I am deciding between the Dreamfoam 13 inch gel memory foam mattress or the Dreamfoam hybrid 10 inch latex mattress which they sell on Amazon. I noticed that the latex mattress is cheaper than the memory foam one, by hundred bucks or so. Usually latex is more expensive than memory foam . Putting aside questions of comfort or preference, does this indicate that the latex mattress is a lower quality mattress in some way (and if so which ways), or just a reflection of the extra gel layer and difference in thickness. Thanks again for all the good information and ready response.
The latex they use is made by Latex International and is first quality latex so it wouldn’t be a matter of the quality of the materials.
As you mentioned memory foam is usually less than latex but the 13" gel memory foam includes two comfort layers totalling 5" of memory foam (the Ultimate Dreams has only 3" of latex). It also has a 5.5" base layer instead of the 8" in the Ultimate Dreams. These would be the main reasons for the extra cost that are obvious to me but there may be others as well that they could tell you more about.
There are many factors that determine the sleeping temperature of a mattress which you can read about in post #2 here and post #29 here but as far as foam goes … latex is the most breathable and generally the most temperature regulating of all the foams. Because of that, the softness of the 13" gel memory foam mattress, and the more breathable quilting layer of polyfoam, I would probably give the advantage to the Ultimate Dreams for most people and the versions with the wool in the quilting would be more temperature regulating yet.
The Gel memory foam would be cooler to the touch because gel is thermally conductive but the cooling benefits of gel memory foam only last until temperatures equalize and the foam becomes an insulator and ventilation provides a longer lasting benefit over the course of the night.