ILD confusion - looking for latex mattress

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Hi all,

Thanks to this forum I found out about mattresses.net. Great prices. Looking the ‘King All Natural Talalay w/Free Bamboo Cover Upgrade’ mattress.

Am trying to figure out whether to go with, as per their site, a soft (#28), medium (#32), or firm (#36). I think I’ve pretty much ruled out a firm, but am not sure between the soft and medium - for a few reasons:

Varying sites I have found that ‘describe’ the ild scale state that a #32 is actually the beginning of the firm range and that a #28 is a medium This seems to somewhat contradict the scale used by mattresses.net.

A bit about me and my wife’s sleep:

I always wake up with a sore/tight lower back - it works itself loose after getting up and moving about. I would prefer to be on the firmer rather than softer side, but don’t want a bed firm as a board either. I the past 6 months I have gone from 170lbs down to about 148. hoping to get back up to 155ish. I generally try stay on my back, but have been know to sleep on my side. No stomach - at least not with current bed, my back in the morning really complains if I spent the night on my stomach.

My wife has no back or other issues and will sleep on back, side and stomach.

So, guess I’m not sure if the ‘other’ sites are off on their scales or what. Not clear if a 28 is really a soft or if it is a medium or if I am getting too caught up in the labeling. Just need to know what would be best for a guy who needs support to hopefully keep his back from getting sore/stiff come morning.

Also, as an aside: in your latex support cores article,

I think you have a typo in this sentence, “This means that even a relatively soft latex (28 ILD and higher) can be used as a mattress core where its upper softness can help to form a pressure relieving cradle while its deeper firmness can still provide excellent support (the ability to prevent heavier parts of you from sinking down too far) and keep your spine aligned.”

Shouldn’t that be ‘28 ILD and LOWER’?

This sentence (possible typo aside) also added a bit to the confusion - as it sound like even the lower ilds can provide good support and maybe also be more comfortable to boot?

so much to consider.

Thoughts/opinions on what core to get?

2

Hi foghat,

Post #2 here has more about making comfort or design choices but theory is so complex and ILD is such a small part of a design and there are so many other variables and unknowns that I would either use your own personal testing on a similar mattress as a guideline of if that isn’t possible or practical the best way to choose is more detailed phone conversations with a retailer or manufacturer who knows more about their different mattress designs than anyone else and is in the best position to help you choose the options that have the best odds of being successful for you.

Softness and firmness is very subjective and what feels soft to one person can feel firm to another. Different foam manufacturers also have different methods of measuring ILD so ILD comparisons can be very misleading between different manufacturers or different types of materials where ILD is not necessarily an apples to apples comparison. You can read a little more about this in post #6 here.

Softness and firmness is also relative to which layer you are talking about. If you are talking about a comfort layer then generally 19 - 24 ILD and lower would be considered soft (depending on body type and perceptions or type of material and the method used to determine ILD) but in a support layer then firmer layers would be considered “soft” relative to other support layers. 28 would generally be a “soft” support layer and a medium or for some people even a firm comfort layer.

Again … I would read the information here as you would a good book but not study it as you would a textbook for a course. Connecting with experts is a much simpler and faster process than becoming one yourself because they already know what you would otherwise take a very long time to learn. Designing your own mattress or making choices based on ILD alone or any other types of specs in isolation from all the others can do more to confuse than anything else.

For a support layer 28 ILD would generally be considered to be on the softer side for support layer and this and higher (not lower) is typically used as a support core. Softer than 28 ILD (again depending on how the ILD is measured) would probably be too soft as a support layer for most people and moving into comfort layer territory.

Phoenix

3

Thanks for the detailed response.

I’ve been emailing with Ken a bit and he has provided some good info. Will likely go with their medium for support core. And my bad on the typo thing. When you said relatively soft and then and higher, i was thinking if you go higher then you are probably moving away from ‘relatively’ soft.

At any rate, I know I am over analysing things. I have a tendency to do that…

4

Hi foghat,

You’re certainly not alone in this … I do a bit of analysis myself from time to time :slight_smile:

Phoenix