I am contemplating on purchasing a featherbed topper for my latex mattress however, is anyone aware whether or not featherbed toppers are filled with chemicals?
If I am leaning towards a featherbed topper, did I just waste $2,000.00 buying a latex mattress? The main reason I purchased latex was to avoid chemicals. Is there a cheaper option for a bed that has no flame retardants or chemicals? If I am just going to add a featherbed to my mattress, should I just find a cheaper chemical free alternative to latex?
A good featherbed topper should not be filled with chemicals; however, I’d certainly not be buying one made in China.
I like the sound of these:
I’m currently using a featherbed on my Dunlop latex mattress, which had started to cause hip pain after about 6 weeks of sleeping on it. The one I have is from The Company Store, a blend of 50/50 down and feathers, and it hasn’t been satisfactory - it’s in pretty poor shape after just 3 years, with the fill managing to slip between the baffles but then it’s very hard to get it to shift back into the proper places.
Pacific Coast makes lots of featherbeds, but they’re not very transparent about the origin of their materials, which I don’t like. Considering how low their prices are on some items, I suspect they’re using duck down and/or feathers in some products, altho I don’t know for certain.
There are many people who love the feel of a featherbed topper no matter which type of mattress they prefer underneath it so I don’t think anyone who has a preference for a featherbed would have wasted their money on a mattress if they chose the mattress that was best for them in terms of PPP and just wanted to fine tune it with a featherbed. Like other types of toppers such as wool … It’s a personal preference that can be added to fine tune the feel and performance of any mattress.
This would depend on the specific manufacturer but most of the better ones wouldn’t have chemicals in them no and would be clear on their websites that they don’t. You would need to check with a manufacturer you were considering for a more specific answer to these types of questions though because it will vary by manufacturer. There is a wide range of differences between manufacturers both in terms of the quality and source of the down they use, fill power, the proportion of down to feathers, the fabrics they use, how they clean the down, and whether they use chemical moldicides or fungicides. Dewoolfsondown that Clawdia linked has a good article about this here. There are also a few companies that make down products listed in post #2 here that may be worth looking at or talking to.
Unless you have a prescription … all mattresses need to pass the fire regulations but there are more or less natural ways of doing this. In general the two methods that are generally considered to be the “safest” by those who want to avoid any kind of chemical fire retardants would be wool (with no chemicals added) or a viscose/silica type of fire barrier.
Of course there are also many other potential sources of chemicals in mattresses besides any fire retardants that may be used so it would depend on whether you were looking for a “chemical free” mattress because of safety reasons or because you prefer more natural, environmentally friendly or “green” materials or even organic materials for personal reasons (that may have nothing to do with safety). Not all chemicals are “unsafe” or harmful and not all organic materials (including latex) are completely “chemical free”.
This can be a very confusing area with a great deal of conflicting and often misleading and contradictory information everywhere on the web but for those who want to make a more informed choice then post #2 here and the links it includes can be a good place to start so you can better answer the question of “how safe is safe enough for me?” based on the criteria that are most important to you.