Help please, need opinion on latex mattress choices

Hello everyone,

Mattress newbie here.

First of all, thank you to all of you for the reading materials that is available in these forums. It really helps to be able to “educate” oneself and know what mattresses is all about. Special thanks of course to Phoenix and the rest of the Mattress Underground crew !

Now, regarding my mattress hunt, I am looking for a full latex or latex hybrid King Size and am hesitating between :

  1. The DreamFoam Ultimate Dreams natural ($899)

  2. The Brooklyn Bedding Bamboo Bliss ($1299)

  3. The Brooklyn Bedding 9" Tri-Comfort Latex ($1099)

I am 5’11 and about 170 lbs back sleeper, while my wife is 5’9, 125 lbs, back + side sleeper.

While the tri-comfort all latex option seems attractive on both the price point and the fact that it’s all latex, I can’t shake the feeling that the Bamboo Bliss is worth the extra cost.

Does all-latex really trump hybrids ?

And what and how much would I lose staying on the UD Natural and saving some money ?

This is a harder decision that I thought =(

P.S: One final question: I enjoy being able to sit on the edge of the bed without completely collapsing into it. Between the three options above, would one be better that the others in that regard ?

Thanks for any information and help !

Ian

Hi tahitianstud,

The most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is how well it matches your specific needs and preferences in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). No matter what the quality or cost of a mattress … if you don’t sleep well on it then it would have little value to you. When you can’t test a mattress in person (or a mattress that is virtually identical) then the most effective way to choose which one would likely be the best “match” for you would be based on a more detailed conversation on the phone or on a chat with the online retailer or manufacturer (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). They will be your best source of guidance about the pros and cons of each of the mattresses you are considering relative to your specific circumstances and criteria.

The next most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is the quality and durability of the materials which are the most important part of the useful life of the mattress. If a mattress works perfectly for you at first but the materials soften or break down and you lose the comfort and/or support that was the reason you purchased it too quickly relative to the price you paid then it would also have little value to you. In the case of all of the mattresses you are considering … none of the mattresses have any weak links in their materials or design relative to your body weight so durability wouldn’t be an issue with any of them.

Outside of suitability and durability and the useful life of each mattress … then all the other objective, subjective, and intangible parts of your personal value equation that are important to you (including the price and the options you have before a purchase to customize the mattress and after a purchase to fine tune the mattress or exchange layers in case your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for) would also be important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase.

The Tri-Comfort uses synthetic latex which is the lowest cost version of latex and doesn’t have the same support factor or elasticity or resilience as natural Dunlop latex or blended Talalay but like every type of latex it’s a very durable material. It would really depend on which type of latex you prefer to sleep on. In most cases … the “commodity value” of all the mattresses made by the same manufacturer would be very comparable in terms of the cost of the materials inside the mattress and the profit margins they have (although higher budget mattresses often have a slightly higher margin) so they would all be equally “worth it” based on their commodity value. Of course a mattress isn’t a commodity where the value of a mattress or how well you sleep on it can be known or predicted by using the price per inch of foam or the price per pound of fabric and this would be similar to buying clothes based on the price per pound of the fabrics.

You can read a little more about the difference between an all latex mattress and a latex/polyfoam hybrid in post #2 here but this would be more relevant if the mattresses you were using used the same type of comfort layer which they don’t in the mattresses you are comparing and which type of latex you prefer to sleep on may be more important to you when you are choosing between them. There is a little more about how Dunlop and Talalay compare in terms of “feel” in post #7 here but your own testing or experience is the most reliable way to know which one you would tend to prefer. The comfort layer would be most of what you “feel” on the mattress and the Tri-Comfort uses synthetic Dunlop, the UD natural uses 100% natural Dunlop (which is denser, more elastic, and more resilient), and the BB Bamboo Bliss uses blended Talalay latex which is a little more resilient yet. All of them provide options to customize the the mattress after a purchase.

I don’t have any personal experience with any of their mattresses so I don’t know and they would be a more reliable source of information about this but I would guess that it would be either the BB Bamboo Bliss or the UD natural latex.

You are in the enviable position that you have a very difficult choice between options that are all very good but none of your options would be a “mistake” in terms of quality or value and it would only be a matter of preference where there is no right or wrong … only “best judgement”.

Phoenix