We were recently sent an Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress, which features in our guide to ‘Which Emma Mattress Is Best? NextGen, Premium, Luxe or Elite’.
Here are a few photos, along with information on how it is designed.
To see how it compares to others in the range and other mattresses for a similar price see our main Emma guide.
Unboxing the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress
The Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress is what’s known as a bed in a box – as it arrives vacuum packed. This is obviously more convenient for the mattress seller, as it means they can store mattresses more easily and keep their costs down. It also meant that our mattress was delivered by a standard delivery service rather than requiring a two-man delivery time. Our mattress is a king size model.
The other benefit of a bed in a box is that it is somewhat easier to get up the stairs than a standard flat mattress. Needless to say, a king size mattress isn’t light but I managed to heave it upstairs. Get someone to help you if possible!
Expanding and unfurling the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress
The next step is to unfurl the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress. Some bed in a box mattresses give you a box cutter to reduce the risk of you accidentally cutting the fabric whilst opening the plastic wrapping. This mattress didn’t come with one, but it was easy enough to unfurl. Once you create an air hole it begins hissing and expanding. Most of the expansion has taken place within a couple of minutes.
For a while, the mattress looked as though it wouldn’t be big enough but the final bit of expansion at the end saw it grow to its full size.
Where does the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress sit in the Emma range?
We tried the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress, which is in the middle of Emma’s range of terms of cost. Emma considers it to be a medium firmness mattress, which is the same firmness level as two of its cheaper mattresses – the Emma NextGen Premium Plus Mattress and the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress.
As the name suggests, the ‘Cooling’ mattress aims to stop you getting too warm in bed. Some people find that foam layers can make them a little warm. We’ll discuss that in more detail later.
Emma’s trial period
The bed in a box market is a busy place, with lots of brands all fighting for your attention. One thing that most of them offer is a long trial period and a long warranty. The former helps convince you that you should take a punt on an online product that you traditionally would buy in a store. The latter aims to convince that you should go for a new brand, rather than a long established brand that has made a name for itself over many years (e.g. Sleepeezee, Hypnos, Vispring, Silentnight, Tempur).
Emma has tinkered with its trial period a few times over the years, but is currently offering a 200 night trial period. In my opinion, that is a decent length of time as it allows you to sleep on it during summer and winter. Extreme heat is a good test for a mattress, as memory foam (which is used in this mattress) behaves differently depending on the temperature in the room. In warmer temperatures, it is a little more flexible and responsive whilst in colder months it tends to bounce back a little slower.
The cover of the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress
The cover of the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress is removable, which means you could wash it if you wanted this. I consider this to be a big advantage over lots of traditional pocket sprung mattresses where the outer layer is tufted (i.e. held together with buttons for strength).
No matter how hard you try to protect it, you’ll find that older mattresses develop sweat stains over time so being able to remove the cover is a positive.
The top cover of the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress is made from manmade materials (mostly polyester with a little bit of elastane to make it stretchy) rather than a natural material such as cotton. As a general rule, manmade materials can survive lots of washing more than natural fabrics.
Quilted versus tufted mattresses
You’ll notice that the top of most ‘bed in a box’ mattresses including the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress is flat. This is often known as a quilted finish and is the alternative to the tufted finish mentioned earlier. There are pros and cons to each design. A mattress with a tufted finish can sometimes feel a bit stronger, as the tufts pull everything together. However, some people aren’t keen on the up and down feeling of a tufted mattress.
Tufted mattresses tend to be stronger and harder to bend than quilted mattresses. For example, this Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress can be manoeuvred round corners quite easily whereas our old tufted Highgrove pocket sprung mattress is much more rigid. This is partly to do with the hand side stitching that you get with traditionally made pocket sprung mattresses, which makes them particularly strong at the edges. That is much less common on bed in a box mattresses, including this Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress.
More on the trial period and the changing Emma range
Before we move on, let’s talk a little more about the trial period and the evolution of the bed in a box market. Don’t worry, it’s not quite as dull as it sounds.
About 10 years ago, there was a rapid rise in bed in a box brands such as Emma, Simba, Nectar and Eve. They turned up with one mattress that tended to be made from different layers from foam. They kept it simple by offering one mattress that they felt was perfect, and would let you try it out at home.
In Emma’s case, this mattress was called the Emma Mattress. It is now known as the Emma Original to differentiate it from the other models.
Over the last few years, all of those brands mentioned earlier have expanded their range and have introduced mattresses that combine springs with foam (these are usually called hybrid mattresses). This wider range is more confusing than just having one mattress but it does mean that you have a better chance of finding one that is the right firmness for you.
The Emma brand currently scores 3/5 on TrustPilot.
Can I send it back if I don’t like it?
As mentioned earlier, the trial period on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress is currently 200 days.
The question to ask with a trial period is what the terms and conditions say. Emma’s trial period is one of the better ones, as you can potentially get a refund if it’s not right for you.
Some questions to ask when you see a trial period:
- Do I need to use a mattress protector? If so, do I have to buy it at the same as the mattress? This is the case with the John Lewis trial period.
- Will I have to pay to send it back if I don’t like it? Several companies will charge you about £30 to return the mattress.
- If I don’t like it, can I have a refund? Some brands will only offer an exchange, and this can be from a very limited range.
- How long do I need to try it for before I can send it back? Most trial periods require you to try a mattress for at least 30 days. They hope that you will get used to the mattress, as it’s not uncommon for a mattress to feel odd at first but to later feel fine.
- If I swap if for a cheaper mattress, do I get the difference back? There’s a lot of inconsistency here. Some companies will give you the difference back as a refund. Others will give you a store credit, so you could at least buy a few pillows or some bedding. Others give you nothing back, even if you swap for a mattress that costs £500 less!
Emma’s trial period is one of the more generous, and they won’t charge you for a return. See our guide to mattresses with a trial period to see a side by side table of different mattress sellers and what their terms and conditions say.
What are the layers on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress?
We peeled back the cover on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress to have a look at the layers. This is another advantage of having a removable cover!
You are basically getting four layers of foam, but there is some difference in what each of them does. The cheaper mattresses in the Emma range use fewer layers, so it’s worth understanding what you are paying the extra for.
The top layer (in blue) is describe as a ‘temperature regulating foam’. There’s a risk of drifting into a world of jargon here (Emma calls this a ThermoSync foam) but it is foam mixed with graphite. The idea is that the graphite in the foam helps avoid you getting too warm. As mentioned earlier, there is a risk of overheating with foam mattresses so this layer is deliberately placed closest to your body.
The second layer (in light yellow) is described as ‘foam that keeps you fresh’. There isn’t a great level of detail about how this is achieved, but it generally means a foam that is less dense and more breathable (i.e. it has more holes in it).
The third layer (in white) is memory foam. This is more familiar territory and is sometimes known as visco-elastic foam. The general idea of memory foam is that it offers a hugging, consistently-supportive feeling. It has been around for a few decades now and was developed from materials used by NASA to help astronauts keep comfortable. Unlike normal foam, memory foam rebounds slowly.
I’m a big fan of memory foam but it has the well-known downside of making you overheat as it moulds around you. Emma’s strategy is to bury the memory foam underneath two other layers. You still get the benefits but don’t get the heat – that’s the theory anyway!
The fourth and final foam layer is the orange layer, which is described as being ‘supportive foam that relieves pressure’. My understanding is that this is a firmer layer of foam, so that the support gradually increases as you rise up through the mattress.
By my measurement, the foam layers make up about 6cm of the 27cm depth of the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress. The top layer with graphite is slightly deeper than the other three layers.
What about the springs on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress?
The springs on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress are pocket springs. The original Emma Mattress was 100% foam, but the company has moved towards hybrid mattresses that also use springs. As much discussed on this website, pocket springs are good because they move individually. There’s less chance of your spouse feeling you moving around than there would be with an open coil mattress (also known as Bonnell springs). Open coil mattresses have one notable advantage in that they are easier to recycle, but they are generally inferior to pocket sprung mattresses.
What about the warranty on the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress?
As with other Emma mattresses, you get a 10 year warranty. It’s a fairly straightforward warranty, but you can read the terms and conditions here.
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