TEMPUR-Contour Select: The Mattress
The TEMPUR-Contour Select, introduced in 2011 by TEMPUR-Pedic, was for a time the firmest model in the TEMPUR-Contour Collection. It is no longer listed on the company’s website, but is still available on Amazon, where it has only one review. However, it has 133 reviews on ViewPoints and 18 ratings plus one review on GoodBed. It also has a staff review, but no customer reviews, on Beds.org. Amerisleep considered its Americana Bed, introduced the same year, as the equivalent of the TEMPUR-Contour Select, even though the Select has three layers and the Americana only two.
Construction
The TEMPUR-Contour Select is a 10” high three-layer memory foam mattress, the entry level model in the TEMPUR-Contour Collection. It features TEMPUR-Pedic’s 5-lb. TEMPUR Material in the 1.2” top Comfort Layer and the 2.8” middle Support Layer. The 6” Base Layer is high-density polyurethane foam.
The cover is a stretchable knit with more than one kind of fiber. The exact composition is not disclosed online, but the stretchability is a feature introduced by TEMPUR-Pedic to follow the memory foam’s conformity to the sleeper’s body without bridging or bunching.
Cooling
GoodBed has mattress owners rating their mattresses on several points. One is “Stays Cool.” The average rating on this issue for the TEMPUR-Contour Select was 3.11 out of 5 stars. On ViewPoints, the Pros named by reviewers do not include “staying cool” or its equivalent, but some of the negative reviews said the Contour Select was too hot. Part of the problem is the 5-lb. memory foam, which does accumulate more heat than the lighter 4-lb. foam in the top layer of the TEMPUR-Cloud mattresses.
The material in the base is tagged as the TEMPUR Airflow Material, and the Base as the TEMPUR Airflow System. In the cutaway diagram of this mattress, there is no indication of scoring, channeling, convoluted surface, or perforation for airflow enhancement, leading us to believe that they are depending on the foam’s open-cell structure to let air flow through the mattress. Also, neither the illustration nor the descriptions indicate ventilation of foam in the upper layers.
There are other brands of mattresses with more positive approaches to letting flowing air cool the mattress and keep it fresh and dry. Perforated (ventilated) foam is frequently employed for vertical airflow, then convoluted, scored, or cross-ventilated foam to carry the air to the side of the mattress to be exchanged with outside air. TEMPUR-Pedic’s silver anniversary model, TEMPUR-Legacy, uses convoluted foam in the base.
Another brand, TempFlow, uses the patented Airflow Transfer System, which uses vertical ventilation in the upper layers and a channeled surface on the base layer partnered with a vented Kool-Flow cover fabric. This video shows how much more efficient it is.
Customer Ratings
Ratings for the TEMPUR-Contour Select from different sites are mixed in the number of reviews and their scores. We calculate our ratings in accordance to our Verified Review Policy.
Amazon
On Amazon, the Contour Select was re-posted when discontinued, hiding the previous reviews. The one reviewer gave the mattress 5 stars after having it only one month, saying it was better than the Serta pillowtop it replaced. Besides being only a sample of 1, a single month is not long enough for a fair evaluation of a mattress.
GoodBed
GoodBed does not sell mattresses. Owners of mattresses can post ratings without writing reviews. For the TEMPUR-Contour Select, this means 18 ratings but only one review. However, the ratings are more than just the overall opinion of the owner, but include several issues: Back Support, Pressure Relief, Sleep Quality, Stays “Cool”, and Softness Level (feel). The issue with the highest average score (3.29) was for Stays “Cool”, and the lowest (2.83) was for Sleep Quality. 67% of the owners would recommend this mattress.
The site also collects the length of time owned as well as the gender, weight and age of the reviewer, along with sleeping position, preferred feel, and physical issues (such as neck and/or back pain, acid reflux, hip and or leg pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, sleep apnea, overheating, allergies, etc.
What is interesting is that the average owner rating for all issues, 2.97, is higher than the average overall rating of 2.78, which is lower than the lowest average rating of one issue, 2.83. This indicates either that there were other issues affecting an owner’s rating of a mattress, or one issue stood out more than the others for an owner.
ViewPoints
The site with the largest sample of reviews and ratings is ViewPoints with 133. Many of the reviews are fairly long, but several are short. Besides a review and a star rating, members could also check the pros and cons of the products they review.
On ViewPoints, 98% of the reviewers would recommend the TEMPUR-Contour Select to others. With almost 74% giving this mattress 5 stars, and almost 19% awarding 4, the average rating is 4.6. Only a handful listed pros, and one of these also listed cons. Of the pros, six said it is comfortable, and six said it has a soft feel. Five said it holds shape, four said it has good support, and three that it is durable. As to cons, one person said the TEMPUR-Contour Select is too soft and develops cavity. The reviews themselves bear out this distribution of pros and cons, showing that they are representative of all the reviews.
Beds.org
Only two owners of TEMPUR-Contour Select mattresses posted their reviews on Beds.Org. One rated it 3 Stars, and the other 1 Star. The first owner evidently found this mattress either too firm or too conforming. The second owner said it sagged after only three years. Their average rating was 2.0. However, only two ratings is not a very representative sample.
Final Rating
The rating of the TEMPUR-Contour Select mattress is 4.6.
Appendix
GoodBed Reviews
TEMPUR-Contour Select on GoodBed | ||||
Number of Stars | % of Reviewers | Number of Ratings | Total Star Points | |
5 | 5.56% | 1 | 5 | |
4 | 16.67% | 3 | 12 | |
| 3 | 44.44% | 8 | 24 | |
| 2 | 16.67% | 3 | 6 | |
| 1 | 16.67% | 3 | 3 | |
Average Rating / Totals | 2.78 | 1 | 18 | 50 |
Ratings by Sleep Issues
Number of Stars | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Total Stars | Number of responses | Average # Stars |
Back Support | 2 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 53 | 18 | 2.94 |
Pressure Relief | 4 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 54 | 18 | 3.00 |
Sleep Quality | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 51 | 18 | 2.83 |
Stays Cool | 4 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 56 | 17 | 3.29 |
ViewPoints Reviews
| TEMPUR-Contour Select on ViewPoints | ||||
| 98% recommendation | ||||
| Number of Stars | % of Reviewers | Number of Ratings | Total Star Points | |
| 5 | 73.68% | 98 | 490 | |
| 4 | 18.80% | 25 | 100 | |
| 3 | 5.26% | 7 | 21 | |
| 2 | 1.50% | 2 | 4 | |
| 1 | 0.75% | 1 | 1 | |
| Average Rating/Totals | 4.63 | 100% | 133 | 616 |
Beds.org Reviews
|
| TEMPUR-Contour Select on Beds.org | |||
Number of Stars | % of Reviewers | Number of Ratings | Total Star Points | |
5 | 0.00% | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | 0.00% | 0 | 0 | |
3 | 50.00% | 1 | 3 | |
2 | 0.00% | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 50.00% | 1 | 1 | |
Average Rating / Totals | 2.0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
TEMPUR-Contour Select
$1,427.00 - $2,386.83
Pros
- Comfortable
- Soft feel
- Holds shape
- Good support
- Durable
Cons
- Develops Cavity
- Too Soft
