Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress review: Now 45% cheaper
Otty’s Pure Hybrid mattress delivers on all counts
Pros
- Comfortable for back and side sleepers
- Excellent temperature regulation
- Great edge support
Cons
- No handles for rotating
Otty’s Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress enters a bed-in-a-box market that’s already fiercely competitive. Hybrids, in particular, seem to be the mattresses of the moment, combining traditional pocket springs with contemporary memory foam in a bid to offer the best of both.
To separate itself from the pack, Otty’s latest offering takes the brand’s tried and tested hybrid mattress formula and adds bamboo and charcoal to the comfort layers. This, it claims, makes the mattress slightly softer than the standard Otty Hybrid, and also gives it superior moisture wicking and temperature regulation, while also being hypoallergenic.
With plenty in common with Otty’s excellent original Hybrid Mattress, it perhaps comes as no surprise that the Otty Pure Hybrid has picked up top marks in our review. During testing I found it to be comfortable and supportive in all sleeping positions, and it offers some of the best temperature regulation of any mattress I’ve reviewed.
Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress review: What you need to know
Currently, Otty produces no fewer than four hybrid mattresses. The Pure Hybrid sits one spot shy of the flagship Pure Plus Hybrid and is positioned above the standard Otty Hybrid and Aura Hybrid mattresses.
Otty’s Pure mattresses are set apart from the rest of the range by their new bamboo memory foam and charcoal infused layers. Otty promises that these layers should provide improved moisture wicking and temperature regulation, while the antibacterial properties of bamboo and charcoal should eliminate odour and help with overall cleanliness. The mattress is also hypoallergenic, which is beneficial for those with allergies, asthma or sensitive skin.
The Otty Pure Hybrid employs a six-layer construction, with traditional pocket springs packed between layers of foam. Starting from the top, there’s an embroidered cover, which is padded with charcoal-infused bamboo memory foam. The cover is removable but can be dry cleaned only.
Next, there’s a 20mm layer of bamboo memory foam, also infused with charcoal. Below that sits 20mm of high-density support foam, followed by a layer of pocket springs. At 160mm tall, these springs qualify as “full size”, and a king-size mattress packs 2,000 of them. The spring layer is surrounded by a wall of Otty’s Airflow side support material. Finally, a 50mm layer of HD base foam forms the Pure Hybrid’s foundation.
As is common with bed-in-a-box mattresses, the Otty Pure Hybrid is only designed to be slept on one way and so never needs flipping. It does, however, need rotating head-to-toe once a month for the first six months. Unfortunately, there are no exterior handles to aid you.
Otty’s mattresses are designed to work across all solid bed bases with no specific slat-distance requirements. Should you be in the market for a new bed frame at the same time, Otty also produces a range of frames designed to pair well with its mattresses.
All Otty mattresses are backed by a 100-day money-back guarantee. This allows you to test out the Pure Hybrid, or any mattresses from Otty’s range, from the comfort of your own home risk-free.
Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress review: Price and competition
Pricing for the Otty Pure Hybrid starts at £550 for a single, climbing to £800 for a double and £900 for a king-size mattress. Sizes run all the way up to emperor, and Otty offers both standard UK and EU sizing.
As far as alternatives go, Otty’s Pure Plus Hybrid is arguably its closest competitor. The Pure Plus is Otty’s premium offering, doubling the spring count to 4,000 and utilising a deeper, more luxurious, 280mm form factor. The Otty Pure Plus Hybrid is priced at £900 for a double and £1,000 for a king.
For slightly less, you can pick up Otty’s standard Hybrid. While it lacks the bamboo and hybrid infused layers, it otherwise follows a similar overall design, with 2,000 160mm pocket springs and four foam layers. The Otty Hybrid has jumped up in price considerably since it first launched and now costs £700 for a double and £800 for a king.
Outside of Otty’s line-up, Eve Sleep’s Original Hybrid presents a slightly cheaper option at £769 for a double or £869 for a king. The Eve Original Hybrid does, however, pack less than half the spring count at just 950.
Brook + Wilde’s Lux mattress is also worth considering. Similarly priced to the Pure Hybrid at £799 for a double or £899 for a king, the Lux packs both full-sized and mini pocket springs and comes in a choice of three firmnesses.
The best alternatives and where to find them:
- Otty Pure Plus Hybrid | Buy now from Otty
- Otty Hybrid | Buy now from Otty
- Eve Sleep Original Hybrid | Buy now from Eve
- Brook + Wilde Hybrid | Buy now from Brook + Wilde
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Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress review: Performance and comfort
Like all bed-in-a-box mattresses, the Otty Pure Hybrid arrives rolled up and vacuum-sealed. A king-size model certainly has plenty of bulk to it, but in its rolled state, it’s far easier to manoeuvre up the stairs than a traditional mattress. Once released from its vacuum pack, the mattress quickly starts to take a more conventional form, and within four hours it’s ready to sleep on.
Bed-in-a-box mattresses can often suffer from a chemical odour when first unpacked and the Otty Pure Hybrid is no different. Although noticeable at first, I left the windows open while the mattress was acclimatising and found it quickly dissipated. If you’re particularly sensitive to smells, then you may benefit from leaving it to rest in a spare room for a day, but personally I had no trouble sleeping on it after just a few hours.
On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the firmest, Otty advertises the Pure Hybrid as being a 6.5, medium-firm mattress, slightly softer than their standard Otty Hybrid. It’s worth noting that firmness is highly subjective and the same mattress can feel noticeably different depending on both your weight and the type of bed frame you use.
With all that being said, though, I’m inclined to agree with Otty. I’d place the Pure Hybrid somewhere in the 6.5 range, perhaps a smidge firmer when used on a solid base. While some mattresses can soften up after the first few days, I found the Pure Hybrid comfortable from the first night with little change over the following few days.
The Pure Hybrid represents a nice balance between the cushioned feel of foam and feedback of sprung mattresses. The top layers offer up a characteristic memory foam softness that compresses and conforms to your body shape, while the spring layer makes sure you always feel adequately supported. The amount of “sinkage” in the top foam layers is just right, too. It’s enough to leave you cosy and comfortable, but not so much that you feel like you’re laying on a marshmallow.
Personally, I like to sleep on both my back and my side with around a 50/50 split. Often I find that mattresses well suited to back sleepers are a little too firm when on my side, while mattresses ideal for side sleeping can lack support while I’m on my back. The Pure Hybrid, however, seems to fit in the sweet spot. It’s adequately supportive but also accommodates my hips and shoulders while I’m on my side. Overall I found it to be very comfortable across all sleeping positions and I had very little trouble drifting off at night.
A common bed-in-a-box mattress complaint is that the dense foam can cause them to feel a little warm. Fortunately, I found the Otty Pure Hybrid to suffer from no such issue. Whether it’s down to the advertised temperature-regulating properties of the bamboo and charcoal layers or just the overall design, the Pure Hybrid is one of the coolest-feeling bed-in-a-box mattresses I’ve tested to date.
It also performed well from a movement-isolation standpoint. I shared the Otty Pure Hybrid with my partner for the duration of my test period, and she is a particularly light sleeper. However, the mattress’s foam layers did a commendable job of dampening the vibrations across the bed, and neither of us was disturbed when the other turned over or got up in the night. It’s not quite up there with the best all-foam models in this respect, but should perform noticeably better than a traditional pocket sprung bed.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that the Otty Pure Hybrid performs well above average for edge support. While not often a deal breaker one way or another, some bed-in-a-box mattresses can suffer from weak side walls. This ultimately means you can’t sleep right up to the edges without the mattress dipping. Thanks to its thick airflow side walls, though, there are no such issues here.
Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress review: Verdict
Overall, there’s very little I can mark the Otty Pure Hybrid down on. The exclusion of handles is a bit of an annoyance, considering the mattress needs rotating regularly when new, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively minor flaw.
The Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress is cool, effectively isolates movement and offers excellent edge support. Importantly, I also found the mattress delivered an excellent balance of comfort and support, regardless of my sleeping position.
All in all, if I was in the market for a sub-£1,000 mattress, the Otty Pure Hybrid Bamboo & Charcoal Mattress would undoubtedly be at the top of my list.