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We’ve been looking forward to this head to head showdown of the Puffy vs the Purple for quite some time.
The Purple mattress is arguably one of the most famous modern-day mattress brands in the world. Their game-changing materials and design patterns combined with excellent customer reviews (and a huge marketing budget with TV adverts) have made them into a household name. They’re one of the kings of the mattress industry at the moment, and it’s going to take a very special mattress to knock them off the top spot.
The Puffy, however, might just be that mattress.
Puffy has chosen to spend 4 years developing a super special material called Comfort Cloud that has been designed to improve upon memory foam products – which is also what Purple have done. They’re creating quite a stir in the industry right now with their excellent price point and unbelievable quality, and they’re potentially causing some problems for the big brands like Purple.
Today we’re going to see which product is better in this David vs Goliath mattress battle.
We’re going to look at all the layers inside both products to see what they are, how they work, and why they’re good (or not so good). We’re going to look at pricing, cooling, and sleeping positions before announcing the winner and providing our overall recommendation.
Grab a drink and get comfy, because this is going to be a good one.
Let’s get started.
Similarities
- Both use memory foam alternatives
- Both are exceptionally advanced mattresses
- Both are very cool sleeping surfaces
Differences
- The proprietary materials used are different
- The shape of the layers differs
- The Purple is very slightly more expensive
Construction Comparison
In this section, we’re going to look at the Purple and the Puffy layer by layer to see what kind of materials they are using (and why they are using them).
Purple Construction
The Purple is one of the first of the new wave of products that have tried to create materials that have the benefits of memory foam without any of the downsides. Judging by their reviews, they seem to have succeeded.
Hyper Elastic Polymer
This is the most important and most advanced layer in the Purple. It’s made from a material called hyperelastic polymer which is something that the brand has put a huge amount of time and money into developing and patenting.
The biggest similarity hyperelastic polymer has with memory foam is with regards to the contouring properties that it provides. Just like memory foam when you get on a mattress made of this stuff it’s going to shape itself to your body shape and provide you with incredible amounts of support.
Purple claims that hyperelastic polymer is as good as memory foam in terms of support, but we don’t think it is. Pound for pound if you took a sheet of flat hyperelastic polymer and a sheet of flat memory foam and tested them, we’re willing to bet the memory foam would win (but only slightly).
The thing is though, Purple don’t use a flat sheet of hyperelastic polymer…
This layer has been machined into a grid-like pattern that Purple call the comfort gird. Imagine a chessboard kind of pattern across the entire surface of the mattress. Where the squares meet each other the mattress is raised slightly, leaving the inside of the squares slightly lower.
The reason Purple has done this is because the higher parts of the grid can now collapse when they are put underneath pressure. This collapsing feature allows the mattress to provide much more support than it otherwise would (you can’t make a pattern like this from memory foam).
When you combine hyperelastic polymer with the Comfort Grid – you get an extremely adaptive and supportive product that’s better than 99% of the memory foam products we’ve ever reviewed.
However, hyperelastic polymer has one other huge benefit over memory foam – it doesn’t get hot…
Memory foam is made up of lots of little cells of air that are completely enclosed. This means that the air inside the cells cannot ventilate out into the bedroom when they are heated up with body heat. It’s the biggest problem of memory foam, and engineers have come up with lots of ways to try and compensate for the issue (it can’t be removed entirely as the cells are responsible for the contouring of the material).
However, hyperelastic polymer doesn’t use a cell-based structure like this and it doesn’t have the problem in the first place.
It’s an exceptionally cool sleeping surface.
Comfort Foam
This layer of comfort foam is pretty standard stuff. It helps secure and support the layer above and provides a little bit of support of its own. It’s mainly here to add a little thickness to the mattress and to also provide a gradient between the softer top layer and the firmer bottom layer. By doing this there is no sudden hardness felt when you’re on the mattress – it’s a smooth incremental change instead.
High-Density Support Foam
The bottom layer is even more boring than the layer above (as is usual in all mattresses). This layer is the strong and stable base that the rest of the product depends on. It’s made from a high-quality high-density support foam that’s durable and going to stand the test of time.
Pros And Cons
Pro
- Hyper elastic polymer
- Sleeps very cool
- Durable materials
- Huge reputable brand
- Comfort grid design
- More supportive than memory foam
Con
- None
Puffy Construction
The Puffy is technically a hybrid mattress like the Purple above. However, as it only has 2 layers it only just barely fits the definition.
Comfort Cloud
There’s a very good reason that there are only two layers in the Puffy – it’s because this layer provides almost all of the performance of the product.
This layer is made from a material that Puffy developed over 4 years called Comfort Cloud. Just like hyperelastic polymer, it’s a proprietary material that Puffy made to be a memory foam killer.
Just like in the Purple, because comfort cloud isn’t a cell-based material it’s much cooler than memory foam and it doesn’t have the hotspot problem we mentioned earlier. Comfort Cloud is actually extremely breathable considering it’s a foam too and hot air can easily escape the mattress and take the heat with it out into the bedroom.
Comfort Cloud on its own is one of the coolest materials we’ve seen used in mattress design, but puffy have gone one step further.
They’ve custom created their own kind of cooling gel that’s similar to the cooling gel that’s used in memory foam mattresses (called Cooling Cloud). It works on the principle of thermal distribution, which means it spreads the heat out to reduce concentrated hot spots – it doesn’t actually cool anything down per se.
The most interesting thing about Cooling Cloud is that it doesn’t try and make the sleeping surface as cool as it possibly can like most other gels, it aims for an optimum temperature instead. If Puffy used a normal gel, the cooling capabilities of the product would be too efficient and it might make the sleeping surface too cold for comfort – which is quite astonishing really.
Comfort Cloud on its own is reasonably similar to hyperelastic polymer in terms of contouring performance – it’s almost as good as memory foam, but not quite. The big difference here is that comfort cloud is a solid layer of material, and as such it doesn’t have the advanced Comfort Grid design pattern that the Purple has.
One of the biggest benefits for us that Comfort Cloud provides is that the contouring action of the material is almost instant.
If you’ve owned a memory foam mattress before you’ll probably already know that it can take a little bit of time for the contouring action to start. This time is required because the cells in memory foam need a little heat to soften their walls and contour fully.
As Comfort Cloud doesn’t use a cell-based design – it doesn’t need heat to contour. It’s a lovely benefit that’s most noticeable when you change positions during the night (or when you first get into bed).
High-Density Support Foam
The bottom layer of the Puffy is as boring as the bottom layer of the Purple. Again it’s a standard high-density foam that does nothing more than secure the layers above and provides a stable base for them to rest on.
Pros And Cons
Pro
- One of the coolest sleeping surfaces on the market
- Great support
- Very comfortable
- Quick contouring times
- Reputable brand
- Durable and long lasting
Con
- None
Firmness Comparison
Both of these mattresses are exactly the same level of firmness – 6.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale.
This firmness level is medium firm and it is in the Goldilocks zone that is what most people like. If you’ve got a real desire for a super soft or a very firm product then you’ll need to look at other brands. But if you just like a nice “normal” firmness, these are both products you will enjoy.
Price Comparison
These two products are reasonably similarly priced. The Purple is a little more expensive, but it’s not the kind of price difference that should be a deal breaker.
Something we like to point out when we talk about the pricing of the Puffy is the fake discount time limit they have on their website. When you first log on you’re going to see a ticking clock at the bottom of the screen saying you’ve got about 45 minutes to order to receive a discount…
This is nonsense.
The discount has been running for quite some time, and you can just clear your cookies and visit again to reset the timer.
Puffy Prices (With The “Time Limited” Discount Applied)
- Twin – $595
- Twin XL – $625
- Full – $795
- Queen – $950
- King – $1,150
- California King – $1,150
Purple Prices
- Twin $699
- Twin XL $899
- Queen $999
- King $1,299
- California King $1,299
Which Bed Sleeps Cooler?
These are two super cool sleeping surfaces – they are both going to provide you with excellent levels of thermal regulation.
The hyperelastic polymer that the Purple is made from combined with the ventilation of the Comfort Grid is brilliant. But we think the Puffy is better.
The combination of Comfort Cloud and Cooling Cloud is almost unbeatable in the cooling department. When a brand has to limit the effectiveness of their cooling gel to stop things from becoming too cool for comfort, they’re unlikely to lose in the cooling category.
Verdict:The Purple is great, but the Puffy is better
Which Bed Would Be Best For A Side Sleeper?
The Comfort Cloud material in the Puffy is extremely supportive, it’s got excellent contouring properties similar to memory foam and the quick reaction times ensure you’re supported properly from the moment you lay down.
However, the combination of hyperelastic polymer and the Comfort Grid design pattern is a little bit better than the Puffy for side sleepers. The collapsing grid sections respond to increased pressure points in a way that a solid mattress simply cannot.
Verdict:The Purple is better for side sleepers, but the Puffy is also excellent.
Should I Buy A Purple Or A Puffy bed?
Which one you should buy kind of depends on what you value more, support or cooling.
- Both products are exceptionally supportive, but the comfort grid provides better spinal alignment for side sleepers.
- Both products are exceptionally cool sleeping surfaces, but the combination of Cooling Cloud and Comfort Cloud creates one of the coolest mattresses in any price bracket.
Conclusion
To be honest you could buy either of these products and we would totally understand why – they are brilliant mattresses. They both are at the cutting edge of design in the industry right now.
These two brands are seen as some of the best on the market by industry critics for a very good reason. You’re going to be exceptionally happy with either of them, regardless of which one you choose.
Sweet dreams.
