I’ve purchased latex toppers and mattresses from Sleep On Latex and haven’t experienced any significant issues with off gassing from the latex. While it has a rubber like scent when new that dissipates over time, it’s nothing like the strong chemical off gassing I’ve experienced from memory foams which gives me migraine headaches. The covers that SoL uses for their mattresses (not the topper covers) incorporate wool which sometimes has an odor which I found to be unpleasant. The wool they use has a farm like scent which seems to vary by batch due to natural differences in the wool itself and their processing. Of course we all have different sensitivities so YMMV would seem to apply here.
[quote=“jimlaheytpb” post=87994]Thank you for your response MattreBuild I did not see this until now (that edit button strikes again)
I would be interested in knowing the cost of the broker? The best price I could find was insanely high but perhaps I was searching for the wrong thing. This is the only reason we didn’t go with SleepEZ and it would be very unfortunate to hear that we have just placed an order for something we easily could have gotten from the US for cheaper.[/quote]
Sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner but this may help later even if you don’t use it on this purchase. I use Derringer as a broker which you seem to have out there by BC as well (broker should be able to pick items up for you from a package mailbox if they aren’t one themselves). Last shipment I had was around $4500 USD worth of stuff and the brokerage charges including all fees was around $230 USD (this does not include any duties or sales taxes on the value of the items you would have to pay at the border if you brought it over yourself). Keep in mind that shipping costs are not calculated as part of the value of the item but any state sales taxes are. USMCA (used to be called NAFTA) still excludes duty on almost all items made in the US/Canada/Mexico so those will likely be very small if any. There’s some base (minimum) fees when using brokerages so economy of scale is your friend when using them. Also this was all personal stuff not for a business or anything like that so the process and costs may be different when going that route. They just bring it to the other side of the border and you need to meet them to load and bring it all home. If they need to transport it further than that, you will get charged for delivery mileage which can get quite expensive for sure. Most brokers make at least one trip across per day so it’s not a big deal to change dates for meeting them.
That makes alot of sense since wool is very oily (has lanolin, it’s why it insulates well even when wet). It could likely carry quite a bit of animal scent if not cleaned perfectly as you suggested or perhaps even if it was left there deliberately to maintain some sort of Eco/Organic branding or marketing standard. Like you said there’s a very tiny bit of rubbery smell if you shove your nose right into the SOL foam or smell your hands after muscling the layers around but my wife has never said a word about our mattress and she’s pretty sensitive to that stuff.
Were still waiting for the mattress, expect to see it Friday.
One thing that has started to worry me a bit is the owner of Northshorelinens repeats that the mattress is made is Sri Lanka, every time I have asked the mattress’ source it is Sri Lanka. He also stated the mattress order he made has a cutting fee to make a California king, which is fine but where is that happening? Sri Lanka. Some questions I neglected to ask include ‘why does the cover say made in Canada if the mattress is made in Sri Lanka?’ ‘Why is the mattress being shipped uncompressed if the source is Sri Lanka?’
I’m getting vibes of ‘we ordered a king size mattress from Sri Lanka and are going to cut it somewhere locally in order to make a calking’ which brings up it’s own sets of concerns for me.
I’m a bit worried I rushed to trust.
As for border shipments the above makes sense as I rarely ship cross border I would never be able to amass an order that large with a broker and their minimums are literally all over $100.
Progress. The topper has arrived, the cover is still on the way but we Jerry rigged some sheets and managed to get it on top of our douglas bed.
It definitely helps, we slept ok last night, the topper helps support us for sure, looking forward to the base though.
One complaint about it is the heat. I slept very very hot last night, hotter than I have in a long time. I’m worried the gel foam does a better job of cooling that the latex. I’m hoping the cover helps with the heat issue.
Smell was non existent to me, minor at worst. Girlfriend said the room smelled like balloons and wasnt a big issue for her either.
Excited for the delivery of the mattress and will continue to update about the heat problem.
I just had the worst sleep I’ve had in ages. I cant explain how infinitely disappointed I am with my purchase.
I have a 6" medium latex and a 3" soft topper. It feels like sleeping on a gymnastics floor. The bed I so unbelievably firm and literally the opposite of what I want, I have no idea where I went wrong but I’m absolutely choked. We hit our mx budget and now have a bed we hate even more. We have no way of returning or refunding anything. To put it bluntly I feel totally fucked.
We are going to buy another topper (the absolute cheapest thing we can find) (50$) in the desperate hope of salvaging my sanity and my back.
What a colossally disappointing experience this has been. At this point I would have much rather slept on a shitty sleep country mattress for a few years before raging about how it didn’t last.
Sure I have a latex bed that will last 20 years, too bad I absolutely hate it.
Again I’m sorry for bumping but I cannot edit my post.
We are at a crossroads whether to try and return the Amazon purchased ‘soft latex’ topper in exchange for the significantly more expensive ‘super soft’ latex topper from north shore linens but this kind of feels like doubling down. I dont feel good about any of this.
I dont know what the problem is, I assume it’s the topper because we dont sink all the way in to it at all, only to be have a greater problem now that our base layer is so much more firm than the douglas bed. I dont know how to solve the problem in the best, cheapest fashion. I dont know whether to buy the softest memory foam I can buy and put it below or on top of the topper. I literally dont know what to do.
I’ve been following your posts this past month and hear the terrible amount of frustration you have endured during you mattress shopping process, Jim. You received sound counsel from moderator NikkiTMU as well as trusted membersuggestions with Canada shipping options and I am sorry that none of those worked out in your case. Regardless of what you decide to do about the Amazon topper, are you sure about another purchase from North Shore Linens? According to their
site, they do seem to offer a 14 day return policy; however, your purchase of a Cal King latex mattress seems a special order purchase and therefore not covered by the return policy unfortunately. Will this be the case too if you purchase a topper from them?
Northshore Linens does not list any spec information for their latex, but generally a medium firmness for dunlop latex would be D75 density. A firm density would be D95 and higher for extra firm, so a medium firmness is not the most firm available as a support core. Your Douglas bed uses memory foam as a comfort material, which provides the cozy, “sinking into” feeling that you describe. Latex gives an uplifting “sleeping on” the mattress surface feel, a complete opposite sensation than that of memory foam. You could try a 3" memory foam topper over the 6" support core first and see how that works, but as far as the firmness goes, that is a personal choice and one that you must decide. Consider choosing a topper that offers both a clearly stated exchange policy and return policy to ensure that you have multiple options for deciding which comfort level you prefer.
Your new latex mattress will require a month or so adjustment period as it acclimates to use and the new materials relax somewhat as they adjust to both of your body weights and sleeping positions. You may want to pace how you purchase new layers a bit more slowly to give more time for adjusting to those as well, just a thought. Hopefully, you will soon strike the best balance between comfort and support for both of your sleep preferences. Do you have any new updates since your last post?
Many of us on this site have been where you’re at with both frustration and cost/benefit (this often kick starts the path down a DIY setup). Having a Cal King bed size also makes it alot harder to get layers because most suppliers are geared for either queen or king/twin XL (1/2 king) layers. At this point I wouldn’t keep buying stuff at north shore linens because if they were really serious about making it right for you they’d work and help you find a solution (other than just spending more) regardless of their policy. You have a bunch of decisions to make at this point as to how best to proceed. First is do you keep going with the cal king or do you downsize to a king to make it cheaper/easier to find what you need? Are you going to continue down the DIY route or just scrap it and try to just find something off the shelf that works? Until you decide how to are going to proceed with those it will be hard to give you any advice with getting you a mattress that works for you.
Before responding to both of you I apologize for my last few posts, I’ve been pretty stressed about this the last few days and was really not sleeping well at all. Working a physical as hell job on top of not sleeping both well and aligned really took it’s toll on me. I’ve calmed down a bit since and spent a lot of time sleeping.
[quote]
I’ve been following your posts this past month and hear the terrible amount of frustration you have endured during you mattress shopping process, Jim. You received sound counsel from moderator NikkiTMU as well as trusted membersuggestions with Canada shipping options and I am sorry that none of those worked out in your case. Regardless of what you decide to do about the Amazon topper, are you sure about another purchase from North Shore Linens? According to their
site, they do seem to offer a 14 day return policy; however, your purchase of a Cal King latex mattress seems a special order purchase and therefore not covered by the return policy unfortunately. Will this be the case too if you purchase a topper from them? [/quote]
I believe I was being overly harsh with NSL, the man has been very helpful and respectful. On top of this he is knowledgeable I just have a really bad image of people who sell me things and they don’t go the way I was imagining. He welcomed us back to his shop after my last post as we were both convinced about his latex topper being softer but in trying it, it was only slightly softer than the one we ordered from SoL. He suggested that since we were changing from memory foam to latex that it might need some time to help settle in to our sleeping style, but I’m not convinced of that either. He is a nice fellow with a barely squeaking by business in a very harsh market in a very expensive city. I respect him very much and appreciate the help he gave. He never tried to sell us the topper he simply said “it’ll be here waiting for you if you think it really is softer”.
the Latex we bought from NSL was Arpico Latex, because of that I have the information. He is moving to Latex Green though if anyone ends up on this post searching for information. He stated “ILD is never a really solid measurement for firmness but ours is in the 15-18 range” what he calls “super soft”
Arpico Extra Soft is 14-18
Soft is 25-30
Medium is 35-40
Firm is 44-50
Because of this our topper is between the arpico extra soft and soft. Our base core is Medium as I have found multiple people here suggesting go firm and start from there, medium is VERY firm to us.
[quote]
Your new latex mattress will require a month or so adjustment period as it acclimates to use and the new materials relax somewhat as they adjust to both of your body weights and sleeping positions. You may want to pace how you purchase new layers a bit more slowly to give more time for adjusting to those as well, just a thought. Hopefully, you will soon strike the best balance between comfort and support for both of your sleep preferences. Do you have any new updates since your last post?
Thanks,
Sensei[/quote]
Here are some updates that may not thrill you. We currently own a 6" Medium Arpico Latex Base Layer, a 3" Soft SoL Latex Topper, and a LinenSpa 2" Soft MemoryFoam + Gel Topper.
I understand the LinenSpa foam is shit but it was less than $150 and I am happy to replace it in a couple years with something better. Last night we slept on Aprico → SoL → LinenSpa and we definitely slept better, I thought we actually were sinking too much though. Tonight we will be trying Arpico → LinenSpa → SoL. The reason for this is the SoL topper feels quite nice but we both felt like we were hitting rock bottom, in trying it this afternoon this might actually be a viable solution. We also tried the Arpico → LinenSpa suggestion you kind of made “3” memory foam topper over the 6" support core" and found it fairly nice, we will try this set up tomorrow night as it would allow us to return the $500ish SoL topper, recovering something for us in this admitted nightmare.
Thank you for your post, again I apologize, I just wish I was rich and dumb so I could get scammed by the S’ without a care in the world
[quote=“Mattrebuild” post=88183]
Many of us on this site have been where you’re at with both frustration and cost/benefit (this often kick starts the path down a DIY setup). Having a Cal King bed size also makes it alot harder to get layers because most suppliers are geared for either queen or king/twin XL (1/2 king) layers. At this point I wouldn’t keep buying stuff at north shore linens because if they were really serious about making it right for you they’d work and help you find a solution (other than just spending more) regardless of their policy. You have a bunch of decisions to make at this point as to how best to proceed. First is do you keep going with the cal king or do you downsize to a king to make it cheaper/easier to find what you need? Are you going to continue down the DIY route or just scrap it and try to just find something off the shelf that works? Until you decide how to are going to proceed with those it will be hard to give you any advice with getting you a mattress that works for you.[/quote]
I do not believe we will be buying the CalKing Topper from NSL, I made the place seem worse than it is imho. The people there were very nice, stayed late multiple times to allow my wife and I to go back and try the mattress again and again and he never pressured me to buy his topper. His response to how cheap I got the other latex topper was “Holy cow, I can’t compete with that at all, are you sure it’s real Latex?”. He was serious about making us happy in our bed I just never expressed it properly in my post, he suggested many of the things that have been suggested here tbh.
We are simply going down the DIY route at this point, yolo right? :silly:
We do keep the CalKing, I don’t forsee us ever moving from this bed size, Kings to me are ridiculous we already find our bed almost too wide and it simply won’t fit in our Master. A Queen while having incredible value doesn’t allow us both to sleep the way we want. We are both quite tall as well (I get it we aren’t 6’7) but sometimes our dog likes to sleep at our feet and we don’t even notice her up there. I appreciate the post.
So here I am, 6 months later and still without a comfortable sleep, with the 2" topper from Amazon that is now failing my lower back hurts, without it my whole body feels bruised.
Now that we have some budget saved up I’m looking to switch out the foam topper for something better (better foam or another slice of latex)
I’ve sourced some talalay super soft 1" toppers for $300ish. And some higher density foams for $150ish, but I’m more interested in the longevity of the latex tbh, but the price, as always, hurts.
Is 1" of ultra soft talalay enough to soften the bed enough for me to sleep on my side without waking up bruised/sore. Our current best setup is 6" medium latex, 2" soft foam, 3" soft latex. Some weeks we remove the soft foam.
We would be switching it to 6" medium latex, 3" soft latex, 1" super soft latex.
Any comments?
We are both extremely low BMI. I’m side sleeper, wife is back but doesnt really seem affected by either setup, foam or not.
.