Hi Ozark Sleeper,
If you used the “search forum” tab then it would search the forum for the search terms you used and bring up any posts that contained them. It can also be a good idea to set “find posts from” to “any date” because the default is a year and it may not pick up all the posts that contain your search terms. The “search main site” window only searches the main pages of the site and not the forum.
Sometimes some combination of search terms can bring up dozens or hundreds of posts (listed 20 to a page) but I have a reference list of about 300 posts or so that I use to answer some of the more common questions so I certainly don’t mind linking them when the search brings up too many hits to find what you are looking for.
It’s polyurethane foam (which they disclose) and is about 2.0 lb density which is good quality. None of the foam manufacturers will disclose the specific formula they use to manufacture their foams which is proprietary information so the mattress manufacturers can only pass on the information that they are provided. There are many sources of information on the web about how polyurethane foam is manufactured (the primary chemicals are an isocyanate, a polyol, and a blowing agent … usually water) but the rest of the chemicals they use or the proportions they use them are not specifically available. When a foam is manufactured though, the chemicals are polymerized and are mostly fully reacted and inert so the most effective way of knowing how safe it may be would be based on the results of testing for harmful substances or VOC’s testing such as CertiPur or OekoTex.
A very few examples of some of the thousands of pages of information available includes some information about foam additives on the PFA site here and some basic information about urethane chemistry here and about making polyurethane foam here and there is some good basic information about polyurethane foams on the American Chemistry Council site here but it would take a degree in materials science to really understand all the intricacies of the thousands of different polyurethane foam formulations and methods of production.
It’s not as stringent as testing protocols such as Oeko-Tex and is industry sponsored rather than independent but its fairly extensive and is a step in the right direction. You can see what they test for here*.
ADMIN NOTE:*Always check CertiPur site for the latest guidelines available
The durability of a mattress depends on the materials that they use inside it (regardless of the company that puts the materials inside a cover) and they use polyfoam in the 2 lb range which is a good quality foam. There is more about assessing the different factors that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to each person (regardless of who makes it) in post #4 here. If you know the quality of the materials in a mattress you can identify any obvious weak links in terms of durability and make more meaningful comparisons with other mattresses.
You can read more about organic certifications and latex that has been GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard) certified in post #2 here and the posts it links to. To be certified organic a latex core needs to contain at least 95% natural rubber that was sourced from an organic plantation.
The mattress you linked is a Savvy Rest mattress which uses organic Dunlop latex made by CoCo latex in India and they also use organic cotton and wool in their covers but they are considerably more costly than some other very similar mattresses that use the same type and quality of latex. They also have an option for 100% natural Talalay latex which is not organic.
Latex is also a much more costly (and better performing and more durable) material than polyurethane foam and high quality wool quilted covers by themselves can cost considerably more than the price of the Tuft and Needle mattress.
They are very much an apples to oranges comparison.
Phoenix