Last straw for the “less-than-Ideal Rest mattress

[creativepart]

We’re on day 2 of a short 10-day trip and our “I-deal Rest” (Sleep Number Rip Off) bed was not working on one side last night. My side. And, it had been a while since we used the coach in early February at higher altitude, so bed didn’t have the right amount of air in the chamber. My chamber.

So I pulled the whole bed apart -what a joke it is- and found that the stupid cable that runs from the hand controller to the pump got kinked so hard that the tiny Ethernet wires used in that connection broke. So I spent 2-hours stripping the 6 tiny 22-ga wires and soldering them back together.

At least tonight I’ll be able to set the bed to the proper inflation so I can sleep.

When we get home it’s a Tuft and Needle Cali King for us and goodbye silly air mattress.

[rk911]

been thinking of doing the same thing although we've had no issues with our queen-sized Ideal Rest. but I'm wondering...is your bed stationary or motorized? if it's motorized is the mattress you're considering a direct replacement and will it survive the raising and lowering of the bed? weight? seems like the replacement mattress would be heavier and that got me to worrying whether the bed motor can handle the weight. comments?

[creativepart]

It’s motorized. But this ideal rest is plenty heavy.

Here’s the thing. When you have a bed that can break and not let you sleep, what good is that bed?

Especially on a RV trip. Where you can’t do anything about it.

[rk911]

i agree that the framework of the IdealRest is heavy but have you determined that the mattress you want to buy can be bent without causing damage? and i have my doubts that an air mattress is at least as heavy as a traditional mattress. you might want to call winnebago tech support and see if they know what the air mattress weighs and then compare it to the weight of the replacement before you do anything. i totally agree that the bed is useless if you can't pump air into it but it'll be just as useless if the bed motor can't handle the weight of the replacement mattress. i would want to know. good luck.

[Meridian42e]

I know everyone has their own preference for a bed, but if your only complaint of the Ideal Rest (Innomax) is a broken control wire, you would be throwing away a $1700 bed for a $17 controller. I caught mine the works while moving the bed and broke the wire, now I just carry a spare.

[corjaguar]

Was the kinked wire something that you did or was it something the manufacturer did.....?
you just said that the wire was kinked.

[creativepart]

The wire was kinked and damaged from operating the bed.

There are plenty of complaints about this mattress from leaking hoses to leaking air chambers. It all adds up to a mattress that can fail on the road, be difficult to fix and is rendered unusable. It’s a mattress. Not a piece of tech. You rely on it just lying there and working. Not something that can break and not be usable.

I’ve never been happy with it’s comfort, so “breaking” in regular use is simply the last straw.

[Floridakamper]

Please let us know how it works out if/when you buy a new mattress.

[creativepart]

OK, I'm back. And, though we haven't slept on it yet we're pretty happy the way this turned out.

I did a lot of measuring and some online research and it came down to three main mattress in a box contenders (there are at least 6 or more such brands). I narrowed it down to the Tuft & Needle, the Leesa and the Casper beds.

Tuft & Needle had good reviews, is used in new Airstream RVs and costs the least. Casper is the biggest seller, looked great but was the most expensive. The Leesa looked great, had very good reviews and in many comparisons it was either No 1 or No 2 when compared with as many as 5 other mattresses. Plus, it was middle of the road price wise.

We went with the Leesa. It was $1,195, but had a $125 discount coupon. So, with FREE shipping it was $1070. To my surprise there was tax on it. Seems they have a warehouse in Texas. But that also means I got it the day after I ordered it.

I took the I-Deal Rest air mattress apart and pulled it all out of the RV. The Leesa weighs 94 lbs, but the I-Deal Rest surely weighs 80 lbs or more when you put all the parts together.

After the OEM mattress was removed I measured everything and found the bed platform in our 2017 Adventurer 37F was 72" wide and 82" long. I had ordered a California King Leesa that is 72" by 84". So, I crossed my fingers that it could fit. I did measure the space between the small side tables on either side of the bed and it "appreared" that a standard King (76 x 80) would fit. But the mattress would be tight against the side tables (more like arm rests than tables) with a King mattress. But the lenght of a King would be perfect.

I took a big gulp of hopefulness and unwrapped the mattress on the bed platform and let it EXPAND - which it did instantly. It was immediately evident that the mattress was 2" or so too long. Our power folding bed has two metal panels at the bottom that kept the mattress from sliding down when you fold up the bed. The Leesa was sitting on top of those panel and would not fit.

Our bed also has a headboard (we have always hatted it) and it has a 4" cushion under the headboard to fill in the space behind the mattress top and the backwall. It gives the mattress room to start folding up without hitting the wall. Clearly, that had to go. To my surprise it was a simple construction of a piece of 1/16" luan with a slab of 4" foam covered with a furry fabric stapled on the back. The best part was that it was held in place with 3-screws that were super easy to access. Boom we had 4 more inches of room. The mattress fit perfectly and even had a couple o' inches of space to aid the folding process. This was a 5 min. fix that worked great and looked perfect. Yes, the bed folds up just fine - they sell these mattresses to people with those adjustable bed frames that fold like a hospital bed.

The bed fits good, looks great and so far feels about a million times better than the air bed. It needs no electricity to work and no controls or wires to kink and break.

We haven't slept on the mattress yet, but so far a 20-min rest on it seemed SOOOO much better. We leave on a 45-day trip in 3-weeks. We'll know for sure then.

No worries though. All these mattresses come with a 100-day no questions asked no charge return policy. If you don't like it for any reason they'll send someone to the house to pick it up (and then they donate it to the Salvation Army).

My wife was very skeptical, but is now completely sold and wondered why I took so long to do this thing.

PS. Emboldened by the ease with which that 4" cushion came off the wall behind the bed I removed 8 screws and removed that awful headboard, too. Now we're considering having something new made that we like, or perhaps a picture on the wall, OR... who know what else.

[creativepart]

Here's the Leesa in place - no sheets, comforters, etc yet. It has to air out for 24-hours after unwrapping the compressed mattress. NICE overall.

[Floridakamper]

That looks great. Thanks for the follow-up. I've read others talking about making a change but never heard how the change worked out. You closed the loop.

After your trip could you possibly give another update. I'm slightly concerned about the bed folding correctly. I've heard there are a couple of micro switches that the bed trips to allow the slide to be activated.

After you remove all the old bed stuff does that open up any under bed storage?

Enjoy your trip. Bob

[creativepart]

With the bed removed we spent time looking under the bed. There is some space, but it's around a nest of wires and motors and such. The bed motors are there, plus there are 12v and 110v fuse boxes there. We discussed adding a bed lift - but decided it would only be used to get to the lift mechanism and micro switches you spoke about.

With the I-Deal Rest bed to move or remove the mattress is to completely disassemble six separate parts. To move or remove the mattress you just slide it off of the platform. So, if we need to get there we can.

I think anything you might store under there would be things you don't need to get to but once a year or in an emergency.

[Floridakamper]

Originally Posted by creativepart

I think anything you might store under there would be things you don't need to get to but once a year or in an emergency.

Thanks for the info.

[creativepart]

By the way, none of the air bed mechanicals are under the bed platform. So removing the Air bed doesn’t add any space below. Interesting thing, the cord for the air bed pump does go under the bed and WBGO has installed an 110v receptacle under there. You’d think they would have hard wired the pump power cord under there since there is a 110v fuse box located there, but no they installed a 110 outlet for a plug.

So if you need another AC outlet in your bedroom there’s one under your bed (if you have the air bed mattress).

[Meridian42e]

So your pump wasn't under the bed?

PS - I removed the micro-switches and bypassed them. For some reason our would go just a little too far up and snap the micro-switch into pieces. At that point you can't get the slide in unless you bypass them so we just left them both bypassed.

[creativepart]

The pump is a "loaf of bread"- sized box at the foot of the mattress. It's pretty much in the middle of the foot of the bed. There are foam rails all around the sides of the mattress. The foam is about 5" wide all the way around - except in the middle of the foot where the loaf of bread (sized and looking) pump resides.

No part of the mattress is under the bed except the AC Cord from the pump.

[Meridian42e]

Interesting. All of my hardware is under the bed.

[creativepart]

Really? that's odd. I wonder why the difference in these two models.

[Meridian42e]

I'm not sure, but I certainly understand how sharing the bed with the pump would be uncomfortable.

[creativepart]

I only noticed it once while in bed. I happed to hit it with my foot. It was the size and shape of a loaf of bread. And it was tucked into the foam rail at the bottom of the mattress.