Kaiser Soze—October 24, 2021
Upon opening the package I was concerned about whether the foam would ever return to its correct shape without the stretch and compression marks caused by the packaging. Especially at one end, the 3" edge was squeezed into hard edge about 1" in thickness, with the foam curving in to meet this edge from both sides. I'm not sure whether this was due to the packaging or whether this was caused by the way the foam was cut. Typically foam is cut using some sort of thin saw, however the appearance of this edge caused me to wonder whether the foam is manufactured in a continuous roll that is much wider than 60", and that each time an 80" length comes out of some machine, a big smooth blade of some sort comes straight down and cuts through the foam, squeezing it before making the cut. I've no idea, but the appearance of the end suggested this to me. The volume of the box is slightly less than the volume of the foam, once the foam is expanded, or in comparison to the volume of 3 inch x 60 inch x 80 inch. Clearly, it is compressed very tightly to fit into the box. The ends at the head and foot were both folded to the middle, then where the two ends met at the middle there was third fold; the resulting dimension are 20 inch x 60 inch. The original width now being the length, this was rolled tightly and compressed, and held together by a strong plastic sleeve. Once unrolled and unfolded, the three parallel folds running across the 60 inch width left prominent ridges, especially the one in the middle. Evidence of these prominent ridges remained after I had left the pad flat on the bed for several hours. I flipped it over and slept on it that night, and did not notice the ridges. The next day I took it out from under the fitted sheet that I had placed over it, and flipped it over to see if the three ridges were still evident. I could still feel these ridges when I ran my hand over them, but they are of no concern whatsoever, since they cannot be felt when the pad is turned with that side down. The pinched end still bothered me. I flicked at the end with my fingers back and forth along that 60 inch edge, and it was immediately apparent that this was causing the pinched end to open up. Since it was working I kept it up for five or ten minutes and the end had expanded to nearly double what it was originally. I then left it alone and several hours later it had expanded on its own to nearly the 3" thickness, and since was only the edge, this was of no consequence whatsoever. As for odor, the included instructions said to unpack it and leave it outdoors in the sun for a day or two to allow the odor to escape. This would have been inconvenient for me, but it didn't matter, because with mine at least, there was no odor at all. I mean absolutely none. I held my nose right up next to it and breathed in deeply to see if I could detect any odor. I was not able to detect any odor at all. This pad is supposed to be "conventional foam", which is to say, polyurethane without any of the additives by which pure polyurethane foam is caused to take on the viscoelastic property that we identify as "memory foam". I doubt whether it is completely free of these additives, whatever they are. It does exhibit a slight amount of the memory foam characteristics, just enough to make you suspicious that it might have a slight amount of those additives. The cell structure is very fine, like memory foam, and it seems to be a bit heavier (more dense) that conventional foam. The fact that it was possible to compress it to 1/3 of its original volume also is suggestive of memory foam, which is often shipped the way that this pad was shipped, under compression. It seems to have a little more elasticity than conventional foam, along with the viscous property, if you pay attention. Whereas with memory foam you sink in and form a depression and this continues for nearly and hour until the foam is literally paper thin under your hips and shoulders and you are in a depression that you have to struggle to climb out of, with this pad the sinking is mostly over in less than half a minute, longer than with conventional foam but not a lot longer, and it never becomes paper thin, and it is easy to climb out of the depression because the foam to either side of the depression compresses almost instantaneously, whereas with memory foam you have to roll yourself out of the depression before the foam to the side of the depression will even begin to compress. I'm only guessing that it has some of the memory foam additives in it. If so, it is just enough to give the foam greater elasticity so that it does a better job of conforming to your shape, compared to conventional foam. I do not like memory foam, because of the stuck-in-my-own-depression effect, and the effect where you end up on something no thicker than a sheet of paper, and also the sweat and trapped heat effect, which is due to the fact that memory foam only barely breathes. If in fact this pad has some of the memory foam additives, as I suspect, it is just enough to make it superior to conventional foam, and not nearly enough to yield the undesirable characteristics that I associate with memory foam. So what's not to like? The only thing I've found is that it is wider than it should be, by nearly an inch, and that's if you want the pad to be fully as wide as the mattress. I prefer for the pad to be shy of the mattress edge by about half an inch all around, so for me, the ideal width is about 59", and this pad is nearly 61". For some people this will be a deal-breaker. I wasn't especially happy about this, so today I visited a couple of places that sell foam. One of them only had a bunch of deteriorating, yellow foam. The other place was a nicer "mill goods" store where they had a decent variety of cut foam on large shelves in one corner. They had two pieces of convention foam 60 inches x 80 inches, both of the 2 inches thick, not 3 inches like the product under review. They want $120 for each piece. I recall that back maybe five years ago, I saw a stack of raw polyurethane foam at an Ollie's that wandered into out of curiosity. That particular store is no longer convenient for me, and that was at least five years ago, maybe longer. I already wasted most of half on one Saturday afternoon on this quest, and probably more than a gallon of gasoline. It just doesn't make economic sense to go exploring locally. If you happen to already know a place that you know is going to have exactly what you want at a price comparable to what a thing costs you on Amazon, then it makes sense. For something like this however, it doesn't make economic sense, for most people, to go looking around locally for a better value. And given the cost of this piece of foam, you're not likely to find a better price for similar quality, unless maybe you live close to an Ollie's and they have the right foam in the right size, in which case you got lucky. The point is that this foam pad is a tremendous value, delivered to your door with no hassle. As for trimming the foam down to the desired width, I expect I'll do this sometime in the next week or two. I've already watched a couple of YouTube videos that show how to use an electric kitchen knife to cut foam. You have to draw a line first, nice and straight, first measuring from the factory-cut edge and making a few tick marks, then after you've made certain that the tick marks are all correct, you use a straight edge and draw the straight line through the tick marks. When you draw the line, you want to be careful not to snag the foam with the ink pen or marker, because if you snag it you'll end up with a bunch of little tears that, after you finish the cut, will become jagged slits right at the fresh corner. You don't want that. Best to use a good ball point, better yet one of those gel pens with the big roller balls, and take your time making the mark. So yeah, I'm going to have to spend about $17 on an electric kitchen knife, probably the B&D one with the 9" blade, but I'll likely order it from Amazon and it will come quick and the shipping will be free (its free if you are a Prime member or if you add something else to the order to make it $24 or $25 or whatever it is). Bottom line, it's not perfect, but the only real hassle is the width, which is easily fixed, and other than that it is excellent, and a tremendous value to boot. So I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who can deal with the excess width. If that extra width is something that you think you don't want to mess width, then you'll find an alternative pad, but you'll probably have to pay a lot more for it. Read more
