everything hurts - sinking into memory foam

[phoenix]

Hi pixbroker,

What we tested there was BB’s Enchantment Total Latex. It felt pretty good but we were unable to make a decision on ILD because that was the only Latex mattress they had and Mike didn’t know the ILD of hat particular one.

ILD is a comfort spec and isn’t important to know when you are testing a mattress locally because with careful and objective testing your body will tell you much more about whether a mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP than comfort specs.

1. we need to find out what ILD top layer(s) we want/need. first we must find out what ILD that mattress from BB was. the label read: Total Latex by BB, Enchantment, Ultra Plush Euro Top. once we know that maybe we can have a better idea of what we tested. Mike said that the firmness is medium-form, or a medium on the firmer side, whatever that means in ILD, but he didn’t know for sure. it felt pretty good to us, but maybe we want to go harder or softer, not sure.

There are only two ways to choose the layers or design that is best for you in terms of PPP. The first is with your own local testing and the other is with more detailed conversations with an online manufacturer or retailer (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

2. we must mane a decision on who to buy from. since Mike was so nice, we are inclined to go with BB, but they don’t offer a 9" all natural latex. Also, we are thinking, maybe it will be good to have a mattress that has 3 latex layers, so we could have 2 different ILD’s that could be swapped/configured to our liking. Curious to hear others thoughts on that.

As you probably know … Brooklyn Bedding has two mattresses that use 9" of latex in their design … the Total Latex mattress and the Essence but their mattresses that are sold through their R & S liquidation outlets are not the same as they sell online and I’m not familar with the specifics. Small differences in the amount of latex in a mattress would be less important than which mattress was the best match for you in terms of PPP unless the actual height of the mattress was important for other reasons.

We are looking for thoughts and suggestions on these 3 options please.

These are all good options with no weak links in their designs so you would be making a final choice between “good and good” that would depend on all the criteria of your personal value equation that were most important to you (see post #2 here). The differences between them besides the cost would primarily be the differences in the type of latex that they use, the different exchange options, and the differences in design that would allow you to customize each mattress to different degrees (either with different firmness levels or types of latex) either before or after a purchase. There is more about the potential benefits of having more individual layers to choose or customize in post #2 here.

One last question, is 9" a good height for an all natural latex mattress? we don’t want to go much thicker because of the way our bed is constructed, it will end up too tall. but we are curious if 9" is ok on our european, adjustable slat system (see pictures earlier in the thread).

The thickness of a mattress is much less important than the specifics of what is inside the mattress and which specific design is the best match for you in terms of PPP. There is more in post #14 here about the potential benefits of thicker individual layers or the mattress itself. 8" - 9" of latex is inside the range for the thickness of the latex layers inside a mattress that would allow for a suitable design for the large majority of people.

With 9" of latex your adjustable foundation would probably have “some effect” for most people in terms of customizing the firmness of the mattress or fine tuning it’s feel and performance compared to using the same mattress on a firm non flexing foundation or support system. A tension adjustable foundation would have more effect with thinner mattresses and less with thicker mattresses. It would also tend to have a bigger effect with higher weights than it would for lower weights. Whether the flexible foundation was a benefit would depend on whether the mattress on top of the foundation (with a specific setting) worked better for you than the same mattress on a firm non flexing foundation.

Thanks. Is there some difference in the source of the latex that is of any relevance to the consumer?

The source or manufacturer is not as important than the type and blend of the latex. Arpico manufactures high quality 100% natural Dunlop (as well as GOLS certified organic latex) which is very comparable to other manufacturers that also make 100% natural Dunlop such as Coco Latex, Latex Green, Latexco, and many others. There is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here.

here is a 7-zone core which sounds really interesting:
Sri Lanka natural latex mattress, Sri Lanka natural latex mattress manufacturers, Sri Lanka natural latex mattress suppliers and companies

are there any mattresses out there that use the 7-zone core?

I don’t keep a record of the specific designs or components in mattresses that are made by each manufacturer or that may be available in different areas (that would be beyond the ability of any one person in a constantly changing market) but I have certainly seen mattresses that use Dunlop 7 zone designs (whether the latex is made by Arpico or another manufacturer). A couple of examples off the top of my head of manufacturers I’ve seen use it (out of many more that don’t immediately come to mind) would include Therapedic, Royal-Pedic but there are many others as well that use 7 zone cores (either Talalay or Dunlop) or zoning schemes that use fewer zones. There is more about zoning in this article and post #11 here.

Phoenix