Amerisleep Americana Bed

The Firmest Model

 

The Americana Bed was the second firmest memory foam mattress by Amerisleep (8 on a scale of 10) until they discontinued the Columbus Bed (9). In 2017, Amerisleep revised its mattresses, with a change in the texture of the covers and new names. The names are AS1 through AS5 in order of firmness. AS1 (formerly Americana) is the firmest.

Construction

Americana is a two-layer mattress, with a 3” comfort layer over a 7” base layer. The company compares it to TEMPUR-Pedic’s TEMPUR-Contour Select.

Comfort Layer

The comfort layer is 4½-lb. memory foam. This is midway between the 4-lb. memory foam used in the top layers of models in  TEMPUR-Pedic’s TEMPUR-Cloud Collection and TEMPUR-Legacy, and in Selectabed’s Tri-Pedic Series on one hand, and the 5-lb foam in the top layers of the TEMPUR-Contour Collection. This gives the foam a quicker response than the heavier memory foam (Tempur Material), but slightly more conforming than the lighter memory foam.

Base (Support) Layer

The base layer is the typical memory foam mattress support core – high density polyurethane foam about twice the height of the comfort layer. In this case, it is more than twice the comfort layer in thickness making the mattress firmer overall than one in which the support core is a smaller proportion of the total height.

The polyurethane foam in the base layer of the Americana Bed is 1.65 lbs/ft³, making it lighter than the 1.8-lb. base layers of most memory foam mattresses, including the other Amerisleep models. While it slightly softens the firmness of the mattress, this is at the probable cost of durability, an issue pointed out by Sleep Like the Dead. A longer-lasting solution would have been to change the proportions of the two layers or to use lighter (4-lb.) memory foam with 1.8-lb. polyfoam. Whatever else may have changed in the transition from the Americana to the AS1, this model still has the 1.65-lb. base foam.

Cover

The cover of the Americana Bed is polyester infused with Celiant. The Amerisleep product description video mentions a bamboo blend, but this may have been in error, since no other description refers to bamboo rayon.

 

 

Celiant is an energy transitioning “thermoreactive” material. Heat it absorbs is emitted as infrared radiation. This sounds good, but with sheets and blankets plus the sleeper(s) over the mattress (including the cover), where can this radiated heat go?

Fire Resistance

Amerisleep, like several other mattress manufacturers, avoids the use of fire retardant chemicals. The method they have chosen to use is silica-infused rayon.

Foams

Amerisleep labels its memory foam as Bio-Pur and its polyfoam as Bio-Core. From some older reviews, it is evident that at one time Amerisleep “Natural Memory Foam” was the label for its comfort layer foam.

These foams, certified by CertiPUR-US, are made by FXI (formerly Foamex International) using its Variable Pressure Foaming (VPF) process. Amerisleep and FXI label this foam as “plant-based” using soy-derived polyols produced by the agribusiness giant Cargill. Exactly how much petroleum is replaced by soy polyols is not disclosed, but they leave the impression that by using VPF it is more than otherwise possible. However, their claim of better response and durability awaits third-party verification.

One verifiable advantage of VPF is enhanced open-cell foam structure to allow more airflow for moisture control and cooling. As good as this may be, it is still less airflow than through ventilated foam, a key component of the patented Airflow Transfer System, a standard feature of Tempflow and Snuggle-Pedic mattresses and an option for the Tri-Pedic Series.

 

Customer Ratings

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

On Amazon

At the time of this writing, it is hard to gauge customer ratings since the 2016 ratings on Amazon are available through a Google search for only two models (Revere and Liberty), and the Americana is only re-listed (by size) with two reviews for Twin and one for Twin XL plus an archived listing (King size) with 8 reviews (available via another review site). To date, there are no reviews yet for updated models, such as the AS1.  The average customer rating on Amazon for the Americana Bed is 4.7.

The archived Amazon listing for the Americana Bed plus the relisting total 11 customer reviews. None of these are verified customer reviews, essentially meaning that if these are real owners of the Americana Bed mattress, they did not purchase them on Amazon. The two reviews or the Twin XL are from 2015 and 2016. All the others are from mid-2014. Frankly, it appears that Amerisleep sells more from its own website than on Amazon.

On Yelp

The average rating for Amerisleep on Yelp is 3.5 stars with 39 reviews. On Yelp, none of the reviews named the Americana Bed. Some of the reviews focused on the mattresses, others on service. Overall, Amerisleep scores high for its customer service (so does Relief-Mart). The reviews were polarized on the mattresses themselves, with most at the extremes and few in the middle. Most of this turned out to be matters of personal fit. Amerisleep did post responses to several of the reviews.

On Sleep Like the Dead (SLTD)

SLTD does not evaluate the AS1/ Americana mattress individually, though it does delineate its composition and lists prices by size. Based on statements by owners of Amerisleep mattresses, it rates the company as C+ (50% or 2.5 of 5 Stars). However, the owner satisfaction rate is 78% (the same as 3.9 Stars).

On ViewPoints

The Amerisleep Americana mattress has only two reviews on ViewPoints, both 5 Stars. The reviews themselves did not appear, suggesting that they were kept private for some reason

On Amerisleep

We usually do not use the reviews on a manufacturer’s own website. However, considering the mixed nature of outside reviews, including the small sample sizes of some venues, we are using them for comparison. Amerisleep claims to use third-party filtering of submitted reviews to screen out spam and “reviews” by non-owners.

Of 511 customer reviews of the Americana Bed on the Amerisleep website, 393 rated this mattress with 5 stars, and 97 with 4 Stars, 15 with 3, and 3 each with 2 and 1, for an average rating of 4.71, essentially the same as the Amazon average of 4.73, but higher than the 8 reviews of the King size (4.63).

It is worth noting the observation of SLTD when giving Amerisleep a D+ for Integrity of customer reviews: “The credibility of customer reviews on Amerisleep’s website is somewhat undermined by the fact that highly critical reviews state that they would still ‘recommend the mattress to a friend.’” The company says, “97% of respondents would recommend this to a friend.” However, the 5-star reviews plus 4-star reviews add up to 5.89% of all reviews of AS1/Americana on Amerisleep.com. By contrast, the Snuggle-Pedic Mattress rates 4.82 on Amazon with 189 reviews (182 Verified Purchase).

Final Rating

The posted customer review ratings balanced by the “Sleep Like The Dead” owner satisfaction rate point to a 4.5 rating for the Americana Bed by Amerisleep.