Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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All of these companies and brands are interrelated. The differences are more like two varieties of red or green apples rather than apples to oranges. This is a composite of the following threads from the old forum. It might feel kind of jumbled, but we don't need two threads on Intelli-Gel. Has anyone ever tried an Intelli-bed? Intelli-Gel toppers First, lets introduce the players: Intelli-Bed and MyComfort are separate and distinct companies. Each sells a product they call Intelli-Gel, but they are not exactly the same. Both are manufactured under license from the same company (EdiZone) and they are more similar than they are different, but they are different products, manufactured by different companies. I will talk a lot more about these companies in subsequent posts. GelTechnology is the company which manufactures the Intelli-Gel for Intelli-Bed. Their trade-names for the honeycomb material is CrossGel, and the gel-like rubber that it's made from, FlexGel. GelTec does not manufacture mattresses, but they do sell a CrossGel topper they call the GelBed Topper. EdiZONE is "a developer of products and technology. Its business model is to conceive and patent unique and valuable technologies and product designs, develop them into prototype products, and then license them to a leader in the applicable marketplace." They invented Gelastic and Intelli-Gel and license these products to Intelli-Bed and MyComfort. Not coincidentally, all four of these companies are based in Utah. Intelli-Gel is protected by U.S. Patent 6,026,527 (and 5,749,111) Gelatinous cushions with buckling columns. Gelastic is covered by patent 5,994,450 Gelatinous elastomer and methods of making and using the same and articles made therefrom. Granted, I am a geek, but I found the 527 patent to be quite interesting and insightful. Disclosure: I have an Intelli-Gel topper on order from MyComfort. I'm trying to keep my posts here informational and not a sales pitch, but anyone with any vested interest in a product cannot be totally objective about it. Just keep that in the back of your mind as you read my posts. I'm an Intelli-Gel fan boy. At least until I get the topper and actually sleep on it. This message was modified Oct 30, 2007 by a moderator
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Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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haysdb wrote: I have a theory. The Gelastic, the elastic rubber material that Intelli-Gel is made of, would itself be a good insulator. The column walls are not air permeable, so if the columns are sealed at the top and bottom, the air inside will be trapped and would gradually heat up. Very plausable, since the material is probably some variation of silicone gel. One example of the insulating properties is cookware. For those curious, there is a $20 gel cushion in most Wal-Mart automotive departments.
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Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
| Well, I think I figured out what is wrong with our pocket gel bed. It is a spine alignment problem. At first, I thought it was needing more lower back support, but that is not it. I really need my shoulders to sink in more. My lower arm tends to fall asleep if I keep my shoulders aligned at a 90 degree to the bed. So I find myself shifting my shoulder alignment so that my bottom shoulder is more in front, so my arm does not fall asleep. When I do this, my lower back is twisted some what, and aches. Last night I forced myself to sleep on my arm so that my shoulders were aligned (and of course it fell asleep, and I had to keep turning.) But my back felt great, though. I am now looking for some topper that will allow my shoulder to sink in a little more (in relation to the rest of my body.) Maybe what I really need is some sort of zoned softness, and that will be impossible with the pocket gel. |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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sager66 wrote: For those curious, there is a $20 gel cushion in most Wal-Mart automotive departments. This looks just like the cushion I was given at an Intelli-Bed store. Dollars to dougnuts it's made by Gel-Technology. donw wrote: Are you sure it's not your down comf? Down traps heat so well, that I can not use it on top of me unless it's freezing (camping sleeping bag.) Neither my wife nor I have experienced heat build up with the gel. Granted, I only spent one night without a topper between me and it, but my wife slept directly on it for weeks. No, I'm not certain. It's possible. But if true, I'll never get to use the 'Avernue' down comforter I bought first if even the light weight one is too warm even on a cool night. I don't remember having the urge to throw off the covers last night, but only to move to a cooler part of the mattress. donw wrote: I really need my shoulders to sink in more. My lower arm tends to fall asleep if I keep my shoulders aligned at a 90 degree to the bed. So I find myself shifting my shoulder alignment so that my bottom shoulder is more in front, so my arm does not fall asleep. When I do this, my lower back is twisted some what, and aches. I'm having that problem too, but I don't have anything soft under the Intelli-Gel. I was all gung-ho on making sure I got my support right, and now I'm progressively softening the top layers. I have an inch of ILD 20 latex arriving tomorrow. That's not much, but I didn't want to overshoot, so I decided to start with 1" and go from there. This message was modified Oct 23, 2007 by haysdb
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Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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donw wrote: Well, I think I figured out what is wrong with our pocket gel bed. It is a spine alignment problem. At first, I thought it was needing more lower back support, but that is not it. I really need my shoulders to sink in more. My lower arm tends to fall asleep if I keep my shoulders aligned at a 90 degree to the bed. So I find myself shifting my shoulder alignment so that my bottom shoulder is more in front, so my arm does not fall asleep. When I do this, my lower back is twisted some what, and aches. Last night I forced myself to sleep on my arm so that my shoulders were aligned (and of course it fell asleep, and I had to keep turning.) But my back felt great, though. I am now looking for some topper that will allow my shoulder to sink in a little more (in relation to the rest of my body.) Maybe what I really need is some sort of zoned softness, and that will be impossible with the pocket gel. Not sure if accessible through archives but I experimented with layering latex (eee"Mad Scientist" thread). What I discovered is that for me at least, standard latex configurations (such as 28/36/44) allowed hips to collapse too much during night when side sleeping. Worse if softer, and shoulder hurt if too firm). Through folding/surface manipulations, determined that if want spine to stay parallel to floor, needed very firm hip support (36/44/44) and very soft shoulder (chest to head) support/comfort (maybe 24/24/24). Each person varies of course, but grabbing a few scales for knee, hip and shoulder regions will give you a rough idea of what might be needed for a side sleeper. I put the project on hold since good quality adhesive has to be used outdoors or with a qigh quality ventilation system, but may return to it in near future. My point is that zoning in the topper alone may soften things a bit, but you'll still get hip kinking unless you zone deeper due to differential weight distribution/point loading. JMO |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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I agree that zoning on the top would be less satisfactory than zoning in the support layers. Dewey at FloBeds told me they are experimenting with a new system that would allow the user to configure the zoned layer, independently for left and right. He said they were doing more custom zoned layers than he ever thought they would, so it just seemed like a natural evolution of what they are doing now. I do not know how many zones or how the pieces are kept in place. I have come across quite a few patents concerning different ways of zoning, so there is definitely some interest, it's just a matter of coming up with a workable system. A flexible slat mattress can firm up some areas relative to others, and therefore provide some zoning. I felt like my ILD 38 core was not supportive enough and yet it was very firm, just as mccldwll describes, so going even more firm for the hips meant making the situation even worse for my shoulders. With the flexible slat foundation, I'm getting the support I need and think I could keep just the bottom layer at ILD 38 and go softer the next layer up, and still not bottom out. I will have the ability to try 38 32 20 (3", 3", 1") under my Intelli-Gel overlay when my toppers arrive from FoamByMail, hopefully today. This message was modified Oct 24, 2007 by haysdb
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Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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donw wrote: Well, I think I figured out what is wrong with our pocket gel bed. It is a spine alignment problem. At first, I thought it was needing more lower back support, but that is not it. I really need my shoulders to sink in more. My lower arm tends to fall asleep if I keep my shoulders aligned at a 90 degree to the bed. So I find myself shifting my shoulder alignment so that my bottom shoulder is more in front, so my arm does not fall asleep. When I do this, my lower back is twisted some what, and aches. Last night I forced myself to sleep on my arm so that my shoulders were aligned (and of course it fell asleep, and I had to keep turning.) But my back felt great, though. I am now looking for some topper that will allow my shoulder to sink in a little more (in relation to the rest of my body.) Maybe what I really need is some sort of zoned softness, and that will be impossible with the pocket gel. My wife and I have the same problem. We have a nexgel bed and we wake up every morning with back aches. We don't weigh that much. Our hips sink too much on the bed. This hurts more when sleeping on our sides. Our hips sink more than the shoulders or feet putting our body out of alignment. We are looking for another bed now. We toss and turn all night long. Our 10 year old bed is more conforatble than this nexgel bed. I would advise not to buy a nexgel bed. |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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This review seems incredibly defensive and I would have to question the validity it is made by someone outside of the intellibed company itself. Why would it be hard for anyone to believe that someone could be unhappy with a product just because they themselves had success with it. To assume that every negative review on the product has to be a competitor and/or someone that purchased a knock-off product is simply paranoia. I have had customers purchase legitimate intellibed mattresses and be less than satisfied with the product and ultimately come and buy something else from us. Does this mean that intellibed is a bad product? No. Just means it wasn't perhaps the right product for that person....there is no such thing as a perfect mattress because every person has different criteria. Take any product that is proven to be among the best in the world and you will find a poor review for it. I have seen pictures of a man in China setting fire to his Lamborghini because he was not happy with the service he was getting. |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
| We bought a gel mattress (My Comfort) from a store in Mesa, Arizona about 4 years ago. What a terrible mistake! The gel has softened and broken down on both sides of the bed (we are not obese) and we now sleep in "sink holes". We both have sore backs and hips because the bed no longer supports our bodies! When we called the store, we found they had gone out of business. We then called a store in Utah that still sold the mattress and they said it would cost us $500.00 to ship it to them and then if they didn't agree that the sinkage was severe, they would charge us another $500.00 to ship it back to us! What a scam! These mattress warranties are a joke! Whatever you do, do NOT buy a gel bed! We paid $4000.00 and now we have to go out and buy a inner-spring mattress to replace it. We are so sad! |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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Markan wrote: We bought a gel mattress (My Comfort) from a store in Mesa, Arizona about 4 years ago. What a terrible mistake! The gel has softened and broken down on both sides of the bed (we are not obese) and we now sleep in "sink holes". We both have sore backs and hips because the bed no longer supports our bodies! When we called the store, we found they had gone out of business. We then called a store in Utah that still sold the mattress and they said it would cost us $500.00 to ship it to them and then if they didn't agree that the sinkage was severe, they would charge us another $500.00 to ship it back to us! What a scam! These mattress warranties are a joke! Whatever you do, do NOT buy a gel bed! We paid $4000.00 and now we have to go out and buy a inner-spring mattress to replace it. We are so sad! |
Re: Intelli-Gel, CrossGel, FlexGel, Galastic, Intelli-Bed, MyComfort, GelTec
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Markan wrote:
We bought a gel mattress (My Comfort) from a store in Mesa, Arizona about 4 years ago. What a terrible mistake! The gel has softened and broken down on both sides of the bed (we are not obese) and we now sleep in "sink holes". We both have sore backs and hips because the bed no longer supports our bodies! When we called the store, we found they had gone out of business. We then called a store in Utah that still sold the mattress and they said it would cost us $500.00 to ship it to them and then if they didn't agree that the sinkage was severe, they would charge us another $500.00 to ship it back to us! What a scam! These mattress warranties are a joke! Whatever you do, do NOT buy a gel bed! We paid $4000.00 and now we have to go out and buy a inner-spring mattress to replace it. We are so sad! Just curious...did the gel layer (2") break down or was it the supporting mattress layers? This message was modified Nov 16, 2011 by simplemind
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