Building my own latex mattress...

[phoenix]

Hi B Feelgood,

1. Specifically speaking about SleepEZ and Arizona Premium Mattress. Do you know if their 3" king sized 100% talalay toppers or raw layers are glued or 2 separate pieces? (I assume these manufacturers would be better to ask but figured I’d ask if you knew first)

If they are talalay latex and are a solid king size layer they would have a glue seam. If they are two twin XL layers (two twin XL layers are the same size as king size) then they would be separate pieces.

2. I’m going with a 100% natural 6" solid continuous pour dunlop core. It is offered in 24, 32, and 40 ILD. I’m trying to mimic one of two Pure Bliss Latex beds (Beautiful or World’s Best Bed). They start all of their models with a 100% talalay 6" core (except pamper which has 40 ILD). It is my understanding that natural dunlop is former than natural talalay. So for example, a 32ILD dunlop would have the firmness roughly equivalent to a 36 ILD talalay. I know that ILD is not always 100% dead on accurate amongst different manufacturers but is this generally correct?

You may have some difficulty finding a 6" thick layer of Mountaintop continuous pour Dunlop latex (it would be more common to find 6" layers of 100% natural Dunlop that was made in a mold).

I would also be very cautious about using ILD information to compare different types and blends of latex and this can be very risky because they don’t compare well to each other. If you are using a layer on top of a mattress that will be compressed more deeply and the ILD of both layers was tested in the same way (using a 50 sq in compressor head to compress the core by 25% of its thickness) then it would be reasonable to use a difference of about 4 ILD for comparison. If you only sink into both layers 1.5" then they would be similar at that specific depth of compression but in a top layer you would most likely sink into the layer more than 1.5" and Dunlop has a higher compression modulus than Talalay which means it gets firmer faster than Talalay as you sink in more deeply. In deeper layers how they compare would depend on the firmness and thickness of the layers on top of it and on how deeply you sink into the deeper layers you are comparing. In other words they have a different response curve.

There is more about making ILD comparisons between different types and blends of latex in post #6 here.

3. If I like a softer or more plush setup, would I be better off going with the 32 ILD or 40 ILD for my dunlop core? As mentioned before, I plan on using 3" of 100% talalay with an ILD of 19-20 for thr top layer and another 3" layer of 100% talalay with an ILD of 27-29 underneath of that for the middle layer.

Like any other questions that involve how a combination of layers will feel to a specific person … the answer is always “it depends”. If you use a softer support core then you may need to experiment with thinner comfort and/or transition layers and if you use a firmer support core then you may need to experiment with thicker comfort and/or transition layers but the top 3" to 6" of a mattress will have a bigger effect on how a mattress “feels” to different people (depending on their body type, sleeping positions, and sensitivity) than the deeper layers.

Phoenix