CRāVE Mattress Review: Deja Vu
I heard the rave about the CRāVE Mattress, and thought to myself, “That name sounds familiar.” When I Googled the name, page 1 of the search results had a review of the CRāVE Collection from 2½ years ago. The family who owned Carolina Mattress Guild, the company that made that collection, are the ones behind this mattress. So when they say they have experience designing and making mattresses, you’d better believe it.
Online Sales
CRāVE Mattress (a.k.a. CRāVE Sleep), unlike its predecessor, is an online-only mattress company. Their products are available only through the Internet. Besides on the CM site, their mattresses are also listed on Amazon. The prices are more than competitive with the online competition, even though they are sourced and made in the USA.
Unlike many of the startups from the last three years, CM has not one or two models, but four – two hybrids and two all-foam mattresses. There are three firmness levels – Ultra Firm, Luxury Firm (2 models), and Medium Firm. This meets the needs of more consumers than the more limited offerings.
The Models
The CRāVE Mattress models are Luxury Firm Hybrid Innerspring Mattress (from $550.00), Ultra Plush Hybrid Innerspring Mattress (from $600.00), Medium Firm Foam Mattress (from $350.00), and Luxury Firm Foam Mattress (from $450.00). The innerspring models have support cores of pocket coils, while the other two have high density polyurethane base foam. They all have fully zippered covers of a polyester-nylon blend, which can be removed and cleaned.
Ultra Plush Hybrid Innerspring Mattress
At 12” this is the highest CRāVE Mattress model. It is also the softest. This is the one sent out for most of the independent reviewers (such as Sleep Sherpa). At $600 for Twin size ($1,025.00 Queen), it is also the most expensive. Being the plushest, it is especially suitable for side sleepers, who need a deeper response for shoulders and hips than back sleepers do.
The Ultra Plush is a double hybrid: foam-spring and latex-memory foam. The comfort layers include 1½” each of latex and memory foam over the 8” pocket coils. The height is completed by a 1” base pad of high density polyurethane foam.
Pocket coils have independent response, which relieves pressure by conforming the coil array to the contours of the sleeper’s body. Another benefit is that, unlike Bonnell coils and continuous coils, they do not transfer motion from one side of the bed to the other. One reviewer, Alicia Lawrence of Do It Yourself Home & Health, made extra special mention of the CRāVE Mattress’s motion isolation. Being springs, they do continue to exert upward pressure, a basic difference between coils and memory foam. They are also ideal for the compression and rolling of a mattress for shipping, because they are not tied to each other.
The latex foam provides a resilient surface feel. It is zoned for more support where needed and convoluted for airflow. The memory foam in the second layer continues the conformity. Other mattresses – for example, Casper and the Fibro-Pedic – combine the resilience of latex with the pressure relief of memory foam. One reason latex is put over the memory foam in this mattress is that memory foam tends to accumulate heat (more so for denser foam). On the other hand, latex is breathable (especially when ventilated).
Another reason is memory foam’s memory, meaning that it keeps the impression of the sleeper’s body for a while. A drawback of this is that it takes longer for the memory foam to yield when the sleeper gets into bed (it has to first warm up) than it does for other foams. A related issue is that it takes longer to adjust to a sleeper’s change of position, which makes it harder to move or get out of bed. Having latex on top lets the mattress have memory foam’s conformability while having quicker response – both yielding and rebound – on top so the sleeper can sink in sooner and move more easily, while still benefiting from memory foam’s conformability and pressure relief.
Luxury Firm Hybrid Innerspring Mattress
This is, at 10” high, the second highest CRāVE Mattress (along with the Luxury Firm Foam). It is naturally firmer than the Ultra Plush Hybrid, since it has shorter, firmer coils and firmer foam.
The support base of the Luxury Firm Hybrid is 6” high firm pocket coils on a 1” polyfoam base pad. The gauges of these coils and those in the Ultra Plush Hybrid are not stated, and neither are the coil counts. What makes the coils in this model “firm” could be a thicker gauge, a tighter pitch, a denser coil count, or a combination from among these.
Atop the coils is a 1½” layer of high-density polyurethane support foam topped with 1½” layer of memory foam. The middle layer acts as a transition layer between the memory foam and the firm coils
Luxury Firm Foam Mattress
A proper description for the Luxury Firm Foam Mattress would be “hybrid foam mattress,” since it has equal amounts of latex and memory foam. The primary difference in construction between this model and the Ultra Plush Hybrid is the support core. Instead of the 8” pocket coils, it has a 7” support base of high-density polyurethane foam.
As in the Ultra, the 1½” of latex at the top has an “egg crate” (convoluted) upper surface for air flow and conformity. The second layer is also 1½” high, as in the Ultra, and is memory foam.
Medium Firm Foam Mattress
The Medium Firm Foam Mattress is the lowest (9”) and least expensive current CRāVE Mattress model. It only has two layers. This is not a memory foam mattress – the 2½” top layer is medium firm polyurethane foam. The 6½” support core is firm HD polyurethane base foam.
Materials
CRāVE Mattress claims that its materials are environmentally friendly. All their materials and components are sourced within 200 miles of High Point, North Carolina, and the mattresses are made in the High Point area.
Certified
All foams used in the CRāVE mattresses are certified by CertiPUR-US as free from heavy metals and other toxic substances. Textiles in the covers are certified by Oeko-Tex.
Plant-oils
According to CRāVE Mattress, 30% of the petroleum in making their foams has been replaced by polyols derived from plant oils. This is a 3x improvement over the 10% limit of five years ago, showing the progress being made in polyurethane foam technology.
Memory Foam
The memory foam used in CRāVE Mattress products is the open-cell configuration. Air flow for cooling is cited, but this is not as effective as ventilation (as in the Airflow Transfer System). However, foam manufacturer FXI claims to achieve more open foam with its Variable Pressure Foaming process.
Latex
CRāVE Mattress does not name the kind of latex used in their mattresses as to either its composition (natural, synthetic, or blended) or the process (Dunlop or Talalay). They do say that the latex is zoned, with more support (firmer) in the middle.
Foundations
CRāVE Mattress makes and sells its own foundation. It is packaged and shipped in kit form so that. Like the mattress itself, it can be shipped by package carriers and carried through the house – including stairs, hallways, and narrow doors – to the place it will be set up. They also sell a rolling steel frame for the foundation.
Edge Support
In the hybrid mattresses (Ultra Plush Hybrid and Luxury Firm Hybrid), nested coils provide perimeter support. Most pocket coil innersprings are in a rectangular grid pattern. Nested coils are in a hexagonal grid.
Warranty and Trial Period
All the mattresses by CRāVE Mattress are covered by a 10-year warranty. The sleep trial is for 100 days. They say this is because it takes time to really know a mattresses – it adjusts to you as you adjust to it.
