Compare Buckwheat Pillows

As you may have seen there have been a few infomercials and TV shopping networks selling buckwheat hull pillows. While these programs have helped to educate the public about the benefits buckwheat hull pillows, some of the products offered are considerably inferior to the our line of Buckwheat hull Pillows.

Imported buckwheat hulls

Imported buckwheat hulls which require chemical fumigation upon entry in the country. We use organically grown domestic buckwheat hulls in all our professional quality pillows. There are not enough buckwheat hulls raised in North America to make all the pillows that are sold by the big TV telemarketers.

Fabrics

Cheap fabrics which may be uncomfortable or not long lasting. We use only high quality fabrics.

Zipper and openings

Some manufacturers items do not have openings on their pillows. We use high quality hidden zippers so that the pillow size may be adjusted as needed to fit the user, and allows additional hulls to be added as the hulls become polished. This also allows you to wash the inner liner by removing the hulls, because you can't get the hulls very wet or they will not dry.

Support levels

Some other pillows are overstuffed and do not allow the neck to rest in the proper position. Never sleep on your back on overstuffed pillows, it can cause stress on the neck. Our Pillows are adjustable.

Buckwheat Hull Cleanliness

Some other pillows use semi-clean or dusty hulls resulting in potential allergy problems with buckwheat flour residue in the pillows that escape easily from the cheaper fabrics. If you want to see if a pillow from someone else has too much flour dust in it, simply remove the pillow case and shake the pillow over a white piece of paper, and again over a dark piece of paper, you might be amazed!

Buckwheat Hull Grade

Some pillows use unflattened (also called multi-flake or fluffy) buckwheat hulls (two or three hulls still attached to each other) so pillows can be filled with less weight of hulls.
Unflattened multi-flake hulls break apart during usage and cause much of the pillow volume to be lost, retaining as little as 80% of their original volume. This isn't too much of a problem if you have an opening on the pillow to add more hulls, but some competitive products use multi-flake hulls and no opening (a bad combination). Multi-flake hull pillows are fairly resilient when new and become firmer and more supportive as the hulls become flattened and polish themselves over the course of several months to a couple of years of usage (depending how much the pillow is moved around and worked with). This requires your body to constantly adapt to those types of changing pillows. Unflattened hulls are also noisier than pre-flattened hulls.

Obtaining the same bulk in a pillow with pre-flattened (single flake) hulls are heavier and more expensive and in much more limited supply than unflattened hulls but they will maintain approximately 93% of their original loft as they polish themselves. Only a little extra hulls will ever need to be added to pillows using pre-flattened hulls, helping them to last many years even if you never add hulls.
Pillows which use pre-flattened hulls are already properly supportive of the cervical spine, without being too resilient, or requiring any break-in time. The 'feel' of the pillow will not change over time. Our Makura Miracle Pillow, Comfort Roll and Rejuvenator Deluxe Pillow use only pre-flattened hulls.

Broken-flake hulls, bits and pieces, are used by some cheap pillow manufacturers. Caution should be used if buying pillows that sell for less than $20 because they almost certainly use junk hulls. Junk hulls should only be used on egg farms, gardening mulch, and munitions storage, not health products.

Good quality hulls are organically grown, and carefully milled, and are not cheap. Makura further improves the quality by a multi-part cleaning process including screen sifting to remove small particles, electrostatically charging and tumbling the hulls prior to cleaning, high speed impacting to dislodge any foreign matter, and negative air-flow blown to remove any residual flour or dust. Sometimes people mistakenly think buckwheat hull pillows are just 'chaff', in actuality it is a much sought after treasured item that can be more valuable than the buckwheat kernel it once protected so dearly, and can take weeks or months to get. Buckwheat hulls have been the filler of choice for Kings and Emperors for centuries.

While this does not and cannot imply any approval of any pillows by the FDA, because they don't do that, it has been a requirement for our company for over 15 years because we are the number one supplier of buckwheat cervical pillows to Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Massage Therapists, hospitals, Rehabilitation clinics, and M.D.'s.
Pillow companies which just sell to the home furnishings / bedding markets are not required to be FDA registered.

The Makura Miracle Pillow - is just a little more expensive than the inferior copies however the far superior quality, comfort, safety, and durability are well worth the little additional investment. One competitor offers a 10 year replacement warranty to original owner only, which tells you how long buckwheat hulls can last, but because they use multi-flake hulls and no refill zipper, you may have to send in for a replacement several times in the next 10 years paying shipping every time.

The following items are not available on this website. The information is provided here for your information.

Product Name	Manufacturer	Grade	Comments
Sobakawa Pre 1997	Pillows R Us	Poor. - Bargain grade.	Various grades of hulls, multi-flake hulls, very dusty hulls, non-adjustable not recommended for neck problems
Sobakawa 1997 and later	Pillows R Us	Fair. - Lower end Retail grade.	Imported fumigated hulls, multi-flake hulls, double cleaned hulls, coarse liner, mid-grade cotton covers, non-adjustable not recommended for neck problems
Sobakawa larger sizes w/opening	Pillows R Us	Fair to good. - Lower end Retail grade.	Imported fumigated hulls, multi-flake hulls, thin cotton liner, mid-grade cotton covers available at extra charge
Oriental Buckwheat Pillow	Tele-Brands	Very Poor. - Bargain grade.	low quality hulls with high chaff inclusions, dusty, cheap zipper, includes thin cotton pillow case
Mt. Fuji	Tele-Brands	Poor. - Bargain grade.	low quality hulls, dusty, cheap zipper, includes thin cotton pillow case
Shangri-La	Tele-Brands	Poor. - Bargain grade.	low quality hulls, dusty, cheap zipper, includes thin cotton pillow case
Bucky	Bucky Products	Very Good.	Uses terrycloth type covering. Uses multi-flake hulls. Somewhat expensive, but fairly nice.
Pillow Power	Health Systems	Unacceptable	Do not even use for your pets

Our Chiropractic and Physical Therapy clients have evaluated 135 different types of pillows including foam cervical, fiber fill, heat formable foam, water filled, etc. and no other type of pillow has even rated close to buckwheat hull pillows in effectiveness in relieving headaches, neck pain, and low back pain.

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