Coop Home Goods Original Adjustable Body Pillow (20x54) review

It's a 20 × 54-inch zippered pillow stuffed with loose cross-cut memory foam and microfiber, inside a removable cover. Coop calls the build an interlocking dual-case system: a 100% polyester inner liner holds the fill, and an outer cover in its Lulltra fabric (60% polyester, 40% bamboo-derived viscose rayon) zips over it^[1]. Good Housekeeping notes the fill is similar to the blend in Coop's Original head pillow^[2], so if you like that pillow, you know the texture.

Coop says the pillow is GREENGUARD Gold and CertiPUR-US certified^[1]. CertiPUR-US caps the foam's total volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions at under 0.5 parts per million after 72 hours^[3], and GREENGUARD Gold limits emissions of more than 360 individual VOCs^[4]. Both are emissions tests, not smell tests, which matters here (see below).

Expect a big, heavy pillow. Business Insider's James Brains measured his at about 56 inches long, 17 inches wide and 9 inches thick, and found it weighed almost seven pounds^[5]. Sleep Foundation puts the typical body pillow at 5 to 7 pounds^[6], so the Coop sits at the heavy end. That helps it stay put, but makes it more work to move when you switch sides.

Testers agree it lands in the middle for firmness. Sleep Foundation and Sleepopolis both call it medium^[6,7], CNN Underscored describes a semi-firm blend^[8], and Good Housekeeping found it less firm than many body pillows it tried^[2]. The fill lets you shift that either way.

It suits most sleepers on a queen or king. Check your own length first, and think twice on a full. The pillow is 54 inches long and lies lengthwise beside you. Measure from your collarbone to just below your knee. If that's under 54 inches, you can hug the top end and still hook your knee over the bottom end.

Bed width is the other limit. A queen mattress is 60 inches wide, a full is 54 and a king is 76^[9]. On a full, a pillow about 17 to 20 inches across takes most of your 27 inches. James Brains and his wife used theirs on a king and said it never seemed to be in the way, but he cautioned that a queen or smaller bed might be a different story^[5].

Tall, or short on bed space? Look at Coop's maternity version. It uses the same kind of memory foam and microfiber fill but measures 9 × 60 inches, and Coop pitches it as space-efficient^[10]. That's the Coop that Babylist names its best I-shaped pregnancy pillow. Its 5-foot-10 tester found it long enough to feel full-length, and because it's more cylindrical than the flat body pillow, it didn't eat up her bed^[11]. Babylist puts it at 7 pounds, so the slimmer shape doesn't make it light.

Set your head pillow first, lay the Coop down your front, hug the top end and hook your top knee over the lower half. Your head pillow still does the job of filling the gap between your ear and the mattress, and our loft guide covers how to size it. Sleepopolis notes you can also rest your head on the top end^[7], but then the body pillow sets your head height too.

Each end has a job. Cleveland Clinic advises a pillow between your legs to stop the upper leg pulling forward and twisting your torso, and pillows under a sore top arm to keep it straight and neutral^[12]. The Coop does both at once.

Aim for your top knee level with your top hip. Business Insider measured the Coop at about 9 inches thick^[5]. Most of our knee pillow picks hold the knees 5.5 to 6 inches apart. Your leg compresses some of the foam, but a full Coop still suits broad hips best. If your hips are narrow, it can hold your top knee higher than your hip. Take out fill until your top thigh runs roughly parallel to the mattress.

A straight pillow supports your front only. If you're pregnant and want support behind your back too, our body pillow guide covers the U and C shapes and the pregnancy evidence.

Unzip it and pull out handfuls to make it slimmer and softer. Add fill to make it fuller and firmer. Coop's listing describes exactly that^[13]. James Brains suggests keeping what you remove in an airtight bag in case you want it back^[5]. After you take fill out, fluff the pillow so the rest spreads evenly^[7].

There's no spare fill in the box. Coop's comparison chart shows extra fill included with its Original, Eden, Crescent and Cut-Out head pillows but not with the body pillow^[13]. So the pillow arrives at its fullest. If you want it firmer than that, Coop sells extra bags of fill separately^[8].

Testers used it differently. Business Insider's Suzy Hernandez said it fit her so well out of the box that she didn't remove any foam^[14]. One Good Housekeeping tester liked being able to remove fill when the pillow felt too tall^[2]. Sleep on it full for a few nights, then take out a few handfuls at a time until your top knee sits level with your hip.

Plan for a smell when you unbox it. One tester's lasted a week; another's had none. Suzy Hernandez called the initial off-gassing the main hurdle. She ran the pillow through the dryer with a dryer sheet for an hour, as Coop recommends, which helped, but the odor took about a week to disappear completely^[14]. James Brains, in an earlier Business Insider review, noticed no unpleasant odor at all^[5].

The worst report comes from Coop's 60-inch pregnancy pillow, which uses the same type of fill^[10]. BabyGearLab's testers found the smell so strong that one got a headache within 15 minutes. The dryer-and-dryer-sheet routine didn't help their sample, it could still be smelled across a room after two weeks, and BabyGearLab rated it “Do Not Recommend” despite good scores elsewhere^[15]. It's a different product, but a fair warning.

If you're sensitive to smells, unbox it a few days early and check the seller's return terms (see below).

The fill breathes reasonably well. The cover is where testers split. Sleep Foundation says the cross-cut foam lets air move through the pillow more freely than a solid block would^[6]. Sleepopolis found it temperature neutral^[7], Suzy Hernandez said it stayed cool through the night^[14], and James Brains, who usually sleeps hot, found the foam breathed well and didn't trap heat^[5].

CNN Underscored disagreed about the cover. Its tester found the Lulltra fabric soft but synthetic and hot against bare skin, and ended up putting a 100% cotton cover over it^[8]. That's the cheap fix if you run warm, and our cooling score of 6 out of 10 reflects the split. Our cooling guide covers the rest of the bed.

Coop also makes a Cool+ Adjustable Body Pillow with gel-bead-infused foam and a cool-to-the-touch cover that Coop says scores 0.48 out of a maximum 0.50 on Q-max, a measure of how cool a fabric feels^[16]. The trade-off is cleaning: Coop says to spot clean the foam pillow on its Cool+ line rather than machine wash it^[17].

The whole pillow can be washed, but not in most home machines. Coop lists both the pillow and its cover as machine washable^[1], and Good Housekeeping says it was the only pick in its test that was entirely machine washable, fill included^[2]. Coop's own care page adds the catch: body pillows are large and don't fit standard washers and dryers, so it recommends a washable protector, or a commercial washer and dryer if you do wash the pillow^[17].

Coop's method for the inner pillow:

• Take the outer cover off and wash the two separately.
• Wash cold on a delicate cycle, with no fabric softener or bleach.
• Tumble dry low. To speed drying, move the fill into a delicates laundry bag first.
• Expect several dryer cycles, and make sure everything is completely dry before you use it^[17].

It takes a while. James Brains needed about four hours of low-heat drying, and you can't wash or dry anything else with it. He reports that Coop advises washing the pillow itself no more than once a year^[5]. After washing, Good Housekeeping noticed slight fuzziness on the outer cover^[2].

So the realistic routine is: wash the cover often, protect the pillow, and wash the fill rarely. Coop sells an Ultra-Tech Body Pillow Protector with a waterproof backing, an OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certification and a machine-washable build^[18]. If you have a dust mite allergy, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology advises weekly hot washes for bedding (130°F, 54°C)^[19]. Coop's cover is a cold-wash fabric, so add a cotton case you can wash hot.

Testers found it holds its shape well, with some fill drifting to the ends over time. CNN Underscored said it kept its shape after being squished, hugged and straddled, didn't get lumpy and didn't need constant fluffing^[8]. Suzy Hernandez kept using it for months after testing and said it hadn't flattened at all, and that it helped her shoulder pain^[14]. James Brains found the foam would occasionally clump at the ends over several nights, leaving the middle thinner. His fix is to work the fill back by hand or give the pillow about 30 minutes in the dryer on low^[5].

The 100-day return only applies if you buy from Coop. Coop accepts returns of most items within 100 days with a prepaid label and refunds within 2 business days of receiving the item, but the policy excludes Amazon purchases. Amazon buyers are told to contact Coop's customer service^[20]. Amazon's own policy covers most items for 30 days after delivery in original or unused condition^[21], a short window for a pillow that may take a week to air out. Coop pillows also carry a 5-year limited warranty against manufacturer defects. It excludes normal wear and tear, and you'll need your order number to claim^[22].

Our coded owner data adds little on durability. The group shown below pools 25 Reddit comments about this pillow and a PharMeDoc pregnancy pillow we don't list, and its deflation complaints are about the PharMeDoc, not the Coop^[23].

Pick the Coop if you want to set the thickness yourself and have a removable, washable cover. Pay less if you don't.

• Snuggle-Pedic Body Pillow: CNN Underscored's budget pick is also moldable shredded foam, but its fill migrates and needs regular fluffing, and it doesn't come with a cover^[8]. It's sealed, so you can't take fill out^[24]. Choose it if you want shredded foam for less and don't need to adjust the thickness.
• Utopia Bedding Body Pillow: Business Insider's budget pick is polyester fiber, recommended for spot cleaning or hand washing only, and its tester had to fluff out lumps after a few nights^[14]. It's the low-risk way to find out whether you like a body pillow.
• Queen Rose U-shaped: Babylist's top pregnancy pick supports you consistently as you flip from one side to the other, but it's one of the larger pillows on its list^[11]. Choose it for late pregnancy or if you switch sides all night and have the bed space.

If hips or your lower back are the only problem, a smaller knee pillow does the leg job in less space. Skip the Coop if you share a full-size bed, or can't risk a strong smell and are buying with a short return window.