Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed 5000 Review

Sleep Number Bed Testimonial

I purchased a queen size sleep number bed, Personal Preference 4PT in January 2003 from Sleep Train Mattress Centers in the east bay of San Francisco, CA.

I was experiencing back pain and soreness and stiffness in the morning. I paid $1,980.00 for the bed which was a good deal more than I would have paid for a traditional mattress and box spring set. I looked forward to finally getting a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the bed had a serious design flaw. The two inflatable air bladders are not connected together which causes a gap in the center of the bed. The gap is large enough that when a person moves toward the center of the bed they fall into the gap. Once you are in the crevice it is difficult to get out of. So, I often found myself waking in the middle of the night, sore and uncomfortable from being stuck in the gap.

The problem of the gap became apparent soon after I purchased the bed and I contacted the Sleep Train store in Antioch, CA where I purchased the bed. They were aware of the problem and told me that there was a repair kit available from Select Comfort. I contacted Selected Comfort and was told that the gap was a result of the bed's design but, they had developed a repair kit that they assured me would correct the problem. When the repair kit arrived an employee came to my home to install it. I was expecting that the repair kit would contain a new and better designed support for the center of the bed, what I got was another piece of the stiff foam rubber that was already used in the center. The repair consisted of taking this additional piece of foam rubber and shoving it down into the center of the bed next the existing piece of foam rubber.

The "repair" did nothing to improve the problem with the gap. The gap is cause by a fundamental design flaw. The two narrow inflatable air bladders are not connected together; therefore, any heavy object that moves off the center of the air bladder slides into the gap that widens as the two bladders are pushed to the side. Even on a queen size bed the air bladders are very narrow, only about twenty inches wide. In the natural course of sleeping a persons body tosses and turns and rolls over many times during the night which causes them to slide into the gap.

By the time I noticed the problem and contacted The Sleep Train store that referred me to Select Comfort, the manufacture of the  Sleep Number bed and then finally had the "repair Kit" installed the 30 day in home trial period had expired I had no choice but to try to live with my $2,000.00 mistake. I thought I was by purchasing a technologically advanced sleep system, what I got was two air mattresses forced together by blocks of foam rubber and held together by a zipper on the pillow top.

I am six feet tall and weigh only a hundred and fifty-five pounds which means that my weight is pretty evenly distributed over the beds surface. I have now had the bed for six years and every night I curse the engineers that designed the bed. I have tried every combination of inflation pressures to reduce or eliminate falling into the gap but it is impossible to fix an inherent design flaw. The best solution I have found is to roll up a large blanket, support it with pillows and make a wall to prevent the body from moving toward the center of the bed.

You may be wondering about how well the bed works with two people in it. The short answer is; in the morning you have two unhappy people that did not get a good night's sleep. What about sex you ask, well unless you are a contortionist with an uncanny sense of space and balance you will probably find that falling into the gap in the center of the bed is not very conducive to a satisfying sexual experience.

The only type of bed that I have ever slept on that is as bad as the Sleep Number bed is a sofa hide away bed. It is my opinion, that if you must have a bed where you can adjust the firmness of the mattress you would be better off spending $50.00 on an inflatable air mattress and place it on top of a standard pallet or box spring.

If you must have two mattress that the firmness of each can be set independently then by two singles and tape or tie them together. It may not look pretty but it will save you $2,000.00 and if you put a mattress cover over it no one will ever know and your body will thank you in the morning.

To add insult to injury (and I am not talking figuratively here) the design flaw that causes a lack of support in the center of the bed also destroys the foam rubber waffle cone pad on the top and the pillowtop as well. I have had my bed for six years and because I am frequently away from home I have probably only slept on it about 50% of the time. I changed the sheets on the bed this week and washed the mattress cover too. I decided that since I could not flip or rotate the mattress because of the air hoses I would try to turn around the pillow top so that the wear would be equalized, but because of the zipper it is impossible to rotate it.

When I unzipped the pillowtop and rolled it to the side of the bed I saw that in the middle, the fabric on the bottom of the pillowtop was abraded and torn and the foam rubber waffle cone pad ripped down the middle. I was not surprised given the poor design of the bed, but I was not too concerned because of the 20 year limited warranty.

I called the customer service number at Select Comfort and I was told that the torn pillowtop and the foam rubber sheet would not be replaced under the warranty because Select Comfort considered that to be normal wear and tear. I argued to no avail that the damage was not normal wear and tear, but was due to the poor design of the bed and the resultant weak spot in the center. As the material on top gets forced into the crevice it causes premature wear to the bed.

Despite what I consider do be irrefutable logic and the fact that the manufacturer knew that the design was flawed, I could not convince them to do the right thing and honor the warranty.  I called the customer support number, 1-800-318-2231 and the two Select Comfort customer service representatives I talked to and their supervisor Amy, all told me that it was company policy to classify any damage caused by the gap in the middle of the two air bladders to the pillow top or the foam pad as normal wear an tear and therefore it was not covered under the warranty. Amy at Ext. 7818, told me she was the highest ranking person in the company that a customer could talk to. She said I could write her boss, Bill McLaughlin, CEO of Select Comfort at 9800, 59th North Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55442. I will be writing him with my concerns and I encourage anyone who has purchased a Sleep Number bed and experiencing similar problems to write him as well.

I also plan to write to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and ask them to evaluate the safety of these beds. I am concerned that the elderly or physically impaired people may be harmed by the gap in the center or that an infant sleeping with a parent may be trapped under the parent's body and suffocate in the crevice in the center of the bed. I had two surgeries and physical therapy to repair a broken collarbone (clavicle) a few years ago and because my arm and hand were in a sling that forced my wrist and elbow against my body it was very difficult to move when lying down. Many mornings I awoke stuck in the gap because in my sleep I was physically unable to roll out of the depression. As a result, on numerous occasions the circulation was cut off to an extremity that was wedged into the gap. Sometimes, the nerve would be pinched and I would wake up with palsy in an extremity.

Don't make the same mistake I did and be fooled by all the hype, there is nothing revolutionary about this bed, except for the fact that you are paying an exorbitant amount of money for an air mattress.