I have a spinal fusion, have terrible dust mite and pollen allergies and STRONGLY prefer to avoid chemicals. I sleep predominantly on my sides and my husband is nearly twice my weight (I’m 120 ish). I spoke with my green mattress and Arizona mattress yesterday. Both very helpful and very pleasant. Both felt well informed. My green encouraging pocketed innerspring with Tallalay topper over their Tallalay throughout. They note a change in the quality of Tallalay. Arizona notes no change in quality of their Tallalay. Both appear to be purchasing from at least one of the same places (something international). Confused. Need guidance. Thanks for any help.
Hi Melany,
The choice between an innerspring latex hybrid that uses an innerspring as the support system and an all latex mattress that use latex as the support system is really a matter of preference and some people do best with one and some with the other. Your own personal testing and experience on similar mattresses is the best way to know which one you prefer. There is more about the general differences between innersprings and latex in post #2 here although both types of mattresses have a wide range of different designs. This can be fairly technical but your own testing to compare both types is a much more effective way to know what the more technical differences mean to you in your real life experience.
Both latex and innersprings are among the better choices for people who want to avoid harmful VOC’s in their mattress although even latex uses some chemicals in the foaming and manufacturing of the latex. Most of the latex you are likely to encounter (Talalay or Dunlop that is made from either synthetic, natural, or blended latex) has been certified to OekoTex standard 100 criteria or other similar testing standards for harmful substances and harmful VOC’s so they are all “safe” materials. While synthetic latex may be just as “safe” as natural latex … there are many people who prefer 100% natural latex as a matter of principle and this is also available in both the Talalay and Dunlop versions of latex. there is more about the different types of latex in post #6 here.
There are two sources of Talalay latex in the western world. One of them is Latex International and the other is Radium. There have been a number of manufacturers that have told me that they have had some sporadic quality issues over the last few years (enough to make a difference) with Talalay latex supplied by Latex International but in my conversations with them they appear to have improved their quality control and hopefully their sporadic quality issues are now behind them. Arizona Premium uses mainly Radium talalay (although they can source from either) which is probably the main reason for the differences in experience between them. This doesn’t mean that all their latex had quality issues but it was enough to cause some uncertainty.
Hopefully you’ve read this but just in case you haven’t the basic tutorial post here has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices.
Both My Green Mattress and Arizona Premium are manufacturing members of this site which means that I believe they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of quality, value, and service.
Phoenix
Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer!
Hi Melany,
I just realized in reading your reply and my post before it that I didn’t include the link that talked about the differences between an innerspring and a latex core. It’s now fixed (although it really boils down to preference and not so much the technical differences 
Phoenix