My Husband and I have tested out latex mattresses at the only two locations I can find with showrooms in our city. I’d like to save money by being online.
The first was the Omi brand and we found we really liked the Flora Nouveau.
The website indicates it is a medium firmness with a 3" firm latex inner core is sandwiched between two layers of 2" soft latex. I believe they are Talalay. When I asked at this store what the ILD of it was, they did not know.
The other latex mattress we tried and liked is the Tranquility 9" Serenity Firm. It is said to be 9" of Talalay. Again, no information was provided on the ILD.
When I look online, most retailers request we provide a firmness selection so I’m unsure on whether to pick a firm or medium firm mattress based on what we have tested to date.
Any advice?
My second question is on manufacturers that let you customize the layers for each side of a king mattress. So say you created a right side with a soft, medium, firm layering and the left side with a firm, firm, firm. It would seem to me that over time, the right side might become more compressed causing the two sides to be off balance. Is this a valid concern? The attached photo of a king put together is what generated my concern.
Also, I read in one of your posts that having the latex layers glued creates a more stable mattress. Is that also the case with the center seems on kings?
The retailer could call OMI and probably find this out for you or you could call them as well and they may give it to you. I do know in some cases the ILD of the OMI mattresses is available from some retailers at least (see post #6 here which are specs I obtained from a retailer and post #26 here which came from another retailer.).
I would also bear in mind that many retailers (or manufacturers) may not provide this information because comfort specs have nothing to do with quality and other than trying to “duplicate” a mattress there is really no need to know them when you are testing a mattress locally where your body will tell you more about the suitability of a mattress than any comfort specs. Because many retailers know this … there is really no real reason for them to provide the exact comfort specs (such as ILDs) of their mattresses. Some will and some won’t in other words and I would not consider this to be a factor in the “transparency” or a retailer or manufacturer who discloses the “quality specs” (type and quality of the materials) or the “value specs” (the amount of each material) of their mattresses.
If this was the Savvy rest … the the Tranquility and the Serenity are two completely different mattresses. The Tranquility has two 3" latex layers and the Serenity has three 3" layers. These are a “choose your own layer” type of mattress so the retailer should be able to tell you the layers in the mattress you liked. While they may not disclose the exact ILD’s … they should at least be able to tell you the type of latex (Dunlop or Talalay) and the approximate rating of the layers (soft, medium, firm etc). These mattresses are very costly compared to mattresses that use very similar layering and components that are available from some of the members here that sell latex mattresses online that are listed in post #21 here.
Without knowing more details about the mattresses you have tested locally which can be used as a reference point then the best way to make a selection is based on a more detailed conversation with an online retailer or manufacturer (not their automated selectors) where they will make a suggestions based on “averages” for your weight and height and other information that you can provide on a more detailed phone call. They are always the best source for specific suggestions based on their knowledge of all the components they use in the mattresses they make or sell and how they interact together with different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences.
For some reason the attachment function of the forum isn’t working since I switched the site to a new provider and i haven’t been able to track down the reason why. Do you have a link to the photo.
You can see some thoughts about the pros and cons of split layering in post #2 here though. Latex is more durable than other types of foam but all materials will soften over time to different degrees so if the split was more extreme on each side then the difference between each side would be more noticeable (especially in the middle) or if the latex was softer than was most suitable for the body weight of the person then it would be less durable than a firmer latex layers and may impress more than the firmer side over time.
I’m not sure where you read this … do you have a link to the post you are referring to? Glued layers will perform slightly differently than unglued layers (multiple thinner unglued layers will “act” softer than a single layer or glued layers) but for most people … depending on the layers themselves and where they were in the mattress … it would not be noticeable and I wouldn’t describe it as more stable.
Latex is “sticky” and with a center split … assuming there is an appropriate quilted cover or an unsplit layer over it … the split itself would not be noticeable for most people although the transition from one side to the other of course would be (which is the reason for the split in the first place).
As a reference point … you can see some information about the “target” ILD of the Savvy Rest layers in post #7 here. A forum search on Savvy Rest will also bring up many posts with more information and comparisons with other similar mattresses (some of which also include more information about some of the OMI mattresses).