Which Is The Best Tempur Mattress? + UK Discounts 2024

Tempur Sensation mattress
Tempur mattresses are amongst the most expensive on the UK market

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Tempur is one of the most famous (and most expensive) mattress companies in the UK market. There are five main models but which is the best Tempur mattress? And are they worth the money?

In this fascinating guide, we compare the different Tempur models and consider the pros and cons of buying a Tempur mattress.

We also look at customer reviews and awards for Tempur as well as suggesting where you can buy Tempur mattresses for the best price.

Strap yourself in, this is going to be an exciting ride full of thrills, action and adventure. Well, that might be an exaggeration but it will hopefully be kind of useful if you’re considering buying a Tempur mattress.


Which is the best Tempur mattress?

There are five main Tempur mattresses:

Tempur Cloud is the softest Tempur mattress, made entirely from different types of foam.

The Tempur Original is a medium firmness Tempur mattress which is also made entirely from different types of foam. As you may gather from the name, this is the ‘standard’ Tempur mattress which uses the original technology designed for astronauts.

Tempur Hybrid is another medium firmness Tempur mattress, but it uses a combination of springs and foam.

Tempur Sensation is a firm Tempur mattress, which uses different types of foam.

ONE by Tempur is a cheaper model which still uses Tempur materials. It only comes in three sizes, whereas the more expensive Tempur models come in a bigger range. One big plus point is that you can choose from soft, medium or firm versions.

It isn’t as simple as saying that one Tempur mattress is the ‘best’ for everyone, but there are some general rules which might be helpful.

You need a Tempur mattress which is the right firmness for you

Generally speaking, heavier people need firmer mattresses. The idea is that a mattress should give you adequate support so that you sink in just the right amount to keep your spine aligned when you lie on your side.

Another factor is which position you usually sleep in. People who sleep on their sides need slightly softer mattresses than people who sleep on their backs. It’s important that you don’t end up with too much pressure on your shoulders and hips.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an industry-wide agreement on what ‘soft’ or ‘medium’ actually means. You can’t say – for example – an average weight man should definitely choose a medium firmness mattress. Your best bet is either to try out a few Tempur mattresses in a showroom or take advantage of the 100 night trial and contact Tempur if it isn’t right for you. Check the terms and conditions of the Tempur trial period first.

Tempur cloud mattress
Tempur cloud is softer than other Tempur models

The best Tempur mattress will cost you more

Once you’ve picked from the four Tempur mattresses, your next choice is how thick you want the mattress to be. The cheapest option is 21cm (Supreme), with a 25cm (Elite) and 30cm (Luxe) upgrade options. As a general rule, heavier people benefit more from thicker mattresses but the price does jump up quite a bit. Your budget may make the decision for you.

​One cheaper alternative is just to buy a Tempur mattress topper, which sits on top of your existing mattress. The idea is that you get the unique Tempur formula without having to spend quite so much. At the time of writing, a double mattress topper from Tempur costs £995​.


Pros and cons of Tempur mattresses

Pros:

  • The original and most prestigious memory foam type brand with an appealing history
  • Great choice of firmness levels, mattress size and depth
  • Longer established than other memory foam brands, most of whom started trading in the last decade
  • ​Trial periods available, good length warranty

Cons:

  • Three or four times as expensive as rivals
  • ​Shorter trial period than some rivals (e.g. Nectar SleepEmma Mattress, Simba Sleep)
  • Lower TrustPilot rating than most other foam mattress brands

Which is the best Tempur mattress according to customers?

Various sites have customer review scores for the five main Tempur mattresses:

  • Tempur Cloud (soft, foam) – 4.8/5 on Tempur.com, 4.5/5 on JohnLewis.com, 4.7/5 on Dreams
  • The Tempur Original (medium, foam) – 4.6/5 on Tempur.com, 4.8/5 on JohnLewis.com, 4.7/5 on Dreams
  • Tempur Hybrid (medium, springs and foam) – 4.4/5 on Tempur.com, 4.7/5 on JohnLewis.com, 4.7/5 on Dreams
  • Tempur Sensation (firm, foam) – 4.6/5 on Tempur.com, 4.8/5 on JohnLewis.com, 4.8/5 on Dreams
  • One by Tempur (soft, medium or firm, foam) – 4.8/5 on Tempur.com, 4.7 on Dreams. Not available at JohnLewis.com


(Review scores are correct as of 2023. The number of reviews ranged massively from only a couple on some John Lewis & Partners listings through to several hundred on some Dreams listings. We looked at the score for the mid-priced ‘elite’ model which tends to have the most reviews)

Tempur sensation mattress side view
The Tempur Sensation gets very good reviews across different sites

How do Tempur brand scores compare to rivals?

Meanwhile, TrustPilot scores are also available and give the score for a brand as a whole. Tempur scores 3.8/5 at the time of writing. With a company like Tempur, reviews cover everything including their pillows, sheets, toppers and bedframes. It also includes things like the ordering process, website usability, delivery times and so on. So, a lot of the reviews aren’t actually about a specific mattress.

We looked at the ‘TrustScore’ for various mattress companies operating in the UK in 2023 and compiled this list:

  1. Ergoflex – 4.8/5 (bed in a box memory foam mattress)​
  2. Dunlopillo – 4.7/5 (luxury latex mattress)
  3. OTTY – 4.5/5 (bed in a box mattress) 
  4. Simba Sleep – 4.5/5 (bed in a box mattress)
  5. Happy Beds – 4.4/5 (mostly pocket sprung mattresses at the budget end of the market)
  6. Silentnight 4.3/5 (big brand selling pocket sprung, memory foam and bed in a box mattresses)​
  7. Sleepeezee – 4.3/5 (mid-priced, mostly pocket sprung mattresses, royal approval)
  8. DreamCloud – 4.2/5 (luxury spring and foam mattress)
  9. Nectar Sleep – 4.2/5 (bed in a box mattress)
  10. Hypnos Beds – 4.1/5 (posh pocket sprung mattresses, royal approval)
  11. REM Fit – 4.1/5 (bed in a box hybrid mattresses)
  12. Dormeo – 4.0/5 (memory foam specialists)
  13. Harrison Spinks (manufacturers of the John Lewis & Partners Natural Collection, Somnus and Herdy Sleep) – 4.0/5
  14. Emma Mattress – 3.9/5 (bed in a box mattress)
  15. Eve Sleep – 3.9/5 (bed in a box mattress)
  16. Vispring – 3.9/5 (posh pocket sprung mattresses)
  17. Mammoth – 3.8/5 (foam mattresses, aimed at ‘elite sport and healthcare’ market)
  18. Tempur – 3.8/5​ (the original memory-foam mattress company)
  19. Sealy – 3.1/5 (‘world’s biggest mattress brand’, pocket sprung and memory foam mattresses)

Where two brands had the same score, we put them in alphabetical order. We couldn’t find several luxury mattress brands on TrustPilot and there is inevitably some variation in how many reviews each company had.

What do customers say about Tempur mattresses?

To give you a flavour of the reviews, we like to include one positive and one negative review – although of course, this is just a small selection and you should have a good read for yourself.

​We always like to include a review which a) is about the mattress rather than a comment about how friendly the delivery driver was etc. and b) which has been made by someone who has had the mattress for several months or ideally more than a year. We also like to include the response from the mattress company if they have commented on the negative review.

Positive Tempur review from Trustpilot

An example of one of the many positive reviews for Tempur on TrustPilot
Negative Tempur review from TrustPilot

One of the ‘one star’ reviews for Tempur on TrustPilot, along with the response from Tempur

What type of mattresses do Tempur make?

The short answer to this question is that Tempur make memory foam mattresses.

However, it’s a little bit more complicated as Tempur themselves say that their mattresses are ‘not just memory foam’. I will avoid a dull history lesson, but the gist of it is that the Tempur material was developed by NASA to keep astronauts comfy and Tempur developed it into a material for mattresses.

I guess a similar comparison is with Coca-Cola. It costs a lot more than a supermarket cola, but it’s got the pedigree of being the first in the market and has its own unique flavour. 

For the uninitiated, foam or memory foam is an alternative to using springs on a mattress. Springs are what most of us are used to on a mattress but a cheap sprung mattress can get a bit lumpy as the springs wear out. 

The good and the bad of memory foam

Memory foam bounces back slower than other types of foam meaning that you get a bit of a sinking feeling. However, some experts recommend the consistent support that memory foam offers. For example, in their sleeping guide, the charity Versus Arthritis says that ‘many people find memory foam mattresses or toppers helpful’. 

There are pros and cons to memory foam mattresses. For example, Lanoë, Simões et al compared foam mattresses with pocket mattresses in a study called ‘Improving the environmental performance of bedding products by using life cycle assessment at the design stage’ (2013). Their conclusion was that a foam mattress ‘has a higher environmental impact’ than a more traditional pocket sprung mattress most notably due to the manufacturing process. They propose ‘reutilization of foam’ and ‘a 20% weight reduction of the polyurethane foam’ to reduce the environmental impact.

I should make clear that this study looked at foam mattresses in general rather than at Tempur specifically. You can read about Tempur’s ‘goals of sustainability’ on their website

If you’re looking for ways to fill your day, you can read our comparison of memory foam v pocket springs.

Adjustable options from Tempur

One other thing worth mentioning is that Tempur is a popular choice at the luxury end of the adjustable bed market. Pocket sprung beds don’t take kindly to being bent and stretched regularly but some foam mattresses are much better for this. Tempur make a range of posh adjustable beds where you can move one side up and down whilst the other stays flat.

Their top of the range adjustable beds come with things like massagers, but you can end up spending thousands of pounds once you’ve bought an adjustable base and a new Tempur mattress.​

You may have also seen the brand ‘Tempurpedic’ and may be wondering if Tempurpedic and Tempur are the same. As far as I can tell, Tempurpedic mattresses are sold in the USA whilst Tempur mattresses are sold in the UK. Please get in touch if I’ve got that wrong…

Tempur original mattress with zips
Tempur mattresses are memory foam…although it’s not quite as simple as that

Which awards have Tempur mattresses won?

Tempur’s pedigree and history is impressive in the memory foam mattress market. 

According to the official website, Tempur is the ‘only mattress…recognised by NASA and certified by The Space Foundation’.  The company ‘was presented with an award by NASA in May 1998’ after its work turning space technology into mattresses for non-astronauts.

The Tempur Hybrid won an award from expert testers in 2018. They tested the 21cm ‘Supreme’ version which is the cheapest option.

This is also a good moment to mention research which has been carried out into Tempur mattresses. Back in 2000, a paper was published called ‘The effect of position and mattress on interface pressure‘ (Defloor). It mostly looked at what position patients in a nursing setting should sleep but it also concluded that ‘A Tempur polyethylene-urethane mattress reduces interface pressures by 20 to 30’. In simple terms, that means that it spreads your weight out well. 


What guarantee and home trial period does Tempur offer?

Tempur offers a 100 night trial period, so that if you don’t like it you can send it back. There are some important terms and conditions that you need to agree to beforehand but the idea is that you get a proper chance to test out a mattress rather than just trying it for a few seconds in a showroom.

Tempur’s trial period is better than some mattress manufacturers, as they will potentially ‘reimburse your purchase price, less any uplift charges’. Some companies will only swap your mattress for another one that they sell, which limits your options somewhat.

Rather importantly, the terms and conditions also say that you need to ‘buy a TEMPUR mattress from us via this website’. According to this article, Tempur’s 100 night trial is available at ‘selected’ other sellers. However, I would strongly recommend confirming this with the shop as that article is quite old and things do change from time to time.

How common are trial periods with mattresses?

As a general rule you will find that quite a few memory foam mattresses now come with a trial period, whereas very few pocket sprung mattresses offer a home trial. If you’re shopping online, I would highly recommend either trying a mattress out in a store or getting one with a trial period. As I said earlier, there’s inconsistency between brands about what they mean when they say that a mattress is ‘soft’ ‘medium’ or ‘firm’ so it is useful to have the chance to change your mind.

Of course, the trial period is completely separate to the guarantee that comes with a Tempur mattress. The Tempur guarantee on a mattress is 10 years, but again there are some terms and conditions which you can enjoy as a little bedtime reading.


Where can I buy Tempur mattresses?

Tempur mattresses are much more widely available than some of the relatively new mattress brands which just sell direct and don’t have showrooms. You’ll find that prices vary a bit, so I would do a bit of shopping around online.

Buying from Tempur direct is an option but you can also buy them from big names like John Lewis & Partners, Dreams and Furniture Village. 

Just for my own curiosity, I checked the online price of a 25cm deep (‘Elite’) Tempur Original king size mattress in 2023 and found that the price was:

The Tempur.com mattress came with a ‘bonus TEMPUR-FIT’ mattress protector whilst the Furniture Village mattress came with free pillows. Also, there is some ambiguity about whether the 100-night Tempur trial is offered if you choose a third-party retailer instead of Tempur direct, so I would suggest checking with the retailer first unless you are pretty confident you won’t want to send it back.

Also keep in mind that I just checked on one day, so the prices will be different when you check.


What are the alternatives to a Tempur Mattress?

You can look at Tempur alternatives in two ways.

Either, you pick another memory foam mattress which gets good reviews and offers a trial period or you pick a similarly priced mattress which uses completely different materials. Generally speaking, Tempur memory foam mattresses are two or three times more expensive than other foam mattresses.

If you want a highly rated mattress which uses memory foam, then you could consider:

The Nectar Sleep Mattress

The Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress (£1199 for a double size) will cost you about a quarter of the price you’ll pay for a Tempur mattress. The company only makes one model, which is medium/firm so you don’t get the same choice of four firmness levels that you are offered with Tempur. However, it is 25cm deep which puts it on a par with Tempur’s mid-priced Elite range.

Besides the overall depth, a key thing to look for when comparing foam mattresses is the depth of the top layer of memory foam. The Nectar has a 3cm layer. It’s a little difficult to compare alongside the Tempur Elite range, as their mattresses have a 3cm ‘comfort’ layer and a 9cm ‘support’ layer. Tempur also consider their product to be different to ‘standard memory foam’, so it isn’t quite as simple as saying that the Tempur mattress has a 12cm layer of memory foam compared to 3cm on the Nectar Sleep mattress. However, the Nectar Sleep certainly compares well to a budget memory foam mattress.

Two areas where the Nectar Sleep betters Tempur

Other factors that work in the favour of the Nectar Sleep Foam mattress are that it offers a whole year to try it out, compared to 100 nights with the Tempur mattress. It is certainly true that most people will have a good idea of whether they are sleeping well on a mattress within a few weeks. You could claim that the Nectar Sleep long trial period is a bit of a gimmick to stand out in a crowded market. However, studies have shown that foam ‘stiffness’ varies according to room temperature (Saunders et al, 1958) and so there is an argument that it’s beneficial to be able to try out a mattress in winter and summer.

Alongside that 365 night trial is Nectar’s ‘forever’ guarantee which compares favourably to Tempur’s 10 year warranty. Nectar Sleep as a brand scores 4.2/5 on TrustPilot compared to 3.8/5 for Tempur at the time of writing.

Of course, a major downside is that Nectar is a relatively unknown brand compared to Tempur. Nectar only entered the UK market in 2018 whilst Tempur has been selling its mattresses since the early 1990s.

Nectar mattress
Nectar offer a ‘forever’ guarantee and a whole year to try it out
Nectar sleep mattress box
The depth of the memory foam layer on the Nectar Sleep is greater than many similarly priced mattresses

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Ergoflex 5G

The Ergoflex 5G Memory Foam Mattress (£886) has a lot in common with the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam mattress. Again, it’s a similar depth to the Tempur Elite model and it matches the 10-year guarantee that you get with Tempur. The home trial period is notably shorter at 30 nights, but that should still give you a good indication of whether you find it comfortable and supportive. ​Again, there is a not a choice of firmness levels with the Ergoflex 5G, so you may find that it doesn’t provide you with the right support. It currently beats the Tempur brand on TrustPilot, with an average of 4.8/5 at the time of writing.

Ergoflex mattress with person sitting on top
Ergoflex get industry-leading scores on TrustPilot

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If you are looking for similarly priced mattresses to the Tempur range then you could consider:​

Dunlopillo

​Dunlopillo are the leaders in the latex mattress market. They have a good range of firmness levels and prices which start at about £1649 for a double mattress. There’s a good argument that latex is more sustainable and environmentally friendly to produce than foam, although recycling it afterwards can be an issue. Dunlopillo has won several awards and has an outstanding score of 4.7/5 on TrustPilot (2023). See our full guide to Dunlopillo for suggestions of which model will be right for you.

Dunlopillo mattress

Dunlopillo use latex in their mattresses which is a natural alternative to foam

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Vispring

Vispring is a prestigious brand which invented the pocket spring mattress about 100 years ago. They use lots of plush natural materials such as wool and alpaca in their mattresses as well as high quality pocket springs. The cheapest mattresses in their range are about £900 whilst models with higher spring counts can be more like £6000 for a double mattress. A lot of their mattresses come with a 20 or 30 year warranty, which is longer than any other pocket sprung mattress brand in the UK. ​See our top 5 Vispring mattresses. Prices are correct at the time of writing.


Vispring mattress

Vispring mattresses are amongst the best in the world…but they aren’t cheap

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