If you’re familiar with mattresses or even just see a mattress commercial from time to time, you’re probably familiar with the names Tempur-Pedic and Purple. It’s a true battle of the brands here. On the one hand, you have Purple, a new school direct-to-consumer mattress brand that has exploded in recent years. On the other hand, you have Tempur-Pedic, a huge, multi-channel bedding company that has dominated the industry for decades.
They are both known for high-quality beds, and the companies have earned a lot of fans. The biggest things separating Tempur-Pedic vs. Purple come down to:
- Feel — TempurPedic mattresses have a dense memory foam feel. Purple mattresses, on the other hand, have a unique, gel-like feel.
- Price — If you’re looking to spend around $1,000, the original Purple is the winner.
Continue along in our Purple vs TempurPedic review to learn which bed you’d be better off sleeping with.
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| 100 Nights | Trial Period | 90 Nights |
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Design & Construction
The flagship Purple mattress comes with three layers:
- Support layer — 4″ of dense support foam to provide a solid foundation for the bed
- Transition layer — 3.25″ of 1.8-pound polyurethane foam as a transition layer
- Comfort layer — 2″ of Hyper-Elastic Polymer to provide pressure-relieving and supportive comfort.
Hyper-Elastic Polymer is not a type of foam. Instead, it’s more of a gel or silicone-like material (even though it’s technically neither). It truly is unique to the industry. It’s soft, responsive and stretchy yet also supportive. The material does a great job of cradling your pressure points (hips and shoulders) while providing the necessary support under your trunk and lower back.
Now let’s talk about the design of the Tempurpedic — we’re focusing on one of their latest models for this comparison, the Tempur-Adapt Hybrid.
- Base layer — 1,000 spring coils make up the pocketed coil support layer, and foam reinforcements surround them to add better edge support.
- Transition layer — “Original TEMPUR Support” layer to act as a transition in between the firm coils and soft memory foam layer above.
- Comfort layer — “TEMPUR-ES” comfort layer is the brand’s signature memory foam which provides a dense, slow responding feel.
Feel & Firmness
Purple beds have an uncommon gel-like feel. As you lay down on Purple mattresses, you can feel the tiny polymer squares shift under your body. The result is a buoyant sleeping surface in which you almost feel like you’re floating. All in all, it takes a little time to get used to, but a lot of people out there like the feel.
Not everyone loves the feel of Hyper-Elastic Polymer, though. Most of the team members here at the Slumber Yard enjoy it. In fact, the Slumber Yard team member Matt sleeps on a Purple Hybrid Premier 4. However, it is a bit too weird or unique for some. You should try it for yourself.
We think Purple comes in around a medium on the firmness scale, but honestly, the polymer is so unique that it’s hard to put an exact figure on firmness.
The feel of the TempurPedic bed is very different from the buoyant sleeping surface of the Purple mattress. Despite the thick layer of memory foam on top, it’s not your typical soft foam feel. It has more of a firm, dense memory foam feel. As you lay down on Tempur-Pedic mattresses, you can feel the top layers slowly mold and conform to your body’s shape. It will almost feel as if the bed is hugging you.
It’s still very comfortable, but you don’t sink in that much, and you don’t get any of that stuck-in-the-mud feeling that memory foam beds are known for.
We think TempurPedic is around a medium-firm on the firmness scale.
Body Type Analysis
Sleeper Type Analysis
Before deciding which mattress is right for you, you’re probably wondering how each option lines up with your sleep style and body type.
Other Factors to Consider
There’s a lot to think about when investing in a new mattress. And while the firmness and feel are often the biggest factors people think of, it’s also important to consider the edge support, motion isolation, and temperature a bed offers.
Edge Support
The Purple Hybrid mattresses provide solid edge support. This is important for couples who like to spread out because it extends the useful surface area of the bed.
Tempur-Adapt also provides excellent edge support and takes the trophy in this category. In fact, it’s one of the best beds we’ve ever tested in that department. There’s little compression around the perimeter of the bed, and you never feel like you’re going to roll-off, thanks to the coils and dense foam reinforcement.
Motion Isolation
Purple and Tempurpedic mattresses offer superior motion isolation. The Tempurpedic bed deadens movement nicely. That means you won’t be disturbed if your partner tends to move around or get up frequently throughout the night.
And while you wouldn’t think the Purple would, given how bouncy Hyper-Elastic Polymer is, the material does a pretty decent job of limiting motion transfer.
Temperature
If you or your partner sleep hot, a bed’s temperature is an important characteristic to consider. Thanks to its Hyper-Elastic Polymer, the Purple mattress sleeps on the cooler side of the spectrum. To begin, Hyper-Elastic Polymer is just a naturally cooler material than memory, latex, or proprietary foam. This type of temperature regulation is especially ideal for couples.
Similarly, the Tempurpedic bed also sleeps cool, which is pretty unusual for a memory foam bed. The cover contains a special cooling material that makes it a cool-to-the-touch bed. Combined with the fact that most people will sleep more on top of the bed than in it, the Tempur-Adapt is also a solid option for hot sleepers.
Other Purple Models vs. Tempur-Pedic
A couple of years after the Original model, Purple introduced three new hybrid models (formerly known as the New Purple 2, 3, 4). These Hybrid models contain individually pocketed coils that provide more support than the dense polyurethane support foam in the Original. These may be ideal if you want a more supportive and durable version of Purple.
Purple vs TempurPedic Conclusion
After everything is said and done, here’s what we think the Purple vs Tempur Pedic debate comes down to:
- Are you open to trying something new, or do you prefer a traditional mattress feel? Memory foam in TempurPedic mattress is one of the most popular bed materials, while Purple is the only one in the industry that uses special Hyper-Elastic Polymer for a weightless feel.
- How much money are you willing to spend? Most of the TempurPedic mattresses are expensive, considering their luxury designs. Purple runs at a more affordable price, and you can usually snag a decent discount, too.
- Hot sleepers will likely enjoy the breathability of Purple over TempurPedic, especially since the cooling TempurPedic mattresses are so much more expensive.
Why Trust Us
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The Review Team
How We Test The Mattresses
The Slumber Yard has been around since the beginning of the bed-in-a-box craze. Our team has personally tested over 175 mattresses so far, and we keep more than 150 beds in our office so we can compare them (and take afternoon naps).
When testing mattresses, we evaluate the following factors:
- Construction: We cut mattresses open to see what’s inside and how it’s made.
- Feel: We check if it has a stuck-in-the-mud memory foam feel, or if it’s more of a neutral foam or a plush pillow top, etc.
- Firmness: We have our own firmness scale and evaluate how that may vary depending on your body and sleeper type.
- Pressure relief: We test what’s the sweet spot for different body and sleeper types.
- Support and how that changes by body/sleeper type
- Edge Support: This is important for couples who share a bed. Would you roll out of bed or can you sleep confidently close to the edges?
- Motion Isolation: We use the water glass test to see how the bed fares with motion transfer. This is another important factor for couples who don’t want to wake up when they move.
- Temperature Regulation: We use a temperature gun to evaluate if the bed warms up, stays neutral or actively cools while sleeping.
- Noise: This could be an issue in beds with coils or innerspring.
