is subpar and obviously the high price tag comes because you are paying for all the marketing they do. After doing more research I found the brand Comfortaire (Sleep Number was started by an ex comfortaire employee). These air beds did not have a foam divider in the middle, had a better build quality, and cost a fraction of the price for their top of the line model. We found that you could by Direct from the company for much cheaper but the model numbers were direct then the one of a local store that carried the beds. So I went online to look which models were comparable to the online ones so we could go to our local store, try out the bed and buy it for cheaper online,. We got the info and local furniture store that carried their beds so we went over there to try them out. It felt great we laid there for awhile so my wife could see how she felt and she was hooked. We were about to buy the bed from the direct website but I thought id do a tad more research. Then I found this great resource on YouTube from a mattress dealer in Virginia called Mattress Alternatives (http://www.mattressalternative.com/) YouTube name mattressexpert(the owners name is John). He had great informative videos all about different types of mattresses and foams and what you should look for in mattress, He also said he had the lowest prices in the country on these mattresses (cheaper then the factory direct website). I gave him a call and he was great to talk to very knowledgeable about his trade. What was even better is he carried the 2010 line of comforaire mattresses call the IC line. He is the only one in the country right now to carry this line (it is not even on the comfortaire website yet). True to his word he did have the best price and I bought the bed from him. Now after the long back-story let me get to the internals of the mattress It has 2 zippered compartments the first compartment it has 4 long pieces of 6" PU base foam, you put them together to make the outline of the base. After you have the corners are setup you add the rest of the best foam in and zip the bottom compartment. Then you put in the air bladders side by side (once again no foam divider in-between the bladders they are designed to fit snugly side by side and when the bed is together you cannot notice any gap whatsoever!!). You blow up the bladders and then comes the best part. They include a nice 3" piece of talalay latex on top of the bladders. This is nice and thick and is great quality. Then the top it off the bed has a nice thick (about 2 inch) Bamboo cover which as you all know is very breathable and clean (and very comfortable). In conclusion this is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on. We have tried latex only bed and didn’t feel the support was their but when you add the adjustability of air to the equation then it’s amazing. I would recommend this bed to anyone and if you have any question feel free to ask (and thanks for sticking though the lengthy story). |
| Although I can see how airbeds can be very comfortable, I don't really see how they can give proper mid-body support. The mid-body tends to be the heaviest, especially for women, and as this part of the body displaces the air, it would have to move to the upper third and lower third, creating a hammock effect. At least, that has been my experience. Did you get any information on how your particular makemodel provides proper support? |
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I believe the way they go about this a combination of different things. Comfortaire uses super dense base foam there for your midbody cant displace the air bladder as much. Also another difference between the Comfortaire vs Sleep Number is they bring the air bladders closer to the top of the mattress there for all the added weight from the foam doesn’t displace the air as much as a sleep number. Tthen on top of the airbladders there is the thick layer of 3" latex and then another thick layer of the bamboo material as the topper which conforms to your body which displaces the weight better there for not causing the hammock effect. Another thing that helps is because there is such a thick layer of latex and the thick layer of bamboo topper which are soft it allows you to have a much Firmer air bladder vs. the sleep number who use cheap foam so on the higher numbers the bed feels like a rock and at the lower numbers you get a hammock. This message was modified May 17, 2010 by dsf767
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| Do you know the ILD rating of the 3" latex layer? |
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I believe the ILD rating of the latex is arround 40 however don’t quote me on that. It feels nice and firm to me which is nice under the soft thick bamboo cover. The person I bought it from has the brochure on his website here: http://www.mattressalternative.com/comfortaire_ic_brouchure_finance This message was modified May 17, 2010 by dsf767
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| Sounds nice. Can you share the price you paid? |
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New here. Saw this thread on a comfortaire and had to comment. I had a comfortaire bed for about 1 1/2 years. Thankfully I just sold it (at a huge loss) because those were just about the worst months' sleep I've ever had. Granted it was not the new model mentioned in this thread. My model came with 3" of memory foam rather than latex, and a zip on pillow top which was the usual pillowtop (polyester, etc) not bamboo. BUT, I hate and cannot sleep on memory foam (way too hot) so I immediately removed that pad and replaced it with a 3" latex pad. The pillow top also had to go as I could not sleep on that (too bumpy, uncomfortable). But the worst problem I had with the airbed was just as Diane states--air displacement. Bottom line is the air bladders are just that--air bladders. There is nothing special about them per se. So when your heaviest body part (for women, usually the hip area) sinks in, the air displaces towards feet and shoulders. No matter what I did I could not make my arm comfortable (I am a side sleeper). Using that mattress for over a year has caused damage to my shoulder/arm/neck because I kept getting complete circulation cut off..of course waking me up, arm totally useless and numb and then painful as circulation returned. Or, if not complete cut-off, I'd get very painful pinched nerves in my arm and shoulder. I tried everything. Although latex doesn't make me quite as hot as memory foam, I still have a problem sleeping hot with it, so I was waking drenched in sweat, HOT, and w/ pinched nerves in my arm or numbness in my arm, everynight, over and over. I bought a $275 wool pad to put over the latex which stopped the sweating but not the shoulder problem or the hotness. I paid $1300 for the mattress/foundation so I was very determined to make it work but it just wasn't working. Sold it for $350 and bought a crappy Sleepy's $699 mattress set (Beautyrest...too hard). The good thing about the comfortaire, (only good thing in my experience) was I had NO back pain. But the shoulder pain was awful. So yes, air displacement is a serious problem with those airbeds. I do know they have a very high satisfaction rating so I really wanted it to work for me, but it did not. |
| Where did that other post from yesterday go? |
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budgy wrote: Where did that other post from yesterday go? Probably taken off for advertising. |
| should have left that one up...I thought it was funny. "Hey I sold you this, and I said it was great at the time...but a few months later it's no good anymore" |
| I'm curious. Who said it was good at the time but now I don't like it? The original poster? |