Casper Hybrid Review

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If you’ve been searching the web for a new mattress, chances are you’re running into a lot of advertising. There’s a good chance you’ve at least heard of Casper. If I’m right, it’s not because I’m behind any kind of dubious publicity scheme. Casper was one of the companies that got the online mattress shopping experience kicked off around six years ago.

Since that time, they’ve grown to serve over a million sleepers and have maintained an  A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. I’ve had the chance to try out several Casper products at this point:

• Casper Original Mattress
• Casper Wave
• Casper Element

The company has recently come out with a hybrid line that adds an innerspring unit to the Original and Wave models. If you’re looking for something plush that works well for side sleepers and people who don’t carry a whole lot of weight, I think the Casper Wave Hybrid we looked at last time could be a great choice. However, if you need something a little firmer and/or want to save some money, today we’re taking the Casper Hybrid for a test drive.

This is a spin on their most popular design, and I’m really excited to show you how the addition of an innerspring unit has changed the performance of this product, so let’s jump right in!

Casper the Company: Some Background

Casper has a very inspirational back story. Founders Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, T. Luke Sherwin, and Jeff Chapin took a leap of faith. Despite being told people would never buy a mattress online, they invested $100,000 of their own money into the development of a product that was:

• Affordable without compromising on quality
• Focused on one model geared toward the average person’s needs
• Available with quick, free delivery and 100-night sleep trial

Although risks like this often result in failure, Casper hit a homerun. Not only were they able to succeed in all three points of their business model, but they introduced the bed-in-a-box shipping concept that quickly led to the rise of competition. Today, there are an estimated 175 online mattress companies to choose from, and this number is growing.

Casper sure proved the skeptics wrong!

Within their first month in business, Casper raked in an incredible million dollars in sales, and they even enjoyed celebrity endorsements. Kylie Jenner released the unboxing of her Casper

mattress and generated around 870,000 likes. In fact, her video was so popular she said the response nearly “broke our website.”

Although they originally planned to focus on one model, it was impossible to predict the incredible success of their concept. In response to the quick manifestation of competition, they introduced the Wave and Essential to serve a larger customer base.

They’ve continued on with their innovative spirit with the introduction of hybrid versions of the Original and Wave models, and I recently had the chance to try both. Let’s take a look inside to see how it’s changed.

A Look Inside the Casper Hybrid Mattress

Let’s start off with a look at the layer lineup so you can get a better understanding of where and how you get comfort and support from the Casper Hybrid Mattress.

The Cover

Nothing has changed in the cover. If you’ve read our review of the Original Casper Mattress, you’ll notice it features the same polyester/spandex blend that results in a soft, stretchy feel. In my past experience, this produced a very breathable effect that keeps you sleeping nice and cool.

The Comfort Zone

Since the cover is so thin, you can really engage with the first 1 ½ inch layer of Casper’s open-cell foam. This proprietary material is reminiscent of latex in that it provides a good

degree of bounce, and that’s a great feature here in the top layer since it:

• Gives you that little extra boost when you move around or get out of bed.
• Aids in mobility for those who change positions frequently during sleep.

Since it’s open-cell, this means breathability is enhanced, and we’ll be taking a look at our heat transfer testing here in a few minutes to see how it worked out.

The next 1½  inch layer is composed of memory foam, and it’s here where we get that pressure relief we need in those heavier areas of the body like the hips and shoulders.

Many products place memory foam in layer one, and this does provide a boost in contour. However, it can also make it feel like you’re “stuck” in the mattress and even lead to hot sleeping which prevents you from maximizing rejuvenating REM sleep, so I think placement in layer two makes a lot of sense.

The Support Zone

As we move down to layer three, we start to transition into support with 1 ½ inches of high-density Zoned SupportTM poly foam. It serves two primary purposes:

1. It eases you into the spring unit so you don’t feel the coils poking you when you lie on the mattress.
2. It’s also zoned, and this means the foam is a little firmer in the hip area to keep your spine in alignment as this is typically the heaviest area of the body. In the shoulders, the foam is a little softer, and this works to enhance comfort and reduce pressure points.

The Big Change

The next seven-inch layer is composed of the innerspring unit that was added to this hybrid version of the original Casper Mattress. This replaces the 5½ inch foam base, and you can really tell the increase in support this provides. I think this complements

layer one very well in terms of ease in mobility, and the spring unit works great at cradling the soft foams above to arrive at a combined unit that balances comfort and support very well.

The layer lineup ends off with a final half inch layer of high dense foam that works to square off the look of the mattress when the ticking is applied as well as spread out the load in the event the mattress is placed on an uneven support base. The total mattress thickness is 12 inches.

Casper Hybrid Feel & Performance

With a better understanding of how this mattress is composed, let’s discuss for a moment what this combination of materials feels like. Right off the bat, I have to say that the resilient-yet-gentle spring design really shows. With some mattresses, coils can make the product too firm, and sometimes you can feel them, which is never comfortable.

Although their inclusion is seamless, you still get that floating feeling due to the elevated lift they provide. I’m loving the fact that quick response is considered on both the top and bottom of this mattress, and I find it very easy to move from one position to another.

Impressive Spinal Alignment through Zoned Support

I also think the zoned support of layer three does a great job allowing the shoulders to settle a little more than the hips. My spine feels very well aligned in all three sleeping positions, and it would make sense that this feature is a large contributing factor. I’m also feeling excellent support in the hips, and this is good news for anyone out there who suffers from lower back pain.

I love the feeling that results from the placement of the memory foam under the bouncy

latex-like material in layer one. You get all the contouring benefits without feeling stuck. I am particularly comfortable when:

• Lying on my back with the excellent lumbar support
• Side sleeping considering the zoned plushness that’s added to keep pressure points at bay

It’s that same zoning that keeps your hips from sinking in when stomach sleeping as this can throw the spine out of alignment and cause aches and pains when you wake up. Because of this, it comes as no surprise that Casper is endorsed by the  American Chiropractic Association™. For anyone who has suffered from lower back pain on their mattress, I think you can gain many benefits from this type of zoning.

Firmness & Contour

The Casper Hybrid Mattress is advertised as being the perfect balance of soft and firm. This was a little confusing until I had the chance to try it out. As we do with all mattresses we test, I used our firmness and contour testing tool to see how much sinkage would result when placing various

weights representative of the different areas of the body onto the surface.

As you can see from this graph, the Casper mattress is right up there with some of the firmer mattresses I’ve tried out. I found this to be very interesting since it doesn’t feel overly firm. I think this is very representative of how well the foam combination in the comfort layer along with the transition foam works to make it feel like the supportive coils aren’t even there.

Unique Casper Hybrid Contour

When it comes to how your body will react to the contour provided, we’ll take a look at the contour chart generated from our testing. You can see the blue line is much shorter than the red line, and this indicates the heavier areas of the body will be better able to adapt to the added contour and remain aligned without support kicking in too early and causing pressure points.

These results are typically an excellent fit for women with pear or apple-shaped bodies and men with triangle, rhomboid, or inverted triangle body types.

Casper Hybrid Motion Transfer Reduction

Sleep partners especially are concerned with excessive motion transfer. This is often an issue in innerspring units where a continuous coil design is used as motion on one side of the mattress dominoes to the other side.

Casper uses independently wrapped coils, and this makes an enormous difference. If

you’re concerned with the combination of bouncy materials at both the bottom and top of the mattress, take a look at the video above as I drop a 20-pound medicine ball next to another of equal weight. It’s hard to believe there’s a coil unit at all.

In my experience sleeping on this mattress, motion isolation was excellent, and I experienced very minimal disturbance when my sleep partner switched sleep positions or got in and out of bed.

Don’t just take my word for it!

I thought it was worth noting that, as I researched this product, I came across a review from a couple that reported sleeping through an earthquake that registered as a 4.4 on the Richter scale while sleeping on their Casper product. If that doesn’t tell you something about its motion isolation properties, I don’t know what will!

Casper Hybrid Breathability

The original Casper mattress performed better than average in our heat transfer testing, so I was very interested to see the effect the addition of an innerspring unit would have as they’re typically very breathable by design. To recap, Casper, employed three primary measures to keep this product sleeping cool:

1. Thin, breathable cover
2. Open-cell foams
3. An innerspring unit composed of individually-wrapped coils which typically excel in heat transfer

In our heat transfer test with the original Casper mattress, it took right around nine minutes for it to cool back down to room temperature after lying on it for a half-hour, and I hypothesized this one would cool off a little quicker.

I’m not one to toot my own horn, but, when you’re right, you’re right!

It only took the Casper Hybrid mattress around seven minutes to cool down, and this is about 30% faster than average. If you have a tendency to sleep hot, I think the breathability features of this product will be a great fit.

Casper Hybrid Edge Support Performance

Edge support keeps you from falling out of bed, makes it easier to sit on the edge, and helps make getting out of bed easier. Products made entirely of foam often lack in this department. I can tell you from experience that it’s more difficult to compress innersprings with your hand than it is to push down on foam slabs.

 

The Casper Hybrid performs much better in terms of edge support, and this is thanks to the innersprings. They also add an extra two inches to the total mattress thickness, and this helps keep you from bottoming out on the edge. I think the hybrid version of Casper’s original mattress is going to be a better choice and well worth the extra couple hundred bucks if you:

• Sit on the edge often
• Have a sleep partner
• Suffer from mobility issues

Durability: Will the Casper Hybrid Mattress Hold Up?

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, and if this sounds like it might be the right sleep solution for you, let’s take a moment to discuss durability expectations and overall

value. Obviously, a mattress is a pretty big investment, so let’s take a look at how the Casper Hybrid sizes up.

In foams, we like to look at densities to gauge how long they should last. Unfortunately, this information is proprietary. That’s why I extracted square inch chunks to make these calculations for myself.

I was impressed with the results.

My Measurements

We need to calculate pounds per cubic feet

Scale measures grams

1 cubic inch to cubic feet = 0.000578704

1 gram = 0.00220462

Weight in grams x 0.00220462 =  weight in lbs

• .8257 x 0.00220462= .001820354734 / 0.000578704= 3 pcf
• .9030 x 0.00220462=.00199077186 / 0.000578704= 3.5 pcf
• .7076 x 0.00220462=.001559989112 / 0.000578704= 2.7 pcf
• .7864 x 0.00220462= .0001733713168 / 0.000578704= 3 pcf

Let’s break down what these numbers mean.

1. Layer one is a little tricky to determine. That’s because this is a material that’s made to act like latex, but it’s not actually latex. In latex, we typically just expect good durability as it lasts long naturally. In this layer, we find a density of around 3 pcf, and this is generally pretty good in memory foams and latex.
2. As we move down to the memory foam in layer two, the density increases to around 3.5 pcf, and this is excellent considering the price.
3. Polyfoams only need to be around 1.8 pcf to last, and the transition foam weighs in at 2.7, so this is above and beyond what’s acceptable.
4. Finally, the small layer of poly foam beneath the coils weighs in at around 3 pfc.

Overall, the foams should hold up well over time, so let’s examine the bulk of this product.

You may want to read: Casper Hybrid Coupon Page

Evaluating the Innerspring Durability

In innersprings, we need to examine the coil count. In queen products, 800 is good, and anything over 1,000 is awesome. Again, Casper’s coil count is proprietary, but, since there was no encasement foam around the coils, I was able to feel around the edge and count the coils to make the calculation.

I counted 23 coils at the foot of the mattress and 48 along the side. This calculates to a total of 1,104 coils, so this is excellent.

Overall Durability Impression

I was very impressed with the quality of each material used in the construction of the Casper Hybrid mattress, and it should easily last six to eight years when properly cared for.

Maintenance, Protection, Care & Warranty

My main hangup with this mattress is that it’s kind of hard to move, but this is usually the case with products containing latex or latex-like materials. The great news is that in-home setup is offered in all states except Hawaii and Alaska. You can order their products in both the US and Canada. They ship via UPS Standard from warehouse partners in each country.

If you’re in New York or LA, you may qualify for same-day delivery if you’re in a true mattress emergency situation. Customers are allowed 100 nights to try it out, and, after that, your 10-year limited warranty protects you against possible manufacturing-related issues. Casper offers free shipping and returns.

A few tips Casper offers on helping you make your Casper Hybrid last include:

• Wash the cover at 40 degrees Celsius.
• Use platform bed, foundation + frame, or an adjustable base.
• Don’t flip the mattress. It will hurt your back to lying that closely to the innerspring unit.
• Do rotate head to toe every six months or so. This is especially important if you have a sleep partner.

Cost

Financing Available

If you don’t quite have the money in your account to buy your Casper Hybrid today, you don’t have to suffer while you save. Casper does offer 0% financing through Affirm with payments as low as $61/month to qualified buyers.

If you’re ready to buy a Casper Hybrid mattress for yourself, here’s a breakdown of the cost:

• Twin- $695
• Twin XL- $795
• Full- $1,195
• Queen- $1,295
• King- $1,495
• California King- $1,495

Who We Recommend the Casper Hybrid For

So, is the Casper Hybrid the right mattress for you? I think it’s a great fit for:

• Combination sleepers with the use of the Zoned SupportTM
• Anyone with mobility issues considering the use of bouncy materials in both the base and top comfort layer
• Women with pear or apple-shaped bodies
• Men with triangle, rhomboid, or inverted triangle body types
• Hot sleepers
• Sleep partners considering the excellent edge support and low motion transfer

You may want to read : Casper Wave Hybrid Review

Our Final Verdict

Casper makes multiple efforts to keep its environmental impact low. They’ve made over 70,000 donations through partners like the International Rescue Committee and A Sense of Home, and they even recycle old sheets, pillows, and bedding at select Casper stores. I think companies that make these kinds of sacrifices demonstrate a desire to connect with consumers on more than just a monetary level, so that’s always refreshing.

Foams used in the Casper Hybrid are CertiPUR-US certified, and this means they’re made without ozone-depleting chemicals.

Although this mattress is rather difficult to move around, white-glove setup is offered, so this is only an issue if you need to move it after the initial setup. If you have a sleep partner, enjoy a mattress with serious bounce, sleep hot, and appreciate zoned support, the Casper Hybrid mattress is definitely worth strong consideration.