I am considering purchasing a latex foam core from Arizona Premium Mattress with an ILD that is to be determined. Having slept on another foam product that with a firmness that worked for me, I am trying to determine the ILD of that other mattress.
The other mattress was a D&D Futon floor mat (3"X27"X75"). I slept on it for one night and was comfortable back-comfort-wise, but had a serious allergic reaction to it (it uses polyurethane foam). However, since the firmness was good, I seek to duplicate the firmness with a mattress having a non-allergenic material in it. I have searched online unsuccessfully to try to determine the ILD rating of the D&D Futon three-piece mat. I’m posting this to see if anyone else has any information about this, or perhaps a better way of researching the issue than I do.
Upon calling the vendor (D&D), a salesman stated that their product rating for the foam was 18/33, with 18 apparently referring to a foam density of 1.8 and 33 referring to firmness. However, he didn’t know if the 33 number referred to ILD or not.
Would appreciate any input from the board.
We spoke on the phone today about this and you were going to get back to us when you found out the ILD of the futon foam.
Hi Arizona Premium:
Thanks for your message and the reminder. I spoke to a sales guy at D&D for several minutes and did my level best to get an ILD data point from him, but could not. First, he indicated that he didn’t know. There was a language barrier, so it was hard to understand exactly what his issue was, but it was pretty clear that he did not want to disclose the names of any suppliers he purchased his foam from.
When I asked for whatever specification he had he recited the numbers 18/33, with 33 indicating the firmness. The “18” appears to refer to the 1.8 density of the PU foam. It’s tempting to believe that 33 is the ILD number. However, the salesman wouldn’t commit to that, and seemed to be unfamiliar with the term “ILD”.
I found the 33 number to be surprisingly low, given how firm the futon cushion feels. However, I may be ignoring the contribution of thickness to how firm the cushion feels. The cushion is only 3 inches thick. It seems to this amateur that for a specified ILD value of the material, the thinner the sample is, the firmer it will feel. However, I invite the mattress scholars on this board to correct that impression if it’s wrong.
I’ve searched somewhat more online to try to find out the ILD of the futon floor mat PU foam, and so far haven’t been able to find it.
A mattress-math question. If a specified ILD (we can use and ILD of 33 as an example) is comfortable in a 3-inch cushion, is there any adjustment to that initial ILD when ordering a thicker (say, 6 inches thick) mattress, but wanting the same firmness that the 3-inch mattress had with an ILD of 33. Is there a formula for that?