Keetsa Eco-Friendly Mattresses

“Eco-Friendly” Mattresses

The Company

Keetsa, started in 2007, is a distributer/retailer of mattresses. Though listed and reviewed as a manufacturer, Keetsa designs its mattresses, but does not actually manufacture them. Zinus, with its huge manufacturing facility in Xiamen, China, makes the mattresses under contract for Keetsa. Zinus also uses some of the same components,

“Eco-Friendly”

Keetsa usually lists itself online as Keetsa Eco-Friendly Mattresses. However, the tagline has replaced 2017 by 10 Year Anniversary. They still bill their mattresses and other products as Eco-Friendly. This claim is based on their use of BioFoam (proprietary plant-oil memory foam), Evergreen tea leaf extract, natural fibers in their covers, and compressed packaging to save on transportation costs.

Product Lines

Keetsa mattresses include both pocket coil innerspring models and all-foam mattresses. Other Keetsa products include a mattress topper, a bed frame, a foundation, pillows, a pet bed, and a Giving Kandle. These are available for sale in their showrooms and on their website. One mattress model, the frame, the topper, and the pet bed are also available on Amazon.

    
The Keetsa Plus          *        Tea Leaf Supreme       *         Tea Leaf Dream

Mattresses

Keetsa has six mattress models in two lines:
The Keetsa Line – The Keetsa Plus®, The Keetsa Pillow Plus®, The Keetsa Cloud®
Tea Leaf Line – Tea Leaf Classic®, Tea Leaf Supreme®, Tea Leaf Dream®
In 2015 it had another model, The Keetsa Latex, which has since been discontinued.

Two models, The Keetsa Cloud® and Tea Leaf Supreme®, are all-foam mattresses with support cores of high-density polyurethane base foam. The rest are pocket coil innerspring mattresses

Materials

Notable materials used in Keetsa mattresses include cover fabrics, foams, and coils.

Cover Fabrics

Keetsa now focuses on two cover fabrics, organic cotton and organic hemp. Both are unbleached and undyed. The cotton is used on mattresses in the Keetsa Line, and a hemp-blend in covers in the Teal Leaf Line. In 2015, the Tea Leaf Dream® cover was a blend of organic cotton, organic hemp, and polyester. It seems this may be the same blend, just with a not-as-detailed description.

A second layer of organic cotton has been treated as a fire resistant barrier without PBDE or any other toxic chemicals. The fabrics, cotton and hemp, are tested by SGS and certified by OEKO-TEX as meeting the OEKO-TEX-100 standard.

Two years ago they also used wool batting in the quilting along with Fiber Fill. Now the descriptions and labeling do not mention wool, which does not necessarily mean it is no longer there, but they do say that the fiber filling is of recycled material. The Fiber Fill in the quilting of Keetsa mattresses serves as moisture control.

It appears that Keetsa may have revised its mattresses without changing the model names. If so, on the good side, this would provide continuity. On the other hand, some consumers may assume that since the name is the same, the new mattress is exactly like the older one. Many companies tweak the model name slightly so that they have the continuity, but with some distinction, which makes sense when selling through multiple retailers.

Foams

Keetsa uses several foams in their mattresses. Most are in comfort layers and transition layers. There is one model, Tea Leaf Dream®, a hybrid, which has 3” thick foam encasement of the iCoil innerspring. The foams used are BioFoam memory foam with Evergreen green tea extract, polyurethane foam, and a Pressure Relief Foam.  The 2015 version of Tea Leaf Dream® had a 3” layer of LatexSense Foam with Pressure Relief System in the same place as 3” Pressure Relief Foam in the current version.

The foams used by Keetsa are certified by CertiPUR-US as being free from toxic substances and low in VOCs. The BioFoam memory foam is infused with Evergreen tea leaf extract for odor control. Keetsa is also a member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council.

In BioFoam memory foam, 12% of the polyols from petroleum are replaced with polyols from castor bean oil. The advantage of using castor bean oil instead of soybean oil is that oil from castor beans does not need the same level of processing to produce polyols. As to the low percentage, Keetsa says that the performance and durability of the memory foam would not be the same with more 12% castor bean polyols. This is in line with Dr. Rick Swartzburg’s view that “usually 5-10 % soy can be added to memory foam” without compromising the feel and the durability.

A concern for many consumers is that the mattresses are made in China. This is a special concern when it comes to foam in general and memory foam in particular. The primary attraction is the lower cost, but with cheap foam the concern is quality. Zinus, the contract manufacturer, is based in California, USA, but has its own factory in China. They claim to manage quality control at the plant. For a Queen-size mattress, The Keetsa Cloud® is $1,048.95, and Tea Leaf Supreme® is $ 1,678.95, much higher than the average memory foam mattress with foam originating in Asia. Whether or not this reflects stricter quality control, we don’t know.

Coils

Keetsa’s pocket coil mattresses have 7½” iCoils for support. Zinus, on the other hand, has pocket coils of different heights – most are 7½”, while some are 6”, 7¼”, and 8½” high. An online search for “iCoils” shows them only in Keetsa mattresses and several brands of Zinus mattresses. The manufacturer of the iCoils is not named, but some major brands use Intellicoils made by Leggett & Platt. The iCoils, made in China, may be patterned and named to be like – but not identical to – “Intellicoil.”

Marketing

Keetsa mattresses are sold both online and in stores. The stores are Keetsa’s own four showrooms in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, California, and in New York City. Online, all of their products are available on their website. Only one mattress, The Keetsa Cloud®, is listed on Amazon, along with their memory foam topper, bed frame, foundation, and the Toby & Mack pet bed.

All mattresses are compressed, rolled, and packed into boxes. The boxes mean more mattresses can be carried on a truck for shipping to a showroom, saving costs and fuel. From there, buyers can put the mattresses into their cars and take them home. Being a boxed bed also means that a Keetsa mattress can be shipped by FedEx to a customer’s front door.

Except for the two least expensive models, Keetsa mattresses are mid-range in their pricing. This means that fewer customers can afford them. To make their mattresses more available, the company has adopted a Financing Program – “Keetsa has partnered with Affirm to provide interest-free financing on your order with no hidden fees.”

Sleep Trial & Warranty

Keetsa states their Return Policy this way: “We require you [to] allow a full 30 nights of use before contacting us for return issues, and you have up to a full 90 days return privilege from date of purchase.” This compares with the 90-night trial period for the Snuggle-Pedic mattress, but is not as long as 120 days for mattresses by Selectabed and Tempflow.

The warranty on Keetsa mattresses is for 12 years, a little longer than for most offerings in the current bed-in-a-box trend, but short of the 20 years for a Snuggle-Pedic Mattress.

Special Condition

Keetsa has a special condition on their warranty. The warranty is voided if the mattress is used on a Murphy bed or on an adjustable bed. Traditional box springs (with real springs) are out, too. It has to be on a solid flat or closely-slatted surface. They do sell the qualifying foundations and bed frames for this.

Customer Ratings

We calculate our ratings in accordance to our Verified Review Policy.

With only one model available on Amazon – The Keetsa Cloud®, which is not yet reviewed – the only published customer reviews are those on Keetsa’s website, which are unsurprisingly overwhelmingly positive (top-heavy with 5-star ratings), and on Yelp (San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, NYC). The aggregate average Yelp rating is 4.48 out of 5 stars (89.6%).

Independent reviewers are generally favorable, but not overly enthusiastic. In “Keetsa Tea Leaf Supreme Vs Tempur-Pedic Flex Supreme” – a review in the Gazette Review – Barry W. Stanton gave the overall edge to the Keetsa model. In actuality, the Tea Leaf Supreme is more like the TEMPUR-Cloud Supreme in construction, but firmer.

The only Keetsa mattresses considered on the review aggregate site Sleep Like the Dead (SLTD) are the two memory foam models (The Keetsa Cloud and Tea Leaf Supreme) as a group in “Memory Foam Mattress Brands: Ratings and Comparison”, which evaluated  memory foam mattress reviews and other evaluations and statements by owners through a variety of sources. Owner Satisfaction is 83%, tied with BedInABox, a mattress-in-a-box pioneer, for the top rating. However, the SLTD rating of the company is B- for Keetsa, putting them fifth behind BedInABox, Sleep Science, Novosbed, and Sleep Innovations.

Here are the first five companies in the STLD chart when sorted by Owner Satisfaction and STLD Rating of Company.*

*Some columns have been omitted to save space.