I did some searching on the forum and I can’t seem to find any information about Latex for Less as far as anyone who has bought from them or what type of outfit they are.
Here is my situation. I have a triple bunk bed that I needed mattresses for (my daughters). My first stop was to sleepez, as I bought a natural latex mattress from them in 2010. The prices have gone up since then (duh) and the fact I needed three of them gave me some pause. I only want to buy mattresses once until they leave the house. The great people at sleepez recommended a 9" mattress vs 7" if we want one to last until the girls are grown.
The price however for three twin size 9" with 100% natural latex was well over $2k. These are not organic with just the cotton/wool cover.
So I set out to search online and see if there were other options out there. I somehow wound up on Overstock.com and found one called Hevea Bliss. It said it was all natural latex with cotton/wool cover and nothing else. The price was pretty good at $550 for a 9" with free shipping. There was a coupon code as well to stack on the cyber Monday offer. HOWEVER, there was a “no-returns” listed at the bottom and I could find nothing on this company, who they are, etc.
I did a google search on the 800 number and low and behold the SAME bed shows up being sold by home depot of all places. Only this time it listed the manufacturer as Latex for Less. This company DID come back with other results. It appears this company has a website and also sells through Amazon. There were reviews on amazon and the sales pitch sounded good (if not a little bombastic and over the top). There were in the $700ish range for their twin latex/cotton/wool 9" mattress on their website.
Since I don’t usually trust reviews on manufacturers websites (they rarely put up critical reviews) I headed over to Amazon. Most people seemed happy and the verified purchases were mostly positive. As I was reading the reviews a box popped up that said the 9" mattress I was looking at was going on a lightning deal for $468 down from $737. I had never seen this before so I asked my wife (who knew what a lighting deal was). It was good for five hours. So we bought one of these mattresses to try.
After the purchase I set out to learn a little more about this company. Well their website has no physical address listed and the contact form is just a phone number. I then did a whois search on their website latexforless.com and it comes back as private of hidden. This didn’t sit well and I started to get a little nervous.
So as I learned most places what to trademark their names. A simple google search of latexforless and trademark turned up the parent company. Apparently they have registered many different names and are selling under them. So off to the secretary of state of California website to find out where this place is actually located.
Here is what I found:
SLEEP TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
MICHAEL HUGHES
1-888-339-1100
405 SCIENCE DR
MOORPARK CA 93021
Postal Address (looks to be a private residence)
2774 RIKKARD DR
THOUSAND OAKS CA 91362
This company has registered trademarks of or is running websites of:
Latex For Less
1-888-339-1100
The World’s Finest Latex
Eco Terra
1-888-605-0096
Purity Beds
The Natural Latex Company
1-805-702-0269
The main address of:
405 SCIENCE DR
MOORPARK CA 93021
appears to be a warehouse with other companies sharing space. I am assuming this is one person with a few employees assembling beds out of a warehouse? Should I be concerned or is this how the small latex industry operates.
Doesn’t sleepez do similar work? What is the difference with what sleepez does and this outfit is doing? Latex for Less appears to be reselling Latex International cores and someone elses Dunlop cores. If you go to the eco terra website you can see in one of the cut out shots the stamped Latex International and Queen Mold on the side of the core. They claim to work direct with the farmers, but I sort of discounted that right away.
So I guess my question is, would you trust what is being sold? Is it possible they are selling beds without them being fire tested? They say they are using wool as the fire barrier, but I now notice it is half inch on the top and half inch on the bottom of the mattress. Whiles this is technically 1", I thought I read that 1" on a single side was needed to meet fire code? Maybe I am wrong.
They also state the following in an amazon.com QA section when a reader asked if the cores were glued:
Is this really a safe material? Simalfa seems to have MANY formulations. Would it be better to have non-glued layers?
Sorry for all the questions. Since I need THREE of these and they will all be in one room with my little girls sleeping on them I really want to make sure I am not putting anything in their room that could offgas or release anything.
If anyone else has looked at or purchased one of their all natural latex beds, what did you think? Is it a quality build?