Tempur Topper Review
Tempur's material in topper form, which is the most expensive way to soften a mattress in Britain and also the most effective.
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Verdict
Tempur's material in topper form, which is the most expensive way to soften a mattress in Britain and also the most effective. Whether that is worth it depends on a question most topper buyers never ask: do you want a small change or a large one?
Buy it if
Your mattress is sound but genuinely too firm, you want a substantial change, and you do not sleep hot.
Avoid it if
You sleep warm, or your mattress is only slightly too firm. This is a large intervention at a large price.
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| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Material | Tempur's dense viscoelastic foam |
| Effect | The strongest softening of any topper material |
| Heat | The warmest of any topper material, for the same reason |
| Price | The most expensive topper category in the UK |
| What it does not change | Support, or a sagging mattress |
The scores
The most effective topper material and the worst one for heat, at the highest price.
The weakest score. You can soften a mattress for a quarter of this.
Nothing softens a firm mattress as thoroughly. The dense material conforms completely.
Dense viscoelastic foam designed to respond to body heat. It will make you warmer.
A topper does not provide support. Scoring it otherwise would mislead.
High density material holds its shape far longer than ordinary foam.
Weak on this, and worth weighing before buying.
Do you want a small change or a large one?
This is the question that should decide any topper purchase and it is almost never asked.
| Material | Size of change | Effect on heat |
|---|---|---|
| Dense viscoelastic foam | Very large | Considerably warmer |
| Standard memory foam | Large | Warmer |
| Latex | Moderate, with bounce | Neutral |
| Micro-spring or spacer mesh | Moderate | Neutral to cooling |
| Wool | Small | Regulates moisture |
If your mattress is slightly firmer than ideal, a wool or mesh topper is the right size of intervention and you will not cook. If it is genuinely too hard to sleep on, dense foam is the only material that will fix it, and you will be warmer.
The two columns move together. Every material that softens more also insulates more, because softening means conforming around you and conforming means less air moving. There is no topper that changes a lot and cools.
The cheaper question first
Before spending at this level, work out whether a topper is the right purchase at all.
Measure for a dip. If your mattress has a dip of more than about 25 millimetres, a topper will follow it within weeks and the money is gone. Lay a straight edge across and measure the deepest gap. If it fails this, put the money toward a mattress.
Check the base. Slats more than about 7.5 centimetres apart cause sagging and void most guarantees. A sheet of plywood costs a fraction of this topper.
Check the pillow. A great deal of discomfort blamed on a mattress is a pillow at the wrong height. Run the ten minute test before spending anything.
If all three come back clean and the mattress is simply too firm, then a topper is the right answer and this is the most effective one.
The heat is not a flaw, it is the mechanism
Tempur's material softens in response to body heat. That is what makes it conform so completely, and it necessarily means it holds warmth at the surface.
Dense viscoelastic foam also has small closed cells and almost no air movement, so heat reaching it has nowhere to go.
On a hybrid mattress this is the worst pairing available. The mattress works because air moves through its spring layer, and a dense foam topper cuts you off from exactly that. If you bought a hybrid partly for its temperature, do not put this on it.
A correction worth making
Commonly repeated, and wrong
Mattress toppers are compared on thickness and price as though they do the same job with more or less of it, and the material decides both how much a topper changes and how warm it makes you, in the same direction. Softening means conforming around the sleeper and conforming means less air moving, so every material that softens more also insulates more. No topper changes a lot and cools.
Should you buy it?
Only if your mattress is genuinely too hard to sleep on, you want a large change, and you do not sleep warm. Nothing softens more thoroughly and nothing costs more.
Measure for a dip, check your slat spacing and check your pillow height first. If the mattress is only slightly too firm, a wool or micro-spring topper is the right size of intervention at a quarter of the price.
Questions people ask
Which mattress topper softens the most?
Dense viscoelastic foam, by a clear margin, and it also makes you the warmest. Those two move together: softening means conforming around you, and conforming means less air moving. No topper changes a lot and cools.
What should I check before buying a topper?
Three things. Measure the mattress for a dip over about 25mm, in which case a topper will not help. Check your slat spacing. And check your pillow height, because a lot of discomfort blamed on a mattress is a pillow at the wrong height.