Sitting on the edge of a mattress is how most of us judge one in the shop, before we've even lain down, and the Sealy Elevate Ultra Luxury gives you a solid, level seat from the moment you sit. It's the medium in the Sealy Elevate Collection, a range Sealy makes in the UK for Furniture Village alone, and it's aimed at the buyer who wants a little cushioning on top and a steady, supportive bed underneath. Under a quilted euro top you get copper-infused graphite foam, a pressure-relief foam aimed at your hips and lower back, and Sealy's AlignSupport coil unit, 33cm (13in) deep in all. The collection comes in soft, medium and firm, and this is the one in the middle. Lie back and your hips settle a centimetre or two into the quilting before the coils start lifting you level.
Its nearest relation is the Sealy Elevate Elite at the same shop, built on the same AlignSupport coil and copper foam. The Elite is Firm with a flat top. This one is a grade softer and adds the quilted top, the XT version of Sealy's UniCased edge, with interlocking keys along the border of the coil unit, and a mesh border for air, and it stands 2cm deeper. Furniture Village calls that top a pillow top. Look at how the quilted panel sits flush with the border, though, and it's a euro top, the style Sealy's own Elevate Ultra beds describe as a quilted eurotop, and a euro top is something I'm glad to see. It's a good build. It just isn't my bed. Sealy doesn't excite me as a brand, which is my taste talking, and at this money I want pocket springs under me.
The Elevate Ultra Luxury suits average-weight back and combination sleepers
Weight comes first when I match someone to a bed, then position. Somewhere between nine and sixteen stone, sleeping on your back or switching between back and side through the night, you're who this grade is for. The quilting gives your shoulders a soft landing, and the two-stage coil firms up as more of your weight arrives, so your lower back lies level instead of dipping. Turning over takes no effort, because the coils push back briskly.
Lighter side sleepers, around nine stone or under, should look elsewhere. A medium over a firm coil leaves a light shoulder perched on top, and the quilting won't let it down far enough. Heavier back sleepers, over about seventeen stone, press through the top quickly and end up on the coils anyway, and the flat, firm Elite gives you that feel directly. Front sleepers belong on something firmer too, because a cushioned top lets your hips drop and your back arch.
Is the Sealy Elevate Ultra Luxury a pillow top?
No, it's a euro top, and I rate that as the better design. A pillow top is a separate soft pad stitched on above the border, and you can usually see the step where it sits proud. Here the quilted panel of foam and Eternity fibre is sewn flush into the border all the way round, so the soft layer reaches right out to the sides with no step to roll into. Sealy says the Eternity fibre helps the quilt keep its shape. That design is a fair part of why the bed feels so composed at the edge, and why lying down feels cushioned instead of thin.
The one thing to know is that any quilted top settles a little where your hips spend the night. This bed has one sleeping face and can't be turned, so rotating it is the only way to share that out, and my own preference will always be a mattress with two usable sides. Spin it end to end often in its first few months and the settling stays even.
The UniCased XT edge is what I'd credit most
Give Sealy its due here. UniCased XT is a firm border running round the outside of the coil unit, with interlocking keys that stop the coils shifting sideways, and it gives you a solid seat on the border and the full width to sleep on. The owners who mention it are delighted. One wrote that it was finally a good night's sleep "without the fear of rolling off", and another said there's no feeling of being about to go over the side.
My bed is shared with a partner and a cat, who sleeps on it every night, which is why the edge is the first thing I check on any hybrid. When the sides give, you lose the outer few inches of the bed to the slope, and this one's sides stay put. If you're older, or you sit on the side to dress each morning, a firm edge on a 33cm bed makes getting up that bit easier too.
The finish deserves credit as well. A brown-grey mesh band runs round the border under the quilting, the side panels are a smart patterned weave, and the knit cover carries Sealy's SmarTex with aloe vera. It looks like a properly dressed bed. It's handcrafted in the UK, which is pleasant to know, but what decides a mattress for me is what's inside it.
AlignSupport is a two-stage coil, and it isn't sold as pocket springs
Sealy's patented AlignSupport unit works in two stages: the coils give as you lie down and follow the shape of your body, then firm up to hold you as your full weight settles. The wire is tempered twice, a heat treatment Sealy uses for strength. That's why the bed feels supportive under a cushioned top, and the back stories in its reviews fit with it. One owner said their back was "feeling better already", and another stopped waking up with hip and lower back pain. Pain that lasts is a job for your GP, whatever you sleep on.
I'm less keen on how the coils work together. Sealy doesn't sell AlignSupport as pocket springs, and a connected coil unit like this moves more as one piece than a pocket unit does. With pocket springs, every coil is wrapped separately and works alone, so a partner rolling over stays on their half. The Posturepedic spring system has never won me over.
Copper foam and the mesh border give a warm sleeper a little help
Directly under the quilting is Sealy's INFUSE Copper, a graphite foam with copper in it. An infusion like that is a mild plus in any foam, and I'd count it as one. I'd never choose a mattress on health grounds, so copper's health reputation stays out of my decision. The mesh band round the border is a sensible touch, giving the warm air inside somewhere to go. I'm less convinced by cooling cover fabrics, SmarTex included.
Put together, it's comfortable for an average sleeper and middling if you run hot, because foam and fibre on top still keep some of your warmth close. Hot sleepers do better on springs under natural fillings, which is where my alternative below comes in. The cover also has Sealy's ProShield anti-allergen treatment. A treatment with no named scheme behind it is a nice extra to me and nothing more, so keep washing your bedding hot.
Is the Elevate Ultra Luxury worth the money?
For the build, it's a fair Sealy, and for my money it isn't the best spend in the shop. Furniture Village sits at the dear end of the high street for me, and an exclusive model makes that harder to check, because you can't look the same bed up anywhere else. It's Furniture Village's own take on Sealy's Elevate Ultra platform, the same family as the Sealy Elevate Ultra Daito at Dreams, which carries its own Dreams-only comfort layer. Compare the two on what's inside them, and ignore the names.
Middling reviews are where I always start, because they're written once the excitement has worn off, and a three-star review of this bed is worth reading twice. Its owner headed it with the question every buyer here should ask, whether it was worth the money, and found it "not as comfortable or supporting as I had hoped", while giving the build only a cautious nod. Where I agree with this owner is the money: the build is sound, and at this price you can do better. Delivery reports go both ways, with one crew praised as fantastic and another called terrible, and that's about the van, not the mattress.
What to buy instead
Buy the Vispring Traditional Pocket Sprung Mattress, which costs less at the same shop and comes in a Medium tension too. Vispring is a maker whose components I respect and whose prices usually make me wince, so finding one for less than a Sealy is a pleasant surprise. You get 1,254 six-coil pocket springs in a king, each hand-nested in calico, under British fleece wool and cotton, hand-tufted, with two rows of side stitching and handles. Wool and cotton sleep cooler than foam, and every spring moves on its own, so a restless partner stays on their own side.
It's a different feel, mind. At 21cm it's far slimmer, made with bedsteads in mind, and its tufted top is springier and flatter than this quilted one, without the Luxury's cushioned first touch. If you'd rather stay with Sealy and you like firm, the Elevate Elite is cheaper and gives you the same coil and copper foam under a flat top, for anyone who sleeps on their back or front and wants to lie on the bed more than in it. Keep the Elevate Ultra Luxury for one buyer: an average-weight back or combination sleeper who wants a cushioned euro top, likes a firm edge to sit on, and doesn't mind rotating a one-sided bed.
