In-depth Comparison (2024): Casper Original Pillow vs. Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow

Polyester Fiber (Down Alternative)

The Casper Original Pillow uses a pillow-in-pillow design with two layers, both made of polyester fiber, at slightly different firmness levels. This creates a thick but soft pillow that is great for back-sleepers who want a polyester fiber pillow. However, I don't recommend this pillow for side-sleepers due to the lack of adjustability: the thickness combined with the softness results in an unpredictable loft.

The most noticeable aspect of the Casper pillow is the loft: I measure it at 10 inches thick, the highest loft of any pillow tested. This is because the pillow is actually made up of a regular sized pillow covered by another layer of pillow. The outer layer can be unzipped to reveal the inner pillow sandwiched inside. The outer layer is extremely soft and thin. It resembles a comforter or a thick blanket. In fact, the pillow does remind me of a regular pillow wrapped in a comforter. The outer layer sinks completely in when used.

Unzipping the outer pillow reveals an inner pillow also made with polyester filling. Keep in mind that though the pillow can be unzipped, the filling cannot be adjusted. Unzipping doesn't give access to the filling. It only gives access to the inner pillow. While you can technically have three different lofts by sleeping on the inside pillow by itself, the outside layer by itself, and both layers combined, I wouldn't consider the pillow to be adjustable. I suspect most people will be sleeping on the pillow with all the layers together because either layer by itself is too thin for my preferences. Like the outer layer, the inner pillow sinks all the way down when I lay my head on it by itself. Based on my experience, neither the inner pillow nor the outer pillow will provide enough support for side-sleepers or back-sleepers individually. Theoretically, the inner pillow could be used for stomach-sleeping, but there are other options on the market that don't involve discarding half the pillow.

When used together, the pillows start at the full 10-inch-high loft. Laying my head down makes the pillow significantly thinner since both parts of the pillow are so soft. The inner pillow and the outer pillow compress all the way down when slept on individually, but the combined pillow does leave some loft simply because there is so much material. Unfortunately, as a side-sleeper, the loft feels slightly off for me, leaving my head angled uncomfortably. It's possible that some side-sleepers will find the loft level perfect, but I recommend that side-sleepers stick with a fully adjustable pillow like the Saybrook or Coop.

The Casper pillow and Sleepgram pillow share a lot of similarities. From the outside, they even look almost the same except for the different logos. There are three main differences, though. First, the Sleepgram pillow comes with two inner pillows. Despite this, both the Casper and Sleepgram pillows have the same loft, so the Sleepgram inner pillows are individually thinner compared to the Casper inner pillow. Second, the zipper on the Casper pillow feels to me like it's easier to operate compared to the zipper on the Sleepgram pillow, which contributes to my perception that the Casper pillow has higher quality construction. Finally, I find the Sleepgram pillow to be even softer than the Casper pillow. My head sinks down even more with the Sleepgram pillow. This is because the Sleepgram polyester filling glides more easily, so some of the material moves out of the way when I lay my head on it. The Casper pillow polyester fill is also soft, but it stays underneath my head, so even though it compresses, the material stays there to provide some loft.

Unlike some of the other pillows reviewed, the Casper pillow doesn't come with a separate cover. Inserting this pillow into a pillow case can be difficult due to the thickness. Though the pillow compresses easily when sleeping on it, getting it to compress from 365 degrees to shove inside a pillow case is relatively frustrating. It is far from impossible, but it does take more energy than it should. I find that when pillows are difficult to insert into pillow cases, I subconsciously avoid wash cycles.

The lack of adjustability makes the Casper pillow a non-starter for side-sleepers since the angle of the head is so important and everyone has a different shoulder and head size. For back-sleepers looking for a polyester fiber pillow, the Casper pillow is a great choice. Because of the thickness, even though the pillow sinks significantly, it still provides some support.

Down and Feather

The Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow is a down and feather pillow that uses a double-chamber design like the Chamberlain Down Dual-Chamber Pillow. However, I see a huge difference in quality.

Most notably, even though the Pacific Coast pillow uses a dual-chamber design that keeps feathers in the inner chamber and down in the outer layer, I can still feel the quills from the feathers when I lie down. In contrast, the Chamberlain Down pillow feels like sleeping on air because the down layer feels more robust. I suspect this is because of a difference in the size of down clusters used by each pillow. The Pacific Coast website lists the down fill power, which measures the size of the down clusters, at 550 in the Double DownAround Pillow. The Chamberlain website lists the fill power at 600+, which means that the down clusters are larger in the Chamberlan Down Dual-Chamber Pillow. Larger clusters tend to be better at trapping air and providing loft.

In the Pacific Coast pillow I have, feathers are sticking out of the stitching along the seams, as shown in the picture below. This gives me low confidence in the construction quality of the pillow.

Another consideration is that I can hear a rustling noise inside the Pacific Coast pillow I have when I push down on it. The noise is relatively loud, and I'd compare it to the crinkling of a plastic grocery bag in terms of loudness and nature. The sound appears to originate from the inner chamber. Since a pillow is something I put my ear against when I sleep, the last adjective I'd want to use to describe it is "noisy." I can hear a crinkling in the Puredown pillow and Chamberlain Down pillow fabrics if I rustle them and concentrate on listening, but I wouldn't consider noise to be an issue for those two pillows. The Pacific Coast pillow I have is much louder to my ears and in a completely different league of noise.

The Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow comes in a Soft, Medium, and Firm version on their website as of my time of purchase. I ordered the pillow from Amazon, and I didn't see the firmness specified in the listing when I purchased. I ended up receiving the Soft version, which I prefer to use for stomach-sleeping. It's possible that the Medium and Firm versions can work for back-sleeping and side-sleeping, but based on my experience with the perceived construction quality of the Soft pillow, I don't intend to try the other options.

Finally, it's worth noting that the Pacific Coast pillow, like all down and feather pillows, would require regular fluffing to restore the loft. Because down and feather pillows work by trapping air, which escapes after an extended period of sleeping, down and feather pillows benefit from a fluff that pumps air back in.