Latex Bed Selection

[phoenix]

Hi thadius56,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!

Back in 2004, I built a mattress from an online seller out of Florida (Mark?). It is made up of 30-36 ILD 3" slabs in a totally split King configuration. We have had for 13 years and it is has been losing its resilience over the past 18-24 months to the point of hurting my lower back. I have stenosis and some degeneration of L1, L2 and L3 and this is now making it worse.

I’m sorry to hear about your health issues. That mattress certainly served you well, and it’s good that you have the configuration specifications available, as if you wanted to reproduce that system it would be simple enough to do.

I have been looking at online options and I thought I was ready to pull the trigger on a Sleep on Latex 9" King Firm.

This would use a 6" core of a 44 ILD Dunlop and a 2" top piece of 30 ILD Dunlop latex. Sleep on Latex does use good quality and durable materials, and they are a site member here, which means I think highly of them.

But this weekend we were in King of Prussia and we stopped in at the Sleep Number store and tested some things out. After going through the presentation, I found my “number” to be around 40. Now this has me wondering - What does this mean? Is 40 medium firm when translating into Latex, or is it Firm? I am lost now.

In a word…nothing. You can’t “translate” the amount of air inflated into one of the bladders on an air mattress into a certain configuration on an all-latex mattress. The comfort from an air mattress is derived mostly from the foam layers on top of the bladder, and the componentry is disparate from an all-latex system.

You can see some of my general comments about air mattresses here. While any mattress can be a good match for a specific person because each person’s needs and preferences or the criteria that are most important to them can be very different … in general terms I would tend to avoid them unless there is a very compelling reason that an airbed would be a better choice in “real life” (outside of the many “marketing stories” that you will hear about them) than the many other options or types of mattresses that are available to you.

We have a Best Price Mattress 10" memory foam mattress in the guest room that I tried for a few nights. It helped improve things. Again, not apples to apples, but sharing what I know. That mattress is comprised as attachment shows.

This is again another item very different form both your old all-latex system and an air mattress. Best Price is a compressed product sourced from China, and as such I would recommend that you read post #6 here about mattresses imported from Asia or China and which may have been compressed for long periods of time in either shipping or storage before being purchased. Being sourced in China would make this somewhat of a risky purchase IMO. There is no meaningful information or density specifications provided by Best Mattress about their products.

More detail - I am 6’2" and 275lbs. My wife is 5’4" and 120.

Having a high BMI presents special challenges and generally requires firmer materials (in the support layers especially). This could be firmer latex or innersprings (the type of support component would be a personal preference and in the right design either could be suitable) or even a zoned construction. The same overall guidelines apply with higher weights though that PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) along with using high quality durable materials that will maintain their feel and performance for longer periods of time are the way to make the best choices. Heavier people in general will need firmer and thicker comfort layers and firmer support layers than those who are lighter and because no materials will last as long with much higher weights the quality and durability of the materials and components is even more important than normal. I wouldn’t “rule out” any types of mattress and base your choices on your own personal testing. Post #3 here has more information and suggestions about higher BMIs that is worth reading.

Ultimately, if your old mattress as configured served you well for at least a decade, those materials certainly are good quality and durable and you may wish to consider replicating that design in some fashion.

If you have more specific questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Phoenix