NO. No it does not.
There’s a lot of talk about fiberglass in mattresses at the moment, particularly mattresses you can buy online. Fiberglass is commonly used as a fire barrier, and you’d be forgiven for thinking ALL memory foam mattresses have fiberglass inside them, but they don’t.
Let me take you through:
- How the Tempurpedic fire barrier works without fiberglass (including the chat transcript from my talk directly with Tempurpedic)
- Exactly what’s inside a Tempurpedic mattress
- Like the idea of Tempurpedic? I share my top choice of their mattress range
Why The Tempurpedic Mattress Doesn’t Have Fiberglass In The Fire Barrier
Let’s get straight into it:
The reason for fiberglass being inside a mattress is as the federally required fire barrier. When memory foam mattresses first came out, chemicals were used for this fire barrier, but due to concerns about their impact on health, companies started to look for (cheap) alternatives. Fiberglass is what many landed on.
Therefore, it’s quite common to see fiberglass used in the fire barrier in cheaper mattress brands like Zinus, but at the top end of the market, where Tempurpedic sits, you can absolutely demand that your mattress has no fiberglass.
So what does Tempurpedic use as the fire barrier instead?
I asked Tempurpedic directly, to get the best and most detailed answer for you. Here’s the transcript of the chat I had with them. They used a lot of exclamation marks, so they’re very passionate about not using fiberglass in their mattresses! (I’ll also say their chat service was very prompt and able to provide detailed and knowledgeable answers, which can’t be said for all mattress brands.)
In case you are unable to read the picture, here’s exactly the answer from Tempurpedic themselves:
“The sock is made of mod-acrylic, continuous filament silica, and cotton. The mod-acrylic is inherently flame retardant, the cotton provides a char barrier to the foam and the silica gives strength to that barrier. The char barrier keeps the flames away from the foam.”
If that’s sounding a bit confusing, the biggest giveaway for whether a mattress uses fiberglass or not is found in the cover. If the cover is removable, then there’s no fiberglass (fiberglass MUST be contained). Tempurpedic mattresses not only have removable covers, they also have covers with the extremely convenient feature of being able to just zip the top part off for washing, and also one of the best quality zips on a mattress cover that I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a few).
Exactly What’s In A Tempurpedic Mattress
Famed for being the original memory foam mattress, Tempurpedic are very proud of their mattresses and the exclusive Tempur material inside. Tempur material is the foam that gives a Tempurpedic mattrress that classic memory foam contour, for individualized pressure relief.
Many brands have gone towards faster responding foams that don’t contour as much as Tempur, so it’s a bit unique in the market. They have a 95% satisfaction rate and a 90 day sleep trial so you can feel confident about trying it out at home.
Let’s look inside a Tempurpedic Mattress:
- Cover: A cool to the touch, high quality look and feel: it’s soft and durable. You can unzip the top part of the cover should you need to wash it easily. The zipper is one of the best I’ve seen on a mattress.
- Comfort layers: This is where you’ll find those famous Tempur materials. You choose your firmness level and foam type, which have been engineered to perform slightly differently in each mattress (for example, extra ventilation and cooling panels in the Breeze model, which is engineered for cooling).
- Support layers: Most Tempurpedic mattresses offer a high quality, high density foam support layer, for your all-foam mattress experience. Some models offer a pocket coil support system if you prefer a hybrid mattress: the coils are encased in foam to protect them (a sign of a good quality mattress).
- That all-important fire barrier is comprised of the cotton in the outer cover, and the silica in the inner cover. I’ve pulled the cover back on a Tempurpedic mattress and had a good look myself, so I’m happy to vouch for the quality of it.
A quick note about buying Tempurpedic online: Tempur material is just too dense to be compressed like other online mattresses. Tempurpedic is therefore not a “mattress in a box”. Because it’s delivered at its full size, Tempur will set it up for you in your home.
My Top Tempurpedic Mattress Pick
So you’re confident Tempurpedic doesn’t have fiberglass, it’s a good quality mattress, and you’re ready to buy. The question is: which one? Let me the one I would buy myself:
The TEMPUR-ProAdapt
Here’s why:
- It’s the most popular model with other customers: it has more than 2000 five star reviews from customers who love it (more than any other mattress in the Tempurpedic range)
- It has a lot of quality features packed into the mid range price point (including the APR foam featured in the video above)
- It’s available in soft, medium or firm
- It’s available as a hybrid option should you prefer pocket coils instead of foam core
