Hello, I am researching for the purchase of a new bed and have narrowed it down to a Latex bed. I went to Custom Comfort mattress here in CA and tried out a Talalay mattress. It has a 6inch base that has a 32 ILD and a topper of 1inch that is 19 ILD and also it is reversible with the 1 inch 19 ILD at the bottom. This bed felt really good. Steep price for sure. First question… do you really need to flip a latex bed or is this just a great selling point to make you think you will get twice as many years out of the mattress? Seems like a good company but could not find any info on them here. I have also looked up Sleep on latex because of my reading here on TMU thank you. They are different in that they use Dunlop Latex. I can’t find a place here to try and lay down on Dunlop so I can just read about the different feel. After speaking with Sleep on Latex I got this info. There Med firm bed 9 inch. The core 6 inch is 34 ILD and the 2 inch topper is 20 ILD. No option to flip the mattress. (Is that important?) So I know the feel will most likely be different. Also, can you compare these ILD between talalay and Dunlop? The price point is much, much lower from sleep on latex. Thank you for any help or guidance. Feeling overwhelmed.
Hi Zoe0765D,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum! 
Latex is a good quality and durable material, and many companies will state that yo do not need to flip or rotate their latex products, but I do recommend to do this periodically, as all foams soften a bit over time, even latex. Being able to flip a latex mattress can theoretically extend the life of the product ( I wouldn’t expect double the life), but even a latex mattress that is “one-sided” should last over 10 years.
There are plenty of good companies not mentioned here on the forum, but a forum search on Customcomfortmattress or a specific term site search on Custom Comfort (you can just click the links) will bring up all the comments and feedback about them on the forum (along with a few additional results that use the term “custom comfort” but aren’t about that specific manufacturer) but overall they are an old and very experienced manufacturer that make some very high quality mattresses with good materials and construction and are transparent about what is in their mattresses but as you mentioned they are also in a higher budget range than some of the other options that are available to you in the L.A. area so I would make some good “value comparisons” with other similar mattresses.
While price is certainly important of course … the “value” of a mattress purchase is what is most important and price is just one of many factors that can affect the “value” of a mattress purchase. There isn’t a “formula” that can be used to assess or “calculate” the value of a mattress because there are so many different variables and criteria involved that can affect the price of a mattress that can each be more or less important to some people and not to others who may have completely different criteria or definitions of “value”. The “value” of a mattress purchase is also relative to how a mattress compares to the other finalists you are considering or to other mattresses that are available to you in your area (or online if you are also considering online options). There are many reasons that a mattress that may be “good value” for one person or in one area of the country may not be good value for someone else that has very different needs and preferences or that lives in a different area.
There is more about the 3 most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).
As you are aware, Sleep on Latex is a site member here, which does mean that I think highly of them. You are correct that Dunlop has a different feel from Talalay, so ideally you’d want to sample something similar in person if it’s available. Dunlop tends to “firm up faster” than Talalay (have a higher compression modulus) in similar ILD ranges.
Dunlop and Talalay aren’t directly comparable in terms of firmness using only ILD numbers because there are several factors that can affect how soft or firm a mattress (or an individual layer) feels besides just the ILD of the material (see post #4 here) and Dunlop and Talalay that are the same thickness and ILD won’t feel the same in terms of their firmness for most people because they have a different response curve and compression modulus (how quickly a material becomes firmer as you sink into it more deeply). There is more about the difference between Dunlop and Talalay in post #7 here.
The good news is that you are considering products that are both using higher quality materials. The Sleep on Latex uses 100% natural Dunlop (I’m unsure about the Talalay you looked at from Custom Comfort).
If you have more specific questions or test something else, I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
Phoenix
Thank you so much for responding Phoenix and all of your helpful information. Truly appreciate it.
Hi Zoe0756D,
You’re welcome!
Phoenix