In case you might not already know, the leading company who produces visco-elastic foam mattresses is Tempur-Pedic®. They were the first to market NASA’s technology in the 1980s and have increased their market share steadily since. Over the last five years there has been an explosion in the bedding industry with many other mattress companies bringing their own visco-elastic foam mattresses to the market place.

However, it is unclear how many of these mattresses really offer a similar feel and quality that the Tempur-Pedic® brand image has been able to spring board off of. The feeling I am referring to, in case you have been living on Mars and haven't tried one out yet, is the sensation of your total body being supported as if the mattresses was being molded around you, only to have it slowly come back to shape after you roll over.

To be fair, not every person has felt that visco-elastic space age foam mattresses are the best choice, citing that they can often get too hot because of the lack of breathability that occurs with the very dense visco-elastic foam.

That is why we were excited to test out a new patent pending visco-elastic memory foam mattress called the Tempflow™, which claimed to offer a ventilation system to keep you cooler, while comparing in feel, support and comfort to the Tempur-Pedic® brand.

The Tempflow™ uses a patent pending technology that allows body heat to ventilate out the mattress, while cooler air can flow back into the mattress. See www.Tempflow.com for more information about how their technology works.

Upon inspection of the two mattresses, we noticed that the covers both seemed to be made of a stretchable, thinner velour material. After removing the covers of both mattresses, we found a thinner socking material that we were informed was used to make mattresses fire resistant. Each mattress had an approximate one inch top layer composed of a softer visco-elastic foam, followed up by what appeared to be three inches of a slightly firmer visco-elastic foam.

Tempflow™ (left) and Tempur-Pedic® DeluxeBed (right) both use socking material for fire resistance. the socking material is thin enough to allow the foam to conform around the body.

When I pushed on the surface foam for each mattress, I was able to feel air come out the sides of both mattresses at the convoluted side portions. However, with the patent pending ventilation technology of the Tempflow, I was able to also feel air come out the top through the many small holes in the visco-elastic foam on the surface, where as I could not feel any air come through the Tempur-Pedic visco-elastic foam surface. Then came the most important test of all, the direct comparison of lying on both mattresses and testing the pressure comfort, feeling of proper support, and temperature comfort.

With the socking removed, it was apparent that both the TempurPedic® DeluxeBed (left) and Tempflow™ (right) use four inches of top memory foam divided up into two layers and both have convoluted base foam underneath to increase airflow. However, the Tempflow™ has many small ventilation holes that go through the top layer surface down to the airflow convoluted air channel layer. See www.Tempflow.com for more information about how their technology works.

After going back and forth from one mattress to another several times, I have to admit that I did not discern much difference in the memory foam sensation and overall mattress feel between the two mattresses. I also had several staff members perform the same test.

The best that I, as well as the other Space Daily staff members could come up with, is that the Tempflow™ may start off feeling a bit softer initially, but both seemed to feel the same after lying on them for several minutes.

At that time I did not feel that I could make a decision about which one kept my body temperature cooler, as I knew that from my past experience that it may take several hours on a mattress to determine how hot it can get. So I did just that.

After splitting a night’s sleep on both mattresses, I was able to verify that the Tempflow™ did indeed keep my body cooler overall. It is also a consensus from the other Space Daily staff members who have since slept on the two mattresses, that Tempflow™ does indeed live up to its claim of being able keep the body cooler. Since the time of my first review for the Tempflow mattress, they have come out with three models and are now using what they call their Biogreen® visco-elastic foam.

One of their newest models called the Selene™ uses this new Biogreen foam and feels just a touch firmer that our last bed, but still very similar in feel to the DeluxeBed in our estimation. for a softer feel that compares with Tempur-Pedic's higher end mattresses like the RhapsodyBed and CelebrityBed, the Tempflow Eros model would be the one you would want to go with.

The Biogreen foam does offer a new bonus, as it has been independently tested and verified to not produce any V.O.C.s (Volatile Organic Compounds) that account for that initial smell that many people complain of when they first get their mattress. While both mattresses have been rated safe, allergy sufferers will be happy to know that the Biogreen visco-elastic foam is about as hypo-allergenic as you can get. Additionally, we can't help but be impressed by the fact that this lack of outgassing is an environmentally green way to go.

The Tempflow™ uses a patent pending technology that allows airflow to circulate through the foam via a patent pending ventilation system. New to the Tempflow model is their proprietary Biogreen® memory foam. See www.Tempflow.com for more information about how their technology works.

Both mattress companies show their confidence in the longevity of the mattresses by offering 30-year limited warranty for the Tempflow™ and a 20-year limited warranty for the Tempur-Pedic® mattress. Both companies offer a sleep trial to ensure that you are completely satisfied you’re your purchase, but the Tempflow™ offers a 120-day sleep trial, as compared to Tempur-Pedic®’s 90-day sleep trial.

Needless to say, my staff and I agree that this new patent pending technology that the Tempflow™ uses, really offers a way to get the feel and support of the leading brand and best selling Deluxe model from Tempur-Pedic®, but with a cooler airflow ventilation system.

Therefore, we unanimously decided to give the Tempflow™ visco-elastic foam mattress our Space Daily product innovation award for making excellent use of NASA’s space technology for home use and bringing to the market place a new, innovative technology that really works.

Tempflow is a trademark of Relief-Mart, Inc. Tempur-Pedic is a registered trademark of Dan-Foam A/S Corporation. We don't sell either the Tempur-Pedic or Temperflow brands. The information on this site with regard to Tempflow and Tempur-Pedic mattress brands is strictly for comparison purposes.

Related Links
Tempflow Innovation Award at SpaceDaily.com