Bear Mattress vs TempurPedic

Bear Is The Undisputed Champion On Price

It’s not totally fair to compare TempurPedic to a foam online mattress, but it’s what consumers do, so let’s talk prices. Bear has an MSRP of about $800 for a queen bed, and TempurPedic’s most affordable TEMPUR mattress is about $2,200 for the queen. No typo there. Bear is about a third of the price of a TempurPedic TEMPUR-Adapt mattress. And that’s before any discounts!

If you get a discount, you should see Bear drop to around $650 for the queen bed, which is pretty crazy to think that you’re getting an entire bed for safely under $1,000. You check Bear’s website for their discounts today.

With TempurPedic, they do offer certain promotions on TempurPedic’s site mostly during major holidays, but nothing that will bring the bed anywhere close to the price of Bear. TempurPedic is intentionally staying away from playing the race-to-the-bottom game where everyone keeps lowering prices.

Bear Is A 10″ Foam Mattress

We’re going to have to do a quick construction section for each brand since, aside from the top layer, they’re quite different. For instance, Bear starts with a foundation layer of dense poly foam, then has a transition layer, and graphite-infused gel memory foam on top. Here’s a look inside the bed.

Because the bed is mostly made of a neutral foam, but the memory foam is on top, you do feel the memory foam, however, not to the extent that you will with TempurPedic. In fact, we’d consider the overall feel of Bear to be somewhere between Lull (fluffy memory foam) and TempurPedic (dense memory foam).

You can still freely rotate between positions, but you will get a little resistance (far less than with TempurPedic).

Firmness Grading For Bear

In the past, Bear was a properly firm mattress and then in 2018 it became a truly soft mattress. Now, in 2019, they’ve switched it again to be somewhere in between. Here’s a graphic that shows where Bear sits on our soft-to-firm scale.

As you can see, we rate Bear in between a medium and medium-firm, a bit like the Nectar mattress, only perhaps a tad softer. Remember, however, that your interpretation of firmness will be different than nearly everyone else since there are several variables at play. For instance, the heavier you are—and the more you concentrate mass in a certain area—the softer a bed will appear. The opposite would be true if you were a petite person. This principal applies to all beds, including Bear and TempurPedic.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that all beds will soften as they age (i.e. as you sleep on them). Bear might start out between a medium and medium-firm, but we expect it to be closer to a medium+ after just a few months of use.

The Celliant Cover Is Bear’s Ace In The Hole

Aside from Bear, very few other brands use Celliant in their cover, and yet we are huge fans of the material. Don’t know what Celliant is? No worries. Cellient is a textile that has apparently been approved by the FDA as a “general wellness product” that can help with, among other things, circulation, achieving restful sleep, and promoting faster recovery. You can read even more about Celliant on Bear’s website.

We can’t tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Celliant works, but there are certain members of our team that swear by it. Suffice it to say that having a Celliant cover is better than not having a Celliant cover.

Different TempurPedic TEMPUR Mattresses

While the standard Bear Mattress is offered in just one firmness level, TempurPedic offers three different beds in their TEMPUR line, all of which come in multiple firmness levels. We will be focusing on the TEMPUR-Adapt, though, the TEMPUR-ProAdapt mattress has more firmness levels to choose from.

The TEMPUR-Adapt is available in a Medium and Medium Hybrid option, while the TEMPUR-ProAdapt comes in a Soft, Medium, Medium Hybrid, and Firm. The most popular model would likely be the Medium Hybrid TEMPUR-Adapt.

The reason that we bring up the multiple firmness levels is that you get more options with TempurPedic. So, if you want a really soft memory foam bed, TempurPedic is the way to go. If you need something that’s extra firm, same thing. If you want something in between, both brands will work for you.

What TempurPedic Feels Like

TempurPedic offers a deep and viscose memory foam feel. It’s the type of mattress that you lay on and slowly sink into. You simply have to love memory foam to get TempurPedic, whereas you can be just Luke warm on it and be happy with Bear.

If you just look at the top two layers, those are both memory foam and will sort of pull you into the bed. The exact construction and feel will depend on the model and firmness level you select, but as a general statement, you’re getting a heck of a lot of memory foam with TempurPedic.

Hybrid Options For Heavy People

It’s widely accepted that a coil/innerspring bed is more ideal for heavy people than an all-foam bed. As such, the foam versions from both companies aren’t really a great option for people that weigh over about 250 lbs.

This is precisely why the Bear Hybrid mattress exists and TempurPedic makes the hybrid models.

While we don’t have a screenshot of the coils inside a TempurPedic mattress, you can expect them to look similar to what you see in the image above. They will be individually-wrapped unlike a traditional innerspring unit. As such, the coils move and react independent of one another in large part. This helps to reduce motion transfer, but still offers plenty of support.

You Get A Cooling Cover With TempurPedic

Bear has the Celliant cover, but TempurPedic has the phase-change cover that works to actively and consistently draw down your body temperature. The cover is cool to the touch and feels almost like it’s coated in a cooling wax.

If you’re a warmer sleeper and love memory foam, TempurPedic is designed with you in mind. This is not to say that Bear won’t be a good option. Quite the contrary in fact—we think Bear is also a nice option for warmer sleepers, but it doesn’t have the active-cooling cover like TempurPedic does.

What It All Comes Down To

For anyone that’s price conscious, Bear is clearly the winner, but when you exclude prices, how do these two beds compare? Here’s the short story:

• Do you want a traditional memory foam feel or something that’s a little lighter? If you want the former, that’s TempurPedic and the latter, Bear.
• Do you need or want a coil bed? Both brands offer hybrid beds, but Bear’s feels more neutral and TempurPedic has that true memory foam feel.
• Is a cooling cover necessary? If so, go with TempurPedic?
• Are you intrigued by a special Celliant cover? If so, that’s Bear’s claim to fame.

In reality, the differences come down to price, design, feel, and firmness. You have to settle on what you want in a bed and then you can choose between Bear and TempurPedic.