Ergoflex 5G Mattress: review in brief
The ErgoFlex 5G memory foam mattress is the brand's lone model — a culmination of nearly 20 years of research. Is it wise for the ErgoFlex to place all of its faith in one single mattress?
Our tester slept on an ErgoFlex 5G mattress for roughly half a year and has a lot of thoughts about it. If you don't have time to read them all, here's his review in brief...
Type: All foam
Materials: Memory foam, poly foam, Tencel (cover)
Best for: All types of sleepers; co-sleepers; hot sleepers
Firmness (1-10): Medium-firm (7)
Depth: 23cm
Trial: 30 nights
Guarantee: 10 years
Sizes: Single, double, Euro double, king, Euro king, super-king
Starting sale price: From £385 at Ergoflex UK / from AU$899.99 at ErgoFlex AU
Our reviewer was convinced that he didn’t like deep-sink mattresses before trying the ErgoFlex 5G, preferring the solidity (and airflow) of a firmer bed. The 5G mattress changed all that. and to date, it's the best mattress our reviewer says he's ever slept on. After some five months of using it as his primary mattress, during both cool and warm temperatures, he reported that its comfort, support and – most importantly, ambient temperature – all remain the same as the first day of use.
That last point truly makes the 5G stand out against the best memory foam mattresses. It’s common sense that the deeper you sink into a memory foam mattress the warmer you’ll get since the foam will surround your body, trapping heat. Not so here.
With some excellent design and superior materials, including a layer of waved foam and a breathable Tencel and mesh cover, the Ergoflex 5G avoids becoming a heat trap. Happily sleeping through 2024’s UK summer, our tester found the mattress to retain an ambient temperature regardless of the weather.
But this is no one-trick pony. The Ergoflex 5G also felt supportive at all times, and actively relieved pressure around our tester's hips and back. (He's predominantly a side sleeper who switches between front and back.) The all-foam makeup offered exceptional motion isolation — a major benefit for our tester, who's a light sleeper sharing a bed with a partner and a baby.
Edge support is great for an all-foam bed, and setup is fairly straightforward as long as you have help. The removable cover is machine-washable for easy maintenance. We do wish the trial period was longer than the 30 days provided, but after five months of testing, we're impressed with how well the 5G holds up against the rigors of nightly use.
Thanks to regular markdowns of 50% off in the UK, expect to pay no more than £500 for a double. If you're in Australia, you'll see something similar too. Currently a 20% off discount with the code TAKE20 brings a double down to AU$1,019.99. We'll likely see Ergoflex's evergreen deal roll into Black Friday mattress sales.
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: Price & deals
- This is Ergoflex's only mattress, and has been for 10 years
- Regularly discounted, from £390 / AU$719.99 after discount
- Comes with a 10-year guarantee and a 30-night trial
This is the only mattress Ergoflex sells. Among the wider mattress market, the Ergoflex 5G is a well-priced, mid-range model. Thanks to regular discounts, a double often marked down to £483 (from £966) after 50% off in the UK.
Australian shoppers can expect to see about 25% shaved off the listed price usually, which brings the double down to AU$959 (from AU$1,199).
Below are the RRP and regular sale prices for all sizes of the Ergoflex 5G in the UK and Australia:
- Single size RRP - £770 / AU$899.99 (normally sells for £390 / AU$719.99)
- Australian long single size RRP - AU$949.99 (normally sells for AU$712.99)
- Australian king single size RRP - AU$999.99 (normally sells for AU$799.99)
- Double size RRP - £966 / AU$1,199.99 (normally sells for £483 / AU$959.99)
- Euro double size RRP - £976 (normally sells for £488)
- Australian queen size RRP - AU$1,449.99 (normally sells for AU$1,232.49)
- King size RRP - £1,055 / AU$1,599.99 (normally sells for £581 / AU$1,359.99)
- Euro king size RRP - £1,075 (normally sells for £592)
- Super-king size RRP - £1,175 (normally sells for £705)
In its online marketing, Ergoflex talks about Tempur quite a lot, in particular how Ergoflex matches the luxury brand – and even betters it – in certain areas of material quality and luxurious, dense feel, while asking for a fraction of the price. And this bears scrutiny. To put it in perspective, the cheapest Tempur-Pedic mattress on offer in the UK retails for £1,450 for a double.
As for perks, Ergoflex includes a 10-year warranty – quite standard – and a 30-day trial. Compared to brands like Emma (200 nights), Nectar (365 nights), and yes, even Tempur-Pedic (100 nights), that is paltry. On the plus side, returns are free.
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: Materials & design
- A 23cm mattress with three foam layers
- Middle foam layer has air channels for breathability
- Tencel cover is removable and washable
The Ergoflex 5G mattress has a fairly basic three-layer design and measures just 23cm. On top is 9cm of ErgoFlex’s proprietary open-cell, high-density memory foam for contoured support and pressure relief.
In the middle is a 5cm ErgoFlex Airflow foam layer that is shaped for airflow. At the bottom is a 9cm foundation base layer of foam. It's capped by a Tencel cover that's removable and machine-washable.
Even the best memory foam mattresses are prone to retaining heat, which makes the ErgoFlex 5G's design all the more intriguing. The Tencel cover is meant to wick away moisture and has 3D mesh panels to draw away heat.
The channels of the AirFlow foam layer could mimic the effect of pocket springs by preventing air from being trapped in the mattress. We'll reveal whether these components were effective at regulating our sleep temperature below.
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: Firmness & comfort
- A medium-firm mattress with a 7 out of 10 rating
- Top memory foam layer has a deep sink
- Balanced support for all sleep styles
Our tester (and his partner) slept on a double Ergoflex 5G for five months. For the first few weeks, they found it soft but it wasn’t until further research that they realised it's meant to be a medium to firm mattress. What they initially thought was ‘soft’, was the deep-sink feel of the dense 9cm memory foam top layer.
Yes, you will have a comfortable sink-in feel to the mattress, but the density of the top comfort layer is supremely supportive and retains its shape after use. To call it ‘soft’ is inaccurate – we'd say it's medium firm (7 out of 10 on the firmness scale), with one of the deepest feels of any mattress out there.
But what do we mean by density, and why is it important to firmness and comfort? The standard density rating of mattresses expresses how much visco-elastic memory foam is used in its top layer.
If there’s a small amount used, there will be fewer air cavities, or open cells, and those cells will be bigger. The more visco-elastic memory foam used, the denser the top layer, the smaller the open cells, and greater the number.
The latter — which the Ergoflex 5G represents— translates into a top layer with a far longer life span, and far better support. Of course, firmness and comfort are subjective, but in the industry there is an ‘indentation load deflection’ (ILD) rating that reflects the firmness of mattresses.
As the Ergoflex website explains, it is a measurement of, ‘how many pounds of pressure are required to indent a 4-inch layer of memory foam by 25%.’ The 5G’s ILB rating is between 13-15lbs, and therefore rated medium to firm.
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: Performance
- Deep pressure relief minus the heat retention
- Motion isolation is ace – great for co-sleepers
- Still in excellent shape after five months of use
Over five months, we slept in the Ergoflex 5G double-sized mattress every night. Throughout this period, we evaluated all aspects of its performance according to our mattress methodology – pressure relief, motion isolation, temperature regulation and edge support. We also considered its ease of setup, potential for off-gassing and durability. Let’s dive into all these areas in more detail...
Setup
Most modern mattresses have got this part of the equation dialed in, and Ergoflex is no exception. Ergoflex offers free next-day delivery (AU$49.95 in Australia), or a selected day for following days, if the size you buy is in stock.
Saturday deliveries come at a cost of £35 extra (apart from king-sized models, which don’t ship on the weekend). Weekend delivery is not available in Australia, and after hours delivery (6pm to 10pm, Mon-Fri) costs AU$129.95.
Standard purchases include front-door delivery, but in the UK white glove service is available to a room of your choice – but at an extra cost, and may affect the next-day delivery.
We opted for the free standard delivery. The box our double mattress arrived in weighs 30kg, and though one person can move it into its designated room, it’s advised for two people to do so.
Unpacking is simple as there is minimal packaging to get rid of, and the whole process of getting it on the bed base took around 20 minutes. Ergoflex advises that it takes each mattress around 24 hours to fully inflate, but we were ready to sleep on it sooner than that.
Score: 4 out of 5
Off-gassing
Memory foam mattresses in particular are known to emit a strong off-gassing odour upon decompression. While this varies for everyone, that wasn’t the case with our Ergoflex 5G. Even with the bedroom windows shut to capture all smells, there was barely a trace of off-gassing odour over the several hours that it was left to inflate.
It’s worth noting that off-gassing smells pose no health risk – they’re just unpleasant. However, some other mattresses do emit seriously strong smells that can irritate the throat and nose and worsen asthma.
In our experience, the ErgoFlex5G is one of the best in this area, as it was only when our reviewer got incredibly close to the mattress that there was even a slight odour detectable.
Score: 5 out of 5
Pressure relief
When it comes to the 5G mattress, we’ve made clear that the industry standard rating (13-15 LDS) has it as medium/firm. And as also stated, our reviewer was taken by the depth of sink that the 5G offers, while still retaining a level of firmness.
When we conducted our weight tests, to simulate the feel of a person’s body sinking into the mattress with measurements, it all tallied up to the same conclusion – the 5G is super supportive with a deep sink that will relieve pressure points.
We placed two 2.5kg weights in various areas of the mattress, they sank around one inch into the surface. This is a good representation of how much depth your body sinks into the 5G. As a regular gym and basketball nut, not to mention an ageing 43-year old, our lead tester says his knee and hip joints can ache when sleeping on a poorly supportive mattress. This was not the case with the Ergoflex 5G. There was no pressure build-up around the knees, hips or shoulders when he slept on his side, back or front.
Of course, you don’t need a very deep set top foam layer to get good pressure relief from a mattress. For a slightly firmer yet far shallower mattress that still offers support in key areas, check out our Simba Hybrid Original mattress review.
Score: 5 out of 5
Motion isolation
The 5G — as with the vast majority of memory foam mattresses — excels in motion isolation. As it is made primarily of foam, and not springs, motion is absorbed by the foam and not spread around. Taking 5kg of weight, and an empty wine glass, and dropping the weight exactly 4-, 10- and 24 inches away from the glass, we tested how much it disturbed the wine glass, if at all.
Perhaps most telling for the Ergoflex 5G, the closest weight drop of 4 inches did not upend the wine glass but merely moved it momentarily. Then when dropping the weight from 10 inches away. Finally, the 25-inch distance did not register with the wine glass at all. So if your partner is tossing and turning, or on a different schedule to you, you're unlikely to be disturbed.
Our tester shares a bed with a very restless partner who moves around a lot, but also gets in and out of bed several times in the night. With the Ergoflex 5G, our tester (a light sleeper) hardly felt his partner's movements.
Score: 5 out of 5
Temperature regulation
As a memory foam mattress, this is where the Ergoflex 5G shines. All-foam mattresses are known for below average temperature regulation as the top comfort layer of foam hugs your body, trapping heat. That’s especially true at the low- to mid-price ranges, as cheaper, less breathable materials are used.
This is where the 5G performs a bit of a magic trick. It offers sink-in depth and comfort, which means more foam surrounding the sleeper’s body, and yet it does not overheat.
We slept on the Ergoflex 5G for around five months, spanning a UK spring and summer, where night temperatures were regularly around mid-20 degrees – and yet it never slept warm. The fact that Ergoflex has a large Australian market is testament that it’s nailed temperature regulation with the 5G.
No matter what bedding we used — light duvet or cotton sheets — the bed itself did a fantastic job of not capturing body heat. This is thanks to the middle layer of foam, which is shaped a bit like an egg crate to help dissipate heat. Add to that a moisture-wicking Tencel outer cover that is vented with mesh fabric, and you have a mattress that has been designed to promote a comfortable sleep temperature at all times.
Score: 5 out of 5
Edge support
Edge support is important for different reasons. Ultimately it describes how well the edge of the mattress holds up to body pressure, and that can be important for propelling yourself off the edge to get out of bed, but also if a sleeper's favoured position is siding up to the edge of a mattress. It's also a good indicator of whether a mattress will fall foul of premature sagging around the edge.
Our tester often had to sleep right up to the edge of the Ergoflex 5G mattress, having to share space with his partner and their baby. Luckily with the 5G, that was not a problem. Our tester never felt like he was about to fall out. He also felt supported while getting out of bed and sitting on the edge. Placing two 2.5kg weights along the edge the surface sank around an inch – the same amount as the centre of the mattress.
Sounds good, so why four out of five for edge support? It’s because we've experienced far more edge support in other mattresses, where a manufacturer has provided a separate length of material to skirt around the perimeter of the mattress, providing a dedicated edge support – something that the 5G does not. (To be fair, memory foam mattresses don't really specialise in that area.)
In practical terms, the 5G has great edge support, but knowing that there are better, more dedicated edge support out there, it can’t be awarded full marks here.
Score: 4 out of 5
Durability
After five months of testing, the Ergoflex 5G looks and feels the same as when it was first slept in. With three bodies using it for nearly half a year, the 5G has kept its form perfectly, retaining its motion isolation and edge support, and not developing any sag anywhere.
It’s nice that you can remove the cover and wash it easily, especially when you have kids, and when you put it back it still fits nice and snug on the mattress. As far as the durability of the mattress itself, it looks and feels exactly the same as day one – a testament to the high-quality materials used throughout.
Score: 5 out of 5
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: User reviews
- 4.9 out of 5 stars from over 5,000 reviews (September 2024)
- Positive reviews call out comfort and great value
- Negative comments concern returns and design
One of the benefits of ErgoFlex only making one model of mattress, is that when looking at user reviews, there can be no confusion as to what mattress is being talked about. And the user feedback couldn’t be more positive. Here's the breakdown of reviews according to source as of September 2024:
- TrustPilot: 4.8 out of 5 stars (1,400+ product reviews)
- Review Centre: 4.8 out of 5 stars (2,000+ product reviews)
- YotPo: 4.9 out of 5 stars (140+ product reviews)
- FeeFo: 4.9 out of 5 stars (1,700+ product reviews)
Looking deeper at the low-score reviews, and the response from Ergoflex, is interesting. With many of the one-star reviews, some users were annoyed that Ergoflex would not accept the mattress back after the agreed 30-day trial period.
Others disliked the mattress because it couldn’t be flipped over and used on its reverse side (something that is just not done in modern memory foam mattresses). Ergoflex responds politely, but also doesn’t pull any punches if the negative review is factually incorrect, which is a good sign of a passionate and proud brand.
As for the overwhelmingly positive reviews, common themes were superior comfort and support at a great price. There were many examples of return customers purchasing another Ergoflex mattress either after a decade-plus of using their last one or as a secondary mattress. Quick delivery and a convenient setup were also mentioned a lot.
Should you buy the Ergoflex 5G mattress?
The Ergoflex 5G mattress is the most comfortable and supportive mattress our reviewer has slept on, even five months later. The top layer of 9cm memory foam is medium to firm, but it's also soft and will allow you to sink into it for deep pressure relief and contoured support. If that isn’t your preferred style of mattress, definitely don’t get the 5G.
Perhaps most remarkable is that the top comfort layer of foam is so enveloping without being a heat trap. With excellent motion isolation, it will also suit light sleepers with restless partners. Add to that edges that you can sleep right up against and you’ve got a memory foam mattress that offers top tier features at a remarkably competitive price.
Ergoflex 5G mattress review: Alternatives to consider
If you’re on a tighter budget, the Emma Original in a double is cheaper at £399 or less when on sale. (There's a small double available, as well.) Temperature regulation isn't as good here, but you’ll still get a decent budget mattress that’s very comfortable for side and back sleepers. The edge support could be better, but is on par with the 5G. Read more in our Emma Original mattress review.
Currently, our best mattress pick overall is the Reylon Bridgwater, a 30cm hybrid with 1,184 pocket springs for supreme support, a layer of breathable latex and temperature-regulating wool so it won’t sleep warm. However, it's a splurge compared to the 5G. A double will cost you £1,299, and there currently aren’t that many discounts to be had. Read more in our Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex mattress review.
As Ergoflex mentions Tempur so much in its marketing — specifically that the 5G offers a cheaper option of similar top quality — it’s definitely worth considering if you want the responsiveness and airflow of springs with the slow move of memory foam. Note that it's a limited sale item and stock is selling out quickly. Read more in our Tempur-Pedic Tempur Hybrid Elite mattress review.
