Casper Wave Hybrid Review

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In a world full of new sleep products, many of us like to stick with something familiar. When it comes to the online shopping industry, Casper is one of the most well-known. They’ve been on the scene since the bed-in-a-box concept really took off back at the beginning of 2014 and remain a major player in the space. Just a few benefits this produces include:

• More time to analyze consumer feedback
• A longer period to implement that feedback into the production of new products.

It’s been about a year since I took a look at the Casper Wave mattress. To sum things up, I deduced that its combination of excellent support, bounce, and contour makes it a good choice for side sleepers and sleep partners who need great motion isolation.

New Spin on the Original Wave

Today, we’re taking a look at a new spin on the Casper Wave. Using the same soft foams, the Wave Hybrid combines pocketed coils to add even more bounce and support.

If you’re in the market for a plush, luxurious feel but are worried you’ll end up with something that’s hard to move around in, keep reading to see how Casper’s new spin worked out.

A Look at the Industry-Leading Mattress Company

Casper

The company behind the Wave Hybrid mattress was founded around 5 ½ years ago by Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, T. Luke Sherwin, and Jeff Chapin. Although the company became official in 2014, these guys spent years of hard work leading up to this point. In fact, their extensive research and dedication into the discovery of viable sleep solutions got them $100,000 in debt.

The risk paid off.

While they certainly came up with some great products, it was their business model that really made their mark in the industry. They strove to:

• Offer a quality mattress that’s still affordable
• Focus on one model geared toward the average shopper
• Offer quick, free delivery and a 100-night sleep trial

Within just a month, Casper reported sales of a cool million dollars.

There was certainly no shortage of spotlight once their ingenious shipping method hit mainstream media. Kylie Jenner was able to generate 870,000 likes with her Casper unboxing video, commenting that she thought it “broke our website”. CNBC produced a great background video that walks you through the struggles the guys made along the way to prove to the world that consumers would, indeed, buy a mattress online.

What Happened to the One Model Focus?

While Casper set out with a focus on their original model, they had no way of predicting the incredible popularity of their business model. Competition soon began to pop up, so it only made sense that Casper founders would use their home-field advantage in implementing consumer feedback and creating new products to broaden their emergence into the multi-billion dollar mattress industry. Following their flagship product came:

• Casper Wave
• Casper Essential

Recently, they made a change in the base layer of both the Casper Original and Casper Wave. Where we used to find foam, we now find an innerspring unit.

An Inside Look at the Casper Wave Hybrid Mattress

Without further adieu, let’s take a look inside the Casper Wave Hybrid to actually see the big change.

The Cover

The outside of the mattress looks the same, and it’s made of polyester, wool, and

rayon blend. The final product is soft, stretchy, and very breathable. Since wool is well-known for its moisture-wicking properties, this product gets started right away with temperature-regulation to keep you sleeping cool.

Layer 1

The comfort layer kicks off with an inch of velvety-soft comfort foam. This hypersensitive polyfoam is firm to the touch with just a slight amount of giving that provides immediate comfort as soon as you lie down.

 

 

Clever Latex/Memory Foam Lineup

Just as with the original Wave mattress, we move down to the next 1 ½ inch layer of breathable latex. While it does work to offer the sleeper pressure relief, its primary goal is to enable mobility. Since it’s located so close to the top of the mattress, it works to provide that little extra bounce you need to get in and out of bed and move around with ease.

Like the wool cover, latex is naturally breathable, so this helps keep you from sleeping too hot. The latex layer is immediately followed by 1 ½ inch of memory foam. Let me tell you why I really like this placement….

• Yes, memory foam feels nice to lie on, and it offers excellent contour. However, it has a tendency to make you feel stuck.
• By placing the latex on top, you get to take advantage of springy bounce and the contouring memory foam simultaneously.

Since they’re both located within the top four inches of the mattress, you’re able to fully engage with both layers to take advantage of these dual benefits. Best of all, keeping the memory foam further from the surface mitigates the overheating that often occurs when memory foam is placed too close to the surface.

Transition Layer

The memory foam is followed by another 1 ½ inches of high-density polyfoam. It works to transition into the support layers, and it’s zoned for optimized support. This means it’s:

• Firmer in the hip area to avoid excessive sinkage and promote spinal alignment
• Slightly plusher in the shoulder area to promote pressure relief

The overall purpose is to keep the sleeper comfortable in any position.

The New Support Base

The next layer is where we find the coil unit that makes the Wave Hybrid different than its original version. Where we used to find a 7 ½ inch contour-cut support layer, we now find a seven inch pocketed coil unit. This provides the main support system as well as aids the latex in offering excellent mobility and lift.

Since they’re individually wrapped, the coils provide a higher degree of contour as they

work better with the comfort layers. I like that there are plenty of layers above the coils so you don’t feel them there. This resilient yet gentle approach creates a seamless feel that leaves you wondering if there really are coils inside.

You can see the coils are surrounded by firm edge support reinforcing foam to aid in mobility. We’ll discuss more how this works in a few minutes. The coil unit sits atop a final half-inch layer of high dense support foam to provide that last bit of cushioning to bring the whole 13-inch mattress together.

Casper Wave Hybrid Feel & Performance

Now that you’ve had an inside look at the Casper Wave Hybrid, let’s discuss what it

feels like to lie on. I already said how much I admire the layer lineup with the memory foam in the third layer, and this is because I personally enjoy a bed that offers a little bit of extra bounce when you move or get in and out of bed. Having recently experienced a lower back injury, this is especially helpful, and I think this feature will be much appreciated by those of you with mobility issues.

The overall feeling is very unique. The inclusion of the spring unit offers that solid feel, but it’s also soft. I love the fact that the ergonomic targeted gel pods work to keep the spine aligned, and I think this is a large contributing factor to the endorsement of the Casper Wave Hybrid by the American Chiropractic Association™.

The slight bounce offered by the latex/coil combo does an awesome job providing that

lumbar support you need while back sleeping while the hyper-targeted support is most noticeable when side sleeping. I think the average person is going to notice how the shoulders and hips don’t feel like they’re digging into the mattress.

Special Note for Stomach-Only Sleepers

If you do prefer to sleep primarily on your stomach, you may find the Casper Wave Hybrid be a little too plush for your needs. Aside from feeling your hips sink deeper than the shoulders, you may also struggle with uncomfortable cervical spinal alignment.

There could still be a Casper solution for you! I’d suggest checking out something firmer. The Casper Hybrid mattress could be just what you need.

Firmness & Contour

We’ve discussed how the combination of foams and the coil unit provides a soft overall feel, and there is definitely a good degree of contour offered by the ample comfort layer. The coil unit is supportive, but it’s far from overaggressive in terms of pushing through the comfort layers to firm up the overall product. This is important to note since they make up over half the layer lineup. 

Casper keeps their information highly proprietary, so we don’t have the foam ILDs or coil gauges. To give you a better understanding of firmness expectations, we used our proprietary firmness and contour testing tool to see how this measures up against other popular products I’ve tried out.

• Using weights of 25, 50, and 75 pounds, we can take a look at how the mattress responds, and this is reflective of the variations in weight we carry throughout the body.

Casper Wave Hybrid is Relatively Plush

In this chart, the longer the lines, the plusher the product. You can see the Casper Wave Hybrid is pretty plush compared with other products I’ve tried out.

Good Contour for Average Sleeper

This next chart gives you an idea of how you’ll experience contour. As you can see, there is a very steady progression from one weight to the next, and this means you can expect very even contour. This is well suited for the average person, and I specifically recommend these results for:

• Women with hourglass and banana-shaped bodies
• Men with oval or rectangle-shaped bodies.

Motion Isolation

In plusher products like this, we usually get pretty good results with motion isolation, and this is especially important if you have a restless sleep partner. Materials like latex and innerspring units can sometimes be problematic, but I think Casper did a good job in placing the latex in the second layer as well as incorporating the use of independently wrapped coils over continuous coils.

You can get a pretty good idea of how well the Casper Wave Hybrid prevents motion transfer when I drop a 20-pound medicine ball next to another of equal weight in the video posted above.

One couple slept through an earthquake!

While reading other reviews, I saw a report from one couple that they slept through an earthquake that registered as a 4.4 on the Richter scale while sleeping on a Casper product, so I think that says a lot. If you have a sleep partner, this could provide a great solution if you can agree on a plusher sleep surface.

Casper Wave Hybrid: Does It Sleep Hot?

Heat transfer performance is very important since your body temperature needs to drop slightly in order to enter REM sleep. We know that the Casper Wave Hybrid employs various methods to keep it sleeping cool:

• Naturally-breathable wool cover and latex
• Aerated comfort layers
• 54 percent of the total layer lineup consists of the breathable-by-design spring unit
• Memory foam layer placed closer to the transitional area, keeping it further from the body

These are all very smart design choices, and I expected favorable results when I observed the cooldown process with my thermal imaging camera after lying on the mattress for 30 minutes in controlled room temperature. This process took around nine minutes.

Cooled Faster than the Casper Wave Original

I thought it was worth noting that it took around ten minutes when I ran the same test on the Casper Wave original, so it seems the innerspring unit has made a favorable difference. The average time of all the mattresses I’ve tried out is right around 10 minutes, so I think you’ll be pretty happy with the thermal performance of the Casper Wave Hybrid mattress.

Casper Wave Hybrid Edge Support Performance

Nobody wants to fall out of bed, nor do they want to struggle to get out of bed in the morning. When you have poor edge support, both of these examples can become a problem, so let’s take a moment to see what you can expect out of this product.

We’d mentioned the inclusion of reinforcement foam around the edges, and this can go a long way in keeping you well supported. As you can see when I place myself in different positions on the edge, I’m pretty well supported. There isn’t excessive sinkage, and I think the combination of the reinforcement foam and innerspring unit plays a large role.

I can feel the point where the support base kicks in, and I think sleep partners and people with mobility issues will appreciate how well they’re supported on the edge of the Casper Wave Hybrid.

Will the Casper Wave Mattress Last?

We always like to cover durability expectations, because you’re making a pretty sizable investment. Unfortunately, Casper keeps all the details of their materials proprietary, and this can make it difficult to make an educated decision. That’s okay, though, because I cut into the layers of my Casper Wave hybrid to get not only the foam densities but also the coil count.

Let’s break down the results!

The Foam

• In polyfoam, a good density is 1.8 pounds per cubic foot.
  • Polyfoam layers one and four nearly doubled this at around 3 pcf.
  • Layer five drops slightly to 2 pcf, but that’s still higher than the minimum we want to see.
  • The very bottom polyfoam layer weighs in at 3 pcf.
• The latex in layer two is a naturally durable material.

Overall, the foams used are of very high quality.

A Look at the Math

If you want to learn where we got these numbers, let’s break down the math:

Density

• Layer 1- .8000 grams

• Layer 2- Latex
• Layer 3- .8128 grams

• Layer 4- .7962 grams

• Layer 5- .5543 grams

• Layer 6- ½ inch…. .0983 x 8 = .7864 grams

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

• .8000 x 0.00220462= .001763696 / 0.000578704= 
  3 pcf
• .8128 x 0.00220462=.001791915136 / 0.000578704= 3 pcf
• .7962 x 0.00220462=.001755318444 / 0.000578704= 3 pcf
• .5543 x 0.00220462= .001222020866 / 0.000578704= 2 pcf
• .7864 x 0.00220462= .0001733713168 / 0.000578704= 3 pcf

The Innerspring Unit

Coil Count

Figuring up the coil count was a little tricky, and this is because of the inclusion of the foam reinforcement around the edges. Let’s break down how we calculated this:

• There are five inches between the outer edge of the reinforcement foam and the start of the coil unit.
• The full mattress measures 80 x 60 inches
• When we eliminate the foam areas, we’re left with dimensions of 75 x 55 inches for the spring unit
• Full mattress= 4,800 square inches
• Spring unit= 4,125 square inches
• Spring unit is 14% smaller than a full mattress

Now that we have these data points, let’s see how the coil unit measures up in terms of durability. Our thorough innerspring mattress buying guide is a great tool to help you understand exactly how it works, and it explains that:

• A good queen innerspring has at least 800 coils
• A great queen innerspring has at least 1,000 coils

Since each coil is 2.5 inches, we can figure that the Casper Wave Hybrid contains:

75 inches / 2.5= 30

55 / 2.5= 22

30 x 22=

660 coils

Now for just a little more math since the reinforcement foam decreases the area of the innerspring unit. We’ll do this by multiplying the number we’d like to see for a good/great mattress by the total percentage of coil coverage in the full mattress:

• Good mattress coil count
  • 800 x .86= 688

• Great mattress coil count
  • 1000 x .86= 860

This is lower than we’d like to see in this price range, but, overall, I think the above-average foam densities paired with the use of durable latex make up for this pretty well. I don’t see the coil count being a significant issue unless you weigh over 300 pounds.

You may want to check out: Casper Hybrid Review

Maintenance, Protection, Care & Warranty

Since it does contain latex, it is a little hard to maneuver the mattress, but you do have the option for free white glove installation, and they even haul off your old mattress, so that’s super convenient. You get 100 nights to try it out, and you’re also protected with a 10-year limited warranty.

If you want to use your current bed frame, just make sure any slats are no more than eight centimeters apart. For a divan that was specifically made to work with an innerspring mattress, it very well may have springs in its structure. In this case, buying a new base could be a good idea.

Since the mattress contains springs, you don’t want to flip it. However, if you have a sleep partner and there’s a significant weight difference between the two of you, it’s advised that you rotate the mattress 180 degrees every 3-4 months.

Cost

The Casper Wave Hybrid mattress is offered in all US states except Alaska and Hawaii. Same-day delivery is available in parts of Los Angeles and New York. Casper offers to finance as low as $104 per month and 0% financing through Affirm.

If you’re ready to buy your Wave hybrid, here’s what you can expect to pay:

• Twin- $1,495
• Twin XL- $1,695
• Full- $2,395
• Queen- $2,595
• King- $2,995
• California King- $2,995

The Casper Wave Hybrid is around $200 more expensive than the original Casper Wave mattress, and this can prove well worth the investment if you need something with added support. After you order, your mattress should arrive within 2-5 business days.

You may want to read: Casper Wave Hybrid Unboxing

Who We Recommend the Casper Wave Hybrid For

So, let’s cut to the chase. Is the Casper Wave Hybrid the right mattress for your needs? We think it could be a great fit for:

• Side sleepers who appreciate the added contour
• Couples who can agree on a plush sleep surface
• Anyone who likes a plush mattress
• People with mobility issues who need added bounce

You may want to read: Casper Wave Hybrid Coupon Page

Our Final Verdict

When it comes to pressure relief, the Casper Wave Hybrid hit a home run, and I think people who weigh 150 pounds and under will benefit most from this mattress. If you do like a firmer product, I’d encourage you to take a look at the Casper Hybrid mattress. It’s an innerspring spin on Casper’s flagship product, and I actually just did firmness testing on it earlier today. We’ll be posting that soon, so stay tuned.

If you’re in the market for a mattress that focuses on cushiony contour and lots of bounce without all the motion transfer, I definitely think the Casper Wave Hybrid should be on your list of top prospects.

Although there is a slight compromise in terms of coil count, again, this shouldn’t be a huge issue unless you carry a lot of weight. In this case, a plush mattress isn’t a very good fit anyway, and the Casper Hybrid would be a much better overall choice as it has a significantly higher coil count with comparable foam densities.

It’s also nice to know you’ll be dealing with a heavyweight in the online mattress industry with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. At the end of the day, I think if you’re a side sleeper in search of a plush sleep surface capable of cool sleeping and exceptional motion transfer, the Casper Wave Hybrid is a great option.