Tempurpedic has a long standing reputation of offering premium mattresses (at premium prices of course) and for years has boasted about the 5.3lb “Tempur” material aka. memory foam. We were surprised to hear of Tempur-Pedic’s release of their TEMPUR-ES™ – a lower density (4lb) memory foam.Here at cloud 9, we’ve known for years that density is not a complete determining factor in the quality of memory foam, but TempurPedic has always seemed to talk down about any visco-elastic foam under a 5lb density. So why have they decided to release a 4lb memory foam in the CLOUD series beds?
There are two solid answers we can think of. First, it is a bit easier to create a softer feel with a lower density memory foam. Please don’t let us confuse you. memory foam has two numbers attached to it. First is the density – or the weight of a cubic foot of foam (usually 3-6lbs) The second measurement is IFD, or ILD. This is the compression rate of the foam, or how “soft” it is. The two numbers work independently of each other. For example, you could have a 8lb memory foam with an ILD of 7, and have it be softer than a 2lb memory foam with an ILD of 15.
The second reason we see for the release of the TEMPUR-ES™, is cost. Simply put, higher density foams cost more to produce. By using foam a pound lighter, you cut the manufacturing cost of the foam, leaving more room for profit.
Now, all of this said, we LOVE the cloud bed by Tempur-Pedic.It has a soft feel, good support, and is an overall appealing mattress for MOST people (the goldi-locks bed if you will) We just wonder what pushed TempurPedic into producing a bed made of the materials they have snubbed for so many years.