Mattress Forum

What I have coming are four samples of Foamex memory foam:

Venus (8 lb)
Sensus (5 lb)
Energia Firm (4 lb)
Energia XFirm (5 lb)

It's not possible to tell if a memory foam is "comfortable" based on a sample, but there is much a sample can tell. It's pretty easy to tell good quality foam from poor quality foam, at last on a gross scale. I have one piece of foam that's quite "fragile" and is literally falling apart just sitting on my desk. It's possible to tell whether a memory foam is fast or slow, again on a gross scale. One of my samples is so slow that it would definitely result in a "sleeping in a pit" effect. Another recovers so quickly that I don't know how one can even rightly call it "memory" foam. It's possible to determine whether the foam is temperature sensitive, and whether it's sensitive to body temperature.

Something else samples tell you is how confident a company is in their product. I figure if they aren't willing to send out a sample, even when someone offers to BUY the sample, they must not have much confidence in their product. The fact that SleepWarehouse offers samples of everything they sell, I think speaks volumes.

1. I placed both the Sensus and Venus in the freezer for 30 minutes. Both were stiff, but neither was what I would call "frozen". Each was folded once and "scrunched". Both were still pliable when removed from the freezer, but my impression was that the Venus foam retained more of the thawed feel than the Sensus. Somewhat interesting is that it took longer to warm up. It still felt cold long after the Sensus had returned to room temperature. Perhaps this is nothing more than density related.
   
   
2. Venus is claimed to be more permeable than "traditional visco." My incredibly unscientific test was to put my mouth to each foam and blow. With the Sensus, I felt resistance, with the Venus, I felt very little. Despite the higher density, Venus "breathes" considerably better than Sensus. I do not have a microscope, but under a magnifying glass, it's obvious that the Venus has a VERY open cell structure, and the cells appear to be much larger than the Sensus. This surprises me. I would have expected smaller cells on the higher density foam.
   
   
3. "Hand print" recovery times for the two foams is essentially identical. Put a hand print in the samples and they recover at an equal rate. However, the Venus recovers more completely. The Sensus retains small impressions where the foam was compressed the most. It recovers, it just takes some seconds, whereas the Venus recovers completely without the telltale little craters. Despite all the squishing and freezing and crushing, the surface of the Sensus is still flawless - no signs of permanent damage.
   
   
4. "Foot Crush" recovery time: With my size 14 tennis shoes on, I stood on the sample of Sensus on one leg, all of my 240 pounds, for 1 minute. This is pretty extreme; It's hard to crush a piece of foam any more completely. It had mostly recovered in a minute, but it was about a minute and 40 seconds before I could no longer see any evidence of my footprint. The Venus mostly recovered from the crushing in 30 seconds, and within 40 seconds there wasn't even the telltale sign that it has been completely crushed. A funny little sound the Venus made when I raised my foot was the sound of pulling a foot out of the mud.
   
   
5. "Chamois Ringer" recovery times: This is starting to get abusive. :-) I folded the samples in half, rolled the folded foam them into a roll, crushed it with both hands, then twisted it like I was wringing the water out of a chamois. The Sensus had "mostly recovered" in about a minute and a half, but it was 3 minutes before it had recovered completely. The Venus looked good as new 60 seconds later.