Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I suppose this particular support's design was well-intentioned. It does have a different design than the standard Duro-Med lumbar supports with the strap -- Even though Duro-Med's customer service staunchly says that the only difference between the standard and the bucket is one has a strap and the other doesn't. I have tried both! They ARE different in design.
The bucket seat one is contoured in the back in two ways. The standard one has a totally flat back. The bucket seat design's back is angled out on the side where the flares are in the front. This is to accommodate already flared bucket seats. The standard design pillow, because it has a flat back but still flared front, forces the sides of the pillow to wrap around you (because the back is being pushed forward by the flares of your car's bucket seat.). The bucket seat designed one allows for the pillow to essentially fit against the back of the seat because the back is contoured to accommodate the flared sides of the car's seat. The result is that the standard one, because the flat design, forces it to bend forward, for better or worse, resulting in MORE support around the sides of your back. You may or may not like that -- depending on how much side support you want.
The real downside to the bucket seat designed one is that the pillow has a slight curve from top to bottom to accommodate the vertical curve of the bucket seat -- again, unlike the standard one which is flat backed. The standard one also is thicker at the bottom of the cushion. What ends up happening with the bucket design one is that the bottom, having less cushion and being at the bottom of a vertical curve, is more easily pushed back into the crevice where the car seat and back join, resulting in LESS sacral (lower back support) and the top of the cushion ends up kind of leaning into the middle of your back bone.
The Duro-Med cushions, while lightly cushioned, are really firm, so they really push back against you if there is anything there to push. As I mentioned above, with the bottom of the bucket design seat kind of disappearing into the crevice, there isn't much lower back support. The standard cushion, however, because it is thicker and is totally flat-backed (no vertical curve), really pushes back against you and supports big time, perhaps too much for some. It doesn't really sink much back into the crevice, so there is a lot of lower back support. Because it is flat backed and your bucket seat is likely not, the sides of the cushion, with its own flare, will really wrap around you. And because it is thicker all the way to the top than the bucket seat designed one (though still thicker at the bottom, as it should be), will really push against your back so it curves backwards. For those used to slouching or even sitting up relatively straight, this feels like one of those chiropractic devices that forces your back into one of those curves that will thrust out your upper mid-section and chest from the back. With all that lower and side support, it really extends the spine, but it may be too much too.
So, you have two designs from Duro-Med -- one with too little and one with perhaps too much support. I do like the fact that the cushion is pretty firm. I have also tried the Homedics memory foam. It starts nicely supportive, but as it warms up, it softens big time and you'll find that the cushion merely ends up contouring to the seat rather than providing support. Your mileage may vary!
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Duro-Med Contour Lumbar Cushion for Bucket Seats
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