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- Supportive and comfortable
- Good temperature regulation
- Competitively priced, especially for a Simba product
- High loft might not suit some
- Not adjustable
- Cover can’t be washed
We’ve reviewed enough Simba bedding and bedding here at Expert Reviews to recognise it as being very much at the premium (read: expensive) end of the market. The Simba Hybrid Firm pillow that used to feature on our best pillows roundup (and has since been replaced by the CustomFlex pillow) cost £159, while the Simba Earth Apex mattress starts at £1,299 for a single and rises to £2,599 for a super king.
The Aerodown pillow represents a bit of a departure. It costs a mere £60, which makes it not only the cheapest pillow, but also one of the cheapest products that Simba sells (bedsheets aside).
But as you should well know, low price doesn’t typically equate to high quality. I spent several weeks sleeping on the Simba Aerodown to see just how comfortable and supportive the pillow is. It performs well, but it could do with some height adjustability.
Simba Aerodown pillow: What do you get for the money?
The Simba Aerodown is filled with the brand’s “Renew Bio clusters”: fibres from recycled plastic bottles that have been combed to form a soft, woolly material that provides cushioning while promoting airflow throughout the pillow.
Surrounding this is a padded cotton cover, one side of which has been treated with the brand’s thermoregulating “Stratos” tech, resulting in a cool-to-the-touch material. There’s not an awful lot of information on Simba’s website on exactly what goes into the Stratos process, but Simba claims the Stratos material helps keep your head cool more effectively than “non-treated fabric” (according to temperature testing carried out by the Swiss company Heiq Materials AQ).
While Simba mentions an inner cotton cover in its specs, this is more of a lining than a separate cover. Crucially, you can’t remove the outer cover for machine washing as you can with many other pillows, including Simba’s own Hybrid and CustomFlex pillows.
As I’ve already established, at £60, the Aerodown pillow is the cheapest Simba pillow available. It’s still a bit of an investment, but compared to some of our favourite options, it’s very competitively priced: the Otty Adjustable and Deluxe Pure Pillows both come in at £70, the Emma Comfort Cooling pillow (previously called the Premium Cloud pillow and, before that, the Premium Microfibre pillow) at £80, and the REM-Fit Cool Gel pillow on par at £60. Cheaper options include the Panda Memory Foam Bamboo pillow (£45) and Dusk’s Feels Like Down pillows (£37).
What do we like about it?
The Aerodown pillow is comfortable and supportive. Simba doesn’t rate its firmness of the pillow as some bed-in-a-box brands do, but I’d say it has a medium-firm feel. It’s not quite as soft as Simba’s description of its “airy” Renew fibres implies, but it still has a decent amount of cushioning – it’s perfectly comfortable for side sleeping.
When it comes to temperature regulation, I found the pillow comfortably cool. I didn’t necessarily notice much of a difference between two sides of the pillow: the Stratos side does feel cool to the touch, but so does the other cotton side. Although, I should also add that I reviewed the pillow during winter in a cool bedroom (in which I habitually sleep with the window open, much to the chagrin of my partner), so a cool-feeling pillow was perhaps inevitable.
I’ve become accustomed to tempering any recommendation of Simba bedding with a warning about its usually high prices. So, it’s a breath of fresh air to come across a Simba pillow that doesn’t cost more than £100. And within the wider context of bed-in-a-box brand pillows, it’s a very competitively priced option indeed.
What could be improved?
That said, there are a few things about Simba’s Aerodown pillow – competitively priced or otherwise – that disappointed me. For a start, there’s the fact it can’t be machine washed. So many other pillows, including alternatives from Simba, have covers that can be removed for washing that it has become less of a perk and more like something you expect from your pillow.
On unzipping the cover (something I don’t actually recommend doing, as the cotton lining can very easily become jammed in the zip), I was actually quite surprised to find that the inner cotton cover was sewn into the outer, with a single opening exposing the fibre filling – I’m no textile expert but I can’t help but feel that it would be an easy fix to separate these so that the outer can be thrown in the washing machine.
However, my main gripe was with the thickness (or loft) of the pillow, which I found just a little too high. I’m of average build and, while some may like a lofty pillow, I imagine those smaller than me might find it even more insurmountable. I certainly wouldn’t recommend the Aerodown to those who sleep on their front.
This also feels like something that could be easily solved – by making the pillow adjustable. Again, Simba’s Hybrid and CustomFlex pillows both offer this, so why not offer the same feature here? This may well be a sacrifice that was made to make the pillow more affordable compared to Simba’s other offerings, but would incorporating this and washability into the Aerodown really almost double its price?
Should I buy the Simba Aerodown pillow?
The Simba Aerodown is a comfortable, supportive and competitively priced pillow. It didn’t feel too warm during the night and I got some very good nights of sleep on it.
What prevents this from being a more enthusiastic recommendation are the little extra features I feel it’s missing: a washable cover and a more versatile, adjustable design. If Simba were to include these without inflating its price tag too much, we may well be looking at a five-star pillow.
