Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Our new Kaymed gel bed - first proper review

We have now had our Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800 bed for just over a week which gives me an initial opportunity to make some observations about it.

In my last post, and after one night’s sleep on this bed, I was very disappointed. The bed seemed hard and un-giving and my sleep was constantly disrupted. I woke up the next morning feeling tired and achy rather than rested and renewed.

I did qualify this “first impression” by pointing out that I was having some pretty bad back problems at the time and that any new bed takes time to adjust to – even when your back is good!

A week or so on and my impression of the Kaymed Gel Nest bed has much improved.

I think that I was initially surprised at the firmness of the bed and this was because after numerous shop floor “try outs” I was slightly worried that the bed might be too soft! When it arrived I expected a much softer bed than I remembered. This was my error, or rather that of my failing memory.

I would say that it took me 3 or 4 days to get used to this bed, but I do now like it and it certainly does contour to the body’s shapes and curves and it is firm but pliable. It also seems more than coincidental that my back problems have improved quite considerably over the few days since we started using the bed.

As for the claims that the gel nest construction massages the body every time that you move! I must assume that this is a massage about which the person on the bed is kept unaware of. Certainly, I and my wife never noticed it.

The construction of the bed is impossible to determine when lying upon it. It does not feel like memory foam or latex, but equally it does not feel like a springs “only” mattress.

The combination of the bed’s 1800 pocket springs, visco elastic memory foam and a gel nest mean that you can view it in one of two ways. The pessimistic approach would see it as a compromise construction that includes a bit of everything, but with no real paradigm. The other view point would see it a bed that incorporates the best of all worlds with the most advanced of mattress technologies.

Obviously it is very very early days in the lifetime of our new Gel Nest bed, however after a week of sleeping on it my initial impressions are becoming increasingly favourable.

One big change is that I now look forward to going to bed, fall asleep very quickly and feel more awake in the morning, so all the early signs are good – as they should be for a bed in this high bracket price range.

Monday, 20 April 2009

Kaymed gel nest ultra bed

Our new Kaymed gel nest ultra bed was delivered yesterday, as arranged, and at precisely the earliest point of the 2 hour time window given.

First impressions are as follows.

The bed appears to be well made and well finished, at least after a superficial check, and the 2 divan drawers have proper runners – although with a limited runner length.

The divan finish is in a suede like material and looks good. Indeed the bed does not require a valance.

The divan and mattress are large and heavy and, once assembled, the entire bed sits 26 ½ inches off the carpet. Believe me, this is very high with the 2 section mattress alone having a thickness of 11 ½ inches.

The mattress has the 1800 pocket springs in the lower section and the visco elastic memory foam and gel nest in the slimmer top section.

So, after one night’s sleep on the bed what did I think?

Well frankly I had one of the worst night’s sleep that I have ever experienced. This is even more surprising when you consider that for 6 weeks we have slept on a £99 foam mattress with a “concrete like” firmness rating of 9. I thought that anything would improve on this, but for the first night at least I was wrong.

This is not however an unusual or surprising result. Beds with memory foam (and I assume gel) take some adapting to and getting used to, so I hope that things will improve over the coming days as my sleep pattern and comfort expectations adapt to the new bed. That should also be countered by the fact that my problematic back was also playing up last night.

More to come.

Saturday, 11 April 2009

Gel bed delivery

I have now got a delivery date for our forthcoming Kaymed gel, visco elastic memory foam and pocket spring bed. It will arrive in the morning a week on Sunday, so we await its presence with high expectations.

This bed will complete a trilogy of recent purchases aimed at ensuring back health. In fact, that threesome is now a foursome with the purchase of a gel mouse mat a couple of days back.

My first impressions of the other buys are that the ergonomic chair is very good and (so far) meets, if not exceeds, it expectations.

The Gel insoles are less impressive.

The mouse pad and gel wrist support are certainly different, but I am quickly getting used to the feel of this item and it works well with the adjustable armrest of the chair by offering total arm support.

Once the bed has arrived and I have slept on it I will start to give some feedback on our initial impressions.

Thursday, 12 March 2009

The bed - Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800

The bed that I have just ordered is a “Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800” and it has literally just been released. Indeed, as of now, it has yet to appear on the manufacturer’s website.

The bed comes with standard or divan bases and in various size formats from single to (I think) super king. Our selection was double with a 2 drawer divan and this retails at just over £1,700 Stirling (UK) with that spec. There are three colour choices. You will need to find a specialist bed store in order to see and test this kind of bed.

The construction of the bed sees the mattress in what appears to be two horizontal slices (quite common for composite mattresses). The lower section is the spring box with 1800 pocket springs and above that there is a second section with a mix of memory foam and gel - although I am uncertain as to the sequence. My guess would be that the gel is on top – but that is supposition on my part.

The gel is not, as you might expect, a liquid viscous material, but rather something closer to a mesh comprising a three dimensional box structure. I would guess that this is where the “nest” bit comes from in the bed’s name!

My assumption is that the gel is similar in composition to that found in gel insoles, but on a larger scale. Unfortunately I do not have a photo to demonstrate the rather vague description that I have just provided.

So, why did we select this particular bed?

The reasons behind the new bed purchase were determined by “a need to replace the old one”, plus my ongoing and seemingly worsening lower back problems. A bed has a massive impact on all aspects of health, but especially that of the back, spine and lumbar region (orthopedic). This was the prompt for not just a bed, but one in this price (and hopefully) quality range.

In truth the Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800 was not my first choice, but rather that of my wife.

The technology in this bed is very impressive, but” as of now” gel has had a very limited “real world” testing and, as anyone who has seen “lifecycle testing” of beds will know, the roller approach is virtually irrelevant when it comes to a bed with a delayed reflex response rather than springs.

Gel clearly falls into this category along with Latex and visco-elastic memory foam. This is the reason for my “concerns”, which relate to unrecoverable deflection and deformation, in connection with the longevity of this composition of mattress.

Hopefully those concerns will be allayed over time and the bed will live up to its “billing”.

Factors in choosing the Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800

We did not choose this bed over night. In fact we spent around four weeks trying out numerous beds ranging from spring only and foam only, to combination beds mixing differing materials and manufacturing techniques.

This involved us spending (in total) many hours in numerous bed stores lying on different beds. Something no one should be embarrassed about doing. A bed is important, a good one is costly, and it needs to suit both sleepers (if there are two of you).

At various times during this period our “favourite choice” changed, however we quickly realised that we did not have a preference for a foam only bed, or a spring only bed. We liked the movement, springiness/flex of pocket springs combined with the contouring and support of a top “pillow” layer of another material. This gives the options of Latex (my preference), memory foam and gel.

Our choice was consequently narrowed down to beds with a minimum of two material constructions/paradigms.

The Kaymed Gel Nest Ultra 1800 came out on top for a number of reasons. It was my wife’s favourite, my second favourite, and it got top marks in most of the boxes. Indeed, in every box bar the “immeasurable” one of how it will fair over time.

I can honestly say that, for a short period of 10 minutes or so, this was the most comfortable bed that we have tried and that it demonstrated very low levels of passive movement from one side of the bed to the other. It also had the “promoted” cool feel claimed of gel and the build quality and overall appearance was high.

I will continue this “sub-blog” with ongoing feedback about this bed once it arrives (delivery is 5 to 6 weeks).

The Kaymed website's url is http://kaymedworld.com although they do not have this bed shown at present. You can also check out the King Coil company who, I beleive, own them. You will also find a store locator on the Kaymed site.

The store that we purchased from is in Leeds, W.Yorshire, England, and is called Bedside Manor. They seemed knowledgable and enthusiastic and were happy for us to return to the store on numerous occasions until we made a final decision.