A mattress that gives a little the moment you lie on it, with a name on the label your parents would know: that's what draws people to the Sealy Posturepedic Elevate Bentham Plush. It's the plush end of Sealy's Elevate range at Mattress Online, a soft-to-medium bed made in Britain: five layers of foam over Sealy's AlignSupport coil unit, finished with a quilted euro-style top, 34cm (13.5in) deep. Lie on your side and your shoulder settles a couple of centimetres into the foam before the coils start pushing back. It's nice and soft, and for a lighter side sleeper that's the whole appeal.
That softer first touch is what separates it from the Sealy Holst Elevate, which is the same Elevate build a grade firmer, at medium, and 4cm shallower. The Sealy Arden Elevate Ultra is the real step up: a tier higher in the Elevate Ultra line, with memory foam tucked under its InfiniLux top, so your shoulder gets a slow, moulding sink instead of a quick soft one. My main reservation is underneath. The soft feel sits on an uncounted Sealy coil unit, and the Kaymed Smart Phase 2000 Pocket Hybrid at the same shop gives you that same soft-to-medium feel on pocket springs. That's where I'd send most of you.
Plush lovers deserve their due here. If every medium bed you try leaves you lying on top of it, never in it, the Bentham gets that part right, and it suits one sleeper well: a lighter side sleeper, around nine stone or under, who finds most mattresses a plank at the shoulder and has their heart set on a Sealy. It's also a fair pick if dust mites set off your allergies and you want a soft bed, since the cover carries Allergy UK's seal of approval across the Elevate collection. Heavier people, over about fifteen stone, should give it a miss, and so should back sleepers who like firm and anyone sharing with a partner who turns over all night.
The Elevate Bentham Plush is soft to medium, from 9cm of foam
Sealy grades it Plush, one of its own five comfort grades, and Mattress Online calls it soft to medium. Add the foam layers together and you get 9cm. Two 2cm layers of InfiniLux foam sit at the top for cushioning, a 1cm pad of ComfortCore foam runs across the middle third of the bed under your hips, and two 2cm layers of Sealy's medium foam firm the feel up before you reach the coils. A layer of EternityFibre, Sealy's fibre pad for steadying the fillings, goes in too.
Thin layers stacked like that give you a soft top that firms up in steps. You sink easily for the first inch, then meet resistance fairly quickly. Under nine stone on your side, that's the right amount of give: your shoulder goes in and your waist stays supported. An average-weight side sleeper gets something nearer a medium with a soft skin on it. Over about fifteen stone, your hip presses through the foam to the coils, and the plush grade stops meaning much.
I always flag a thin comfort layer on a bed at this money, and 9cm out of 34cm is thin. The rest of the depth is the coil unit, the foam case round it and a stiff base layer underneath, and none of that reaches you as softness. Eight Sealy names go into this one mattress, and the one I'd most like a number for is the coil unit.
The top deserves its credit, and so does the finish. A euro top is sewn flush to the border rather than perched on top like a pillow top, so the plush layer runs right to the edge and there's no gully where a separate pad meets the sides. The closest Sealy model we can find, the Edison Luxury Plush, is finished the same way. That top is why the Bentham feels cushioned rather than merely soft. Any soft top like this softens a little where you lie over the first months, which is one more reason to keep up the rotating Sealy asks for.
AlignSupport is an uncounted Sealy coil unit, and I'd still pick pocket springs
Give Sealy its due first. AlignSupport coils are tempered twice, a heat treatment for the steel, and each one is a two-stage coil, so it gives easily under light pressure and stiffens as more weight goes on. UniCased is a foam frame that locks the coils in place and firms up the border, and BasePlank is the stiff layer fixed underneath it. That edge is one of the best things about the bed: sit on it to get dressed and it's built to take your weight without folding.
This is where we part ways. Sealy doesn't call AlignSupport pocket springs, and that's the part I'd want settled before I spent this much. With pocket springs each coil sits in its own fabric pocket and works on its own, so the bounce from a partner turning over stays on their side of the bed. I'm a light sleeper and I wake easily, which is why that matters so much to me in a shared bed. I'll own my bias: I've always been a bit cool on Sealy as a brand, and I've never been sold on its Posturepedic springs, and at this price I want each spring in its own pocket. Before you order, ask Mattress Online how many coils go into your size, because that number tells you more about the unit than any of its names do.
At 34cm deep it wants deep sheets and two people to rotate it
Anything over 30cm is fitted-sheet trouble, so buy deep-pocket sheets before the first night. It's a heavy bed as well: a double weighs 36kg and a king 41kg. It's one-sided too. I prefer a mattress you can turn, because using both faces spreads the wear, and here rotation is all you get. Sealy asks for plenty of it: end to end at least twice a month in year one, then once a month, and its terms expect you to follow the care guide. Put the reminder in your phone the day it arrives.
Check your base before delivery as well. Sealy wants slats about 10cm (4in) wide with gaps no wider than 7.5cm (3in). Wide-gapped or broken slats are the first thing I blame for a dip, before I blame the mattress, and they'd also give Sealy a reason to turn a complaint down.
Sealy counts a dip under 32mm as normal settlement
Read the sag clause before you buy any mattress, and here is this one's. Sealy's care guide says settlement of less than 32mm, about an inch and a quarter, is normal. Soft foam settles where you lie on any bed, so that's the line to know: below it, an impression is yours to live with. Any complaint goes to Mattress Online first, and the shop inspects the bed before Sealy will discuss it, so keep your receipt with the care guide.
The Allergy UK cover is a real reason to choose it
The knitted cover is treated with ProShield, which Allergy UK describes as a probiotic that releases friendly bacteria to keep house dust mites at bay, and the charity lists the Posturepedic Elevate collection under its seal of approval. That's a recognised scheme, and for a dust-mite sufferer who wants soft over springs it's a fair reason to pick this bed. No mattress treats an allergy, though. Wash your bedding hot, throw the duvet back each morning to air the bed, and take symptoms to your GP.
The same cover uses SmarTex yarn, which Sealy says draws heat and moisture away from you. I'm less convinced by cooling covers than by what sits under them. The foam here is reflex foam, and it doesn't trap heat the way memory foam does, so a warm sleeper is fine on it without counting on the yarn.
Mattress Online's 100-Night Comfort Trial is an exchange for another mattress, so if the soft grade turns out wrong for you, you can swap it for a firmer one.
What to buy instead
Buy the Kaymed Smart Phase 2000 Pocket Hybrid, which costs less at the same shop. You get the same nice, soft first touch at the same soft-to-medium grade, only here it sits on pocket springs, 2,000 of them in a king, each in its own fabric pocket, under a single 8.5cm layer of Smart Phase foam. That's nearly the Bentham's whole foam stack in one thicker piece, at 32cm deep, with handles on the sides for all that rotating. The copper and phase-change crystals in the foam are a mild bonus I wouldn't pay extra for. The pocket springs are the reason to buy it.
If you'd rather stay with Sealy and can take a grade firmer, the Holst is cheaper and gives you the same AlignSupport coils, UniCased edge and InfiniLux and ComfortCore foams at medium, 30cm deep. Back sleepers of average weight are better off there. If you want the Sealy that genuinely moves the build on, spend more on the Arden Elevate Ultra, the one with memory foam under the top. Keep the Bentham for one kind of sleeper: a lighter side sleeper who wants a Sealy, likes the cushioned euro-style top and the Allergy UK cover, and is happy to rotate it on schedule.
