I have a question regarding body impressions and latex. I purchased a mattress about 4 months ago from one of the often recommended manufacturers on this site. It is a 10" mattress with soft talaly on the top, medium dunlop on the middle, and medium dunlop on the bottom.
After 2 months we started seeing body impressions. At 4 months they are now near 3/4" deep. This is measured by removing the top, placing a yardstick over and measuring the impression.
My questions are:
Is this normal? I know that all mattresses will break down to some extent.
How much should we expect it to occur. Our last mattress had 1-/1/2" impressions and it caused discomfort.
Thanks for any input you may have!
Overall the mattress is very comfortable but I am afraid it will continue to get worse.
[quote]After 2 months we started seeing body impressions. At 4 months they are now near 3/4" deep. This is measured by removing the top, placing a yardstick over and measuring the impression.
My questions are:
Is this normal? I know that all mattresses will break down to some extent.[/quote]
It would depend on where the body impressions are coming from. It would be “normal” if they were coming from a quilting material such as wool (which will compress in the areas you sleep the most over time) or if they were connected to the support system under a mattress but it wouldn’t be “normal” to see 3/4" impressions in the latex itself in a few months. If you remove each of the latex layers and lay them on the floor then you will be able to see whether any of them have a significant impression.
The relatively small degree of impressions that may happen with latex will generally happen in the first year or so.
This would depend again on where the impressions are coming from and the effect of impressions on sleeping quality will also depend on the materials in the mattress that are causing the impressions (impressions in some materials have a bigger effect than with others) but in general I would “expect” that the latex in a mattress shouldn’t impress more than about 3/4" as a maximum (ad 1/2" would be more in the range of “normal”) and individual layers shouldn’t impress more than about 1/2" maximum (and 1/4" would be more in the range of “normal”).
You would need to put the specific layer on the floor to measure the impression so you can identify whether the impression is coming from that specific layer rather than the layers or components underneath it.
If it looks like the impression is more than what would be normal then I would definitely talk with the manufacturer and they will tell you their specific warranty criteria and any additional steps that you would need to take.
It took a little effort but I was able to measure each of the levels separately on a flat surface. Here are the results:
Top layer- Soft Talalay- 3"- impression is 1/4"
Middle layer- medium dunlop- 3"- impression is 0
Bottom layer- medium dunlop- 3"- impression is 1/2"
I was a little surprised that the bottom layer was the main issue with the “dip”/impression. Is this typically where the breakdown occurs?
I called the manufacturer and will report back. At this point I would not recommend this product if this is how it performs, especially if they do not do anything about it. We started seeing this happen really fast, in fact much faster than traditional mattresses in the past. I’m kicking myself for not returning it immediately. A 3/4" impression after just a couple of months is not what I expected from latex.
No … impressions will typically be in the upper layers not the deeper layers.
This also isn’t the “norm”. I hope you have the chance to let us know what the manufacturer says when you talk to them. They may ask you to send in pictures showing the impressions (with a straight edge or string across the surface of the layers) and if you do it would be great to attach them to one of your posts as well.