Why our sleep experts loved it
Today we are looking at one of the more popular mattresses on the market, and one that we’ve been working our way toward reviewing, the Emma Original Mattress.
With stress from work from home balances and COVID-19 taking its toll on our mental health, a strong night’s sleep can do wonders, after all, an extra hour in bed can make you both happier and more content.
The Emma Medium Firm Mattress is a bed in a box, something which is fairly new to the industry, only really gaining a strong foothold in the market as late as 2016 with the likes of Eve and Casper, both largely scaling back in the UK market and instead replaced with Emma and Nectar.
What you are really here to know though, is this mattress right for you?
Let’s dive in.
What Makes The Emma Mattress Great?
There are some top features that make the Emma mattress stand out from the crowd, after all, you don’t get to 20,000 5 star reviews on Trustpilot without having something new and original to shout about.
So when it comes to buying an Emma Mattress the standout features that you get which may be different to a conventional mattress purchase are:
- 200 Day Trial Period
- Money Back Guarantee
- UK Crafted
- Bestseller
- 100% Vegan
- Free Delivery and Returns
Normally within the mattress industry you have distance selling regulations giving you a 14 day return period, however, one of the main stipulations of this return means that the product must be in the same condition as it was received, i.e it must not have been used and slept on.
This represents a massive problem for traditional retail mattress shoppers, who cannot try before they buy and are left with a mattress they can’t return and can’t get a good nights sleep on.
Fortunately Emma have avoided this pitfall and offer their consumers (you) a free delivery and seamless return procedure if you do not like the product. That alone sort of makes the rest of the review largely pointless, just try the mattress and if you don’t like it you incur zero out-of-pocket charges. It’s a massive win and a huge step forward for a fairly ancient industry that hasn’t had a good kick up its backside in decades.
200 Day Trial Period
With a 200 day trial period, the free returns we mention above don’t just last for the initial period, you get 200 days to work out whether your new sleep experience is living up to the cost. That’s a 200 night trial to get used to and bed-in the new mattress without having to worry about any financial penalty.
Money Back Guarantee
Not to repeat over the same ground, but that 200 day trial period and free returns is paired with a money back guarantee. If you don’t like the product, Emma will organise a free collection and take the product away, refunding you in the process and ensuring that you have no out of pocket expenses.
UK Crafted
The Emma Original Mattress is crafted in-house by a team of experts with a massive degree of knowledge around the industry to ensure you get the absolute best sleep experience. This product is sure to give you a restful and energising sleep that is crafted using UK craftsmanship and components.
Bestseller
This memory foam mattress from Emma is one of a small handful of products sold by Emma. This reduced range and line-up ensures that each mattress undergoes rigorous testing before going to market to help ensure it encapsulates the needs of all users, regardless of their firmness preference.
100% Vegan
In a constantly evolving world where people are increasingly striving to protect the environment and conservation, vegan products are becoming increasingly popular and we have been assured from Emma themselves that the product contains no animal based materials.
The Composition Of The Emma Original Mattress
The original mattress from Emma is a roll-up bed in a box affair that is composed of luxurious fillings that make up the comfort layer and support layer. These fillings lay on top of each other and have different properties making them ideal for both support and comfort.
Primary Comfort Layer – Airgocell Foam (30mm)
This layer sits at the top and is what makes your mattress soft and with a luxurious feel. The comfort layer utilises Airgocell foam which is one of the latest innovations in the industry and breaks the mold away from traditional memory foam being used as a primary comfort layer.
The benefits of Airgocell are multiple, namely you are getting many of the typical benefits of memory foam with less of the downsides in the foam of breathability, motion transfer and pressure relief, particularly in areas that have deep pressure points like hips and shoulders (particularly for side sleepers).
Secondary Comfort Layer – Viscoelastic Memory Foam (30mm)
Other reviews typically refer to this as a core, however, this isn’t actually the case and miss-understands some of the main concepts surrounding mattress production. Rather, this is a secondary comfort layer which is composed of another 30mm sheet, this time of viscoelastic memory foam.
The reason for the two different layers is that memory foam has many pros, but one of its core complains relates to that airflow and breathability. When it comes to breathability, you do not want a top layer to not be breathable, it causes the sleeper to get too hot, too quickly and start sweating.
In the summer you end up too hot and in winter you end up feeling restricted from some of the movement issues caused by memory foam. That’s not to neglect it’s many positives however, that springy NASA created bounce back motion is incredibly comfortable and pressure relieving. By combining it with a primary comfort layer of airgocell, Emma ensures that you get the best of both worlds.
Primary Support Layer – HRX Polyfoam (190mm)
HRX polyfoam is ultimately cold foam with an average density of 57 kg/m³, it offer a a relatively firm support layer that will contour to your body and offer adequate and measured support but does not posses any of the rebound properties of memory foam. That said, it doesn’t need to, that’s what the comfort layers above are for.
All we need the primary support layer to do is what it says on the tin, offer decent and well-rounded support to protect your back and neck while you sleep, regardless of your sleeping position. What makes cold foam supports great is their long lasting support paired with great breathability meaning your mattress will hold less moisture and increase airflow while you sleep, this keeps you cool in the summer and ensures that the memory foam layers do not cause too much heat retention.
How Is The Emma Original Mattress Made?
The manufacturing process is UK driven, providing jobs for hundreds of people across the UK and acting as a beacon of British Standards, confirming to all relevant marks and regulations that go into ensuring a safe, homegrown product.
The video above was provided by Emma, demonstrating the build operation and the amount of work that goes into ensuring a good night’s sleep. The boxed mattress nature of this HRX foam product is an interesting journey from start to finish. What’s more, before the mattress makes it’s way to your door, it first is backed by an in-house testing facility that combines human test elements along with high tech machinery, all with the same singular purpose of ensuring the best nights sleep.
The Testing Process At The Emma Factory
Building a mattress with mass market broad suitability doesn’t just happen, in fact, it can be extremely difficult. How do you cater to those that like individual firmnesses and comfort? The answer comes down to science, more than that, a key testing process to ensure that each mattress conforms to very specific specifications that do not dip or vary over batches. Much like a McDonalds Cheeseburger, each one should ultimately be the same, offering the same experience regardless of when you eat it. This is the same, but for sleep. The tools Emma utilise come in the form of two primary levers, these are Motion Isolation Tests and Durability Tests.
Motion Isolation Tests
The Motion Isolation test is carried out to help ensure there is no roll-together within the design. This is important because partner disturbance in the night can greatly effect REM sleep and recent studies have shown that it can be the primary cause for partner unhappiness within a relationship. These isolation tests are carried out ensuring you both have your own sides and are free to move around and jump about, all without causing any disturbance to your partner.
Durability Tests
Durability is extremely important for the team at Emma. After all, they offer a 10-year guarantee and so if they get durability wrong it offers means huge payouts and negative feedback for a decade, enough to bankrupt even the strongest of companies. As such, the team have numerous tests to ensure that everything from the mattress core, through to the mattress cover, all meet beyond customer expectations. The key really is to over deliver on every promise the product makes and so far, at least as far as Trustpilot is concerned, they’re nailing it.
What Is The Emma Mattress Cover Made From?
We covered the comfort layers and all of their great benefits along with the HRX foam support layer, but that’s not all that goes into the mattress, the cover is also extremely important as it needs to be both extremely durable while still being soft and luxurious. Fortunately this is one area where the Emma Mattress does not disappoint. This elegantly designed cover features a micro fine-meshed top cover that is both breathable and clean is merged with polyester fibres to better regulate temperature.
Apart from the non slip fabric and breathable mesh, there is one more key component that the mattress cover absolutely nails and is so often forgotten with other mattress manufacturers, that’s handles.
You would be forgiven for overlooking it, who care’s about handles? Here’s the thing though, quality mattresses can be quite weighty, good quality components in the sleep world are rarely light and having to rotate and flip a mattress to ensure decent settlement of materials over time can become a massive pain very quickly without appropriate turning handles.
Fortunately the Emma knocks this out of the park with multiple lift points that are strong and integrated into the mattress and it’s cover.
One added benefit that this mattress has over other mattresses at its price point is that the cover is actually removable, so you can machine wash the cover in the event of stains, hygiene and freshness. What’s more, you can actually purchase a replacement cover in the event you damage your existing one, helping to further increase the lifespan of the product.
The cover itself is both soft and comfortable while also being durable enough to prevent damage over time, however, we do still recommend a mattress protector or mattress cover for that additional protection for further longevity of your foam mattress.
How Firm Is The Emma Original Mattress?
The Emma mattress is officially rated as a medium-firmness tension, meaning that it is a little firmer than average. In our own experience however, we found the Emma to be a little softer, coming in at a medium firmness. What’s great about this however is that medium is typically regarded as the one-size-fits-all goldilocks of mattress firmness due to it’s ability to appease all users in softness while ensuring decent spinal alignment for the sleeper.
For those that have trouble sleeping, this memory foam mattress from Emma has hit the sweet spot in its tension that gives both side sleepers, stomach sleepers and even back sleepers getting a fair degree of comfort.
Adjusting The Firmness With Free Comfort Layers
For those looking for a firmer mattress while looking to avoid the need for an additional mattress topper with which to adjust the firmness, Emma has a solution in the form of extra layers. We mentioned previously about the cover and how it unzips and is removable, it also allows for you to add additional layers. One slightly less well-known part of the customer service provided with the mattress is that you can obtain a free additional layer that slips right under the cover, either increasing the firmness or softening it.
To obtain a free foam layer, contact Emma senior support team at [email protected].
What Does It Feel Like Sleeping On An Emma Original Mattress?
You don’t need a pocket spring mattress to get a good nights sleep thanks to the luxurious vegan friendly materials that make up the Emma. After trialing this mattress for a few weeks we’ve found the mattress to be luxuriously soft while still managing to offer full body contouring support.
The airgocell and visco elastic memory foam layers both work hand in hand to offer a breathable and moulded top layer that has a reassuring spring-back rebound affect that is both comfortable and soft.
When it comes to the cold foam base layer, it offers great body contouring and is thick enough to be reassuring for many years to come while still being slim enough to support standard sheets, ensuring all of your current bedding does not need to be refreshed at the same time.
The combination foam combined with medium firmness support layer work together to keep your spine in alignment, making this mattress the ideal choice for those looking for something with orthopaedic support to aid in reducing back pain.
Is It Good For Side Sleepers?
When it comes to determining suitability for side sleepers, the main characteristic for suitability surrounds the tension. What makes this so suitable is its medium tension which means that your shoulder and hips, both of which tend to stick out while sleeping on your side, are able to sink into the mattress rather than sit on top and result in body contortion. Combine the tension with the soft top foam layers and you have a very comfortable side sleeper mattress that will give fantastic sleep for years to come.
Is It Good For Bad Backs?
We typically find that a medium tension tends to be more ideal to offer orthopaedic support. This is despite many blanket recommending firm mattresses to aid in back support. The reason for this is that an amount of sinkage (but not too much), can help aid in offering the support necessary while allowing each part of your neck and spine to be in contact with the layers in the mattress.
Additionally, the Emma’s ability to mold to the body and offer distinguished pressure relieving qualities, the memory foam layer and airgocell could be the ideal choice for back pain relief. The extra firmness offered by the HRX polyfoam base layer in the Emma is well suited to offer pressure relief in the spine and neck as both the support layer and comfort layer worked together to create a soft top with firmer bottom, allowing your body to sink to a point before offering more rigid support to protect key areas.
For those that do require additional firmness from the mattress, the type of bed frame you buy can make a difference. This is due to the different type of slats and bed base, all of which impact the support layer, making it softer or firmer depending on the frame type chosen.
What Bed Sizes Does The Emma Mattress Come In?
The most important decision you make is around selecting the correct mattress size. You will normally find that your existing bed frame will be what dictates your new mattress size, however if you have the space and are looking to upgrade your bed frame at the same time as your old mattress, you can always go for a larger bed size. We find the King size to be more comfortable than the double mattress for couples who are looking for a bit more space to starfish and spread out a little bit.
Fortunately Emma has all common sizes available. That means single, double, king and super king sizes are all available.
Are Emma Mattresses Worth The Money?
Yes. We’ve had a while now to demo the Emma Original and it is the best mattress you can buy right now. The comfort is unbelievable, offering a great deal of support regardless of which sleeping position you choose. This makes it ideal for those who find themselves a bit restless during the night who tend to move around. The Emma is also considered quite low maintenance as far as mattresses go as it does not need to be flipped (we still advise rotating to extend lifespan) saving on convenience.
Ultimately the Emma offers you a competitively priced mattress with additional firmness options available in a neat and convenient package. If you need to return it, there are simple measures in place should you not be completely satisfied. We love it though and can genuinely recommend it, so much so that we’ve given it our best all-rounder mattress award for 2021.
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