Memory Foam Mattress NZ

Memory Foam Mattress NZ – Let’s Examine All Your Options

Memory Foam Mattress NZ – there are more options out there than you probably realise. There are more out there than even I realised, with a new mattress appearing on our market just a couple of weeks ago! In this article, I’ll take you through your options for buying online (AKA the “mattress in a box” – memory foam mattresses that are extremely popular and come with in home sleep trials to more than compensate for not being able to see them in a store) and what you can expect to find at your local bed shop.

Online Options With In-Home Sleep Trials – 4 Options

There are four great memory foam “mattress in a box” options available in New Zealand. Between them, they cover a range of firmness levels and memory foam types, and all come with in home sleep trials of longer than 3 months. Some are sold only in New Zealand, one is a massively successful international brand that has just arrived here. There’s something here to suit everyone, I’ll give you all the details of each.

Ecosa – One Of Two Firm Options

Ecosa is an Australian brand that has made quite the name for itself around the world with their firm foam mattress with interchangeable inner layers. One of the first “mattress in a box” companies to sell their product in New Zealand, Ecosa is also the most widely known. Ecosa is made in China.

Ecosa has a firm feel, and while it uses memory foam the foams do not conform much to body weight. This is great if you’re looking for a flatter and firmer sleep surface, and also makes it my top recommendation for stomach sleepers. But if you’re looking for a true memory foam feel you won’t find it with Ecosa.

Ecosa Features:

• 100 Night sleep trial and 15 year warranty
• Stretch knit cover that zips off for easy washing
• Three internal foam layers which you can switch around to change the feel of the mattress (in my opinion the options are “firm” and “very firm”)
• High density support foam

EXTRA: I have owned an Ecosa mattress for more than a year and a half. You can read more about my experiences with it here. It’s been fine, though slightly firmer than I’d like as a side sleeper. We’ve recently purchased a Napp instead, which still has great support but much better pressure relief. My shoulder is looking forward to the change!

Napp: Made In New Zealand

Napp has been in the market for as long as Ecosa, and is exclusively made and sold in New Zealand. In fact, it’s our only memory foam mattress in a box that is made right here in NZ. Napp is manufactured by A.H. Beard in Auckland: you will be familiar with their big name mattresses such as King Koil which you see on the floor at Harvey Norman.

Napp has a true medium feel, and perfectly strikes the tricky balance between comfort and support. The first time I lay down on a Napp mattress I knew I had to have one to replace my Ecosa!

Napp Features:

• 100 Night sleep trial and 10 year warranty
• Stretch knit cover that zips off for easy washing. The cover of Napp is also embedded with Outlast: a phase change technology developed by NASA to help keep you cool. This is a really high end feature.
• Three internal foam layers featuring exclusive hygroflex gel, gel infused memory foam, and a very high density support foam.
• Napp holds the record for responsive customer service: you’ll deal directly with the owner when you buy from Napp, and what I’ve heard from real customers is that any issue is sorted within 5 minutes.

EXTRA: My parents bought a Napp mattress, and they are really enjoying it. This was a bit of a revelation for them, as they actually have different firmness preferences but Napp suits them both. They couldn’t believe the value for money, especially since Napp is NZ made. Watch us unboxing my parents’ Napp mattress to get a closer look at it here.

Read my full review of the Napp mattress here.

Winkl: New Zealand Owned, Help Save A Kiwi (This Is MY Mattress That I Sleep On Every Night)

Winkl is the only other New Zealand owned mattress in a box you can buy here at the moment. They make two mattresses: their standard Winkl and the Winkl Lux (which in my opinion is one of the nicest memory foam mattresses in our market). Winkl are hugely popular mattresses and often sell out fast. Winkl have recently partnered with The National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa, so you can feel great about purchasing Winkl and helping look after national bird. Winkl is NZ owned, but the mattresses are made in China.

I have not tried the Winkl, but my understanding is that it is also a medium feel mattress. The Winkl Lux is a touch softer than medium in my opinion, and I think Winkl describe it best on their website when they say it’s like sleeping on a marshmallow!

Winkl Features

• 120 Night sleep trial (the longest in NZ) and 10 year warranty on Winkl, 15 year warranty on Winkl Lux
• Stretch knit cover that zips off for easy washing (the Lux cover is a more premium knit)
• Three internal foam layers including exclusive WinklFlex foam, gel memory foam, and high density polyfoam.
• The Lux costs more, and along with the upgraded cover,you get the following extras for your money: higher density foams, deeper comfort layers, charcoal infusion in the foam (the only mattress I’ve seen in NZ featuring this temperature regulating and antimicrobial technology), and zoning in the support core. It’s my pick of the two Winkl mattresses.

EXTRA: Winkl kindly gifted me a Lux mattress a couple of months ago, and I LOVE it. It’s the perfect blend of soft but supportive, the extra 5cm height sits nicely on our existing base, and I can really feel the zoning in the support core supporting my back. Their claim that Winkl is NZ’s most comfortable mattress is 100% justified in my opinion!

Read my full review of the Winkl mattresses here.

Emma: Medium Firm Feel, Bounciest Foam On The Market

Emma used to have the firmest mattress here in NZ, but after listening to customer feedback, they’ve redesigned it and come up with the Emma Comfort mattress, which I’m happy to report is more of a universally comfortable medium-firm and better suited to a bigger range of people. I slept on it a lot better than their original mattress, which is no longer available. Thank you, Emma, for listening to feedback!

Emma Features

• 100 Night sleep trial and 10 year warranty
• Stretch knit cover. The Emma cover has a cool feature I’ve only seen on Tempur in the NZ market: the top part of the cover zips off around the sides, so you can just wash the top! This makes it much easier to zip on and off than if the zip is on the bottom, and makes it much easier to put back on the mattress.
• Two internal foam layers: 5cm of “airgocell” comfort foam. This is the bouncy comfort foam, and is highly ventilated for better air flow. The 20cm base foam is high density and has zoned regions to help specifically target your pressure points, which is an excellent feature given Emma’s extremely pocket friendly price point.

EXTRA: Along with their new mattress, Emma have also released a bed frame, protector, topper, and pillow in New Zealand. They’ve put together some epic bundle deals where you can get ALL these things for less than the price of a mattress in a shop, which is just downright awesome.

Are There Others?

You’ll often see memory foam mattresses pop up on websites like ContainerDoor or OnceIt, but they tend to be very cheap and only have short warranties and no sleep trials. However, if you’re looking for a bargain for your guest room you may want to keep an eye out for these deals as they’re often about half the price of the mattresses I’ve detailed above.

In-Store Options

If you try a mattress in store, you of course get to see and feel the mattress you are going to buy, which is how we’re used to buying mattresses. However, you won’t get an in home sleep trial period, which in my opinion is a much better way to test a mattress than perching on one in a shop. However, the options I’m going to show you below have more of that conforming memory foam “hug” than any of the online brands (this will be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your personal preference).

There were two in store options that really stand out to me, so here they are if you want to make a trip to the shops:

Tempur: The Original Memory Foam, With The Highest Density Materials

Tempur is the most famous memory foam mattress brand in the world. They were the first to take the technology from NASA (who developed it for extra cushioning safety for astronauts during mission launches) and put it in a bed. Tempur has that really slow, conforming, hugging, feel you first think of when you think about memory foam. They’ve stayed true to the technology while continuing to develop it. I personally don’t like it because to me, it feels like you’re sinking in too much and it’s a bit hard to move around on it, but you may love it.

If you want to try Tempur, you can find them stocked in Harvey Norman and BedPost. Tempur have a range of firmness options, all with that true memory foam feel. The Tempur mattresses sold in New Zealand are made in Denmark.

Features

• 10 Year warranty
• Stretch knit cover, the top portion zips off like the Emma for easy washing. Tempur actually has the best quality zip I’ve seen in any mattress (but that’s probably not enough to spend $8000 on it).
• Under the cover is a layer of cool touch fabric for temperature regulation. This is similar to the Outlast technology found in Napp which I described above.
• Several internal foam layers, the most famous of which is the “Tempur Material”. This is Tempur’s signature memory foam. It’s very high density (= durable and high quality), in fact I think it’s the highest density I’ve come across. This is a big part of why it’s such a slow conforming foam.

Sleep Systems: Mazon Virtali Range

Sleep Systems are the creators of the Mazon Virtali (MV) memory foam mattress range, which is sold at various independent retailers around the country. There are three mattresses in the range: MV200 (medium feel), MV225 (plush feel), and MV250 (features gel infused foam to help with cooling).

I went down to my local independent bed store to test the MV range out, and I have to say they felt extremely nice. They have that similar slow sink that Tempur has, but without the big price tag (you’ll pay up to $3000 for a king size with gel foam). I tried out all of them and my favourite was the MV250 with the gel foam – it had a similar feel to the medium Tempur model I’d tried at Harvey Norman.

If you’re looking for an in store memory foam mattress, I highly recommend these to you. I think they are very nice mattresses. They are made in New Zealand and come with a 15 year warranty. Also, Christchurch people: take yourself down to BedWorld on Ferry Road to check out the MV range. It’s a nice independently owned shop with knowledgeable and friendly staff. It almost wasn’t even awkward to try the beds out in there. They have the full MV range on the floor.

So, What To Buy?

If you’ve read the rest of the article, you’ll know what I’ve personally spent money on, and what I think of them.

We had Napp for 6 months, and it’s truly a high quality, comfortable mattress. We recently swapped to a Winkl Lux (which was kindly gifted to us) and we’ve ended up keeping the Winkl on our bed because the zoning in the core and the thicker comfort foams give it the extra bit of comfort.

Ecosa is fine, but I just want more pressure relief for my shoulder. We ended up selling our Ecosa after a year.

Winkl: This is the mattress I have chosen to keep on my own bed, I think it’s the most comfortable on the NZ market.

Emma: watch this space: I’ll let you know if it’s worth buying. I think it’s got a lot of potential.

Tempur: the foams too slow conforming for me, and I don’t think the massive jump in price is worth it. If you’re wanting to buy a memory foam mattress from a bricks and mortar store, take yourself down to your local independent bed retailer and try out the NZ made MV range instead.