First, great site and info. I spent much of holiday break navigating the rabbit hole of mattress shopping.
My wife and I are narrowing our selection. Spent 30 minutes on a solid 9.5" NR Talalay this afternoon, bouncing between a Medium and Firm. We are leaning toward the medium, understanding that the showroom models were likely already broken in. I’m still waiting on the exact ILDs for the vendors latex, but his vague answer was 30’s for the firm and mid/upper 20s for the medium.
Concern: Given that this is NR Talalay (supplied by Talalay Global), my general impression from the various posts throughout this site are than the softer Talalay is less durable than Talalay blends or pure Dunlop. Splitting hairs at this point? We are trying to balance durability and comfort. The local vendor is offering a 2-side mattress. Very appealing and a bonus based on our test today. Checked off the PPPs.
Durability: Firm NR Talalay (30s?) is more durable than medium (mid/upper 20s?) Talalay, correct? Splitting hairs?
Idea: 3" med Talalay topper on the firm 9.5" NR Talalay bed? Can flip the bed occasionally, and replace the topper a couple/few times within the longer lifespan of a firmer mattress? Since we were in between a med and firm, a firm with a med topper seems legit. Can always ditch the topper in the older years of the mattress, too.
For some background, 5’10" 200 and 5’4" 150 mostly back (some side/stomach) sleepers on a king.
Hope to hear from Phoenix and any others with similar experience of thoughts.
Talalay is poured in 6" cores, so I’m guessing these mattresses were using the same latex, in either three 3" pieces, or a 6" core with the same 3" layer on top?
All foams do break in a bit, with latex changing the least during this break-in period. The covering, and any FR material, can often go through more of a change in initial feel than the foam itself. Knowing the ILD when testing in a showroom isn’t as important of a thing to know (and ILDs aren’t exact numbers but better described as small ranges), as it’s not a quality designation and the results of your own personal testing will be the most important thing to know.
I think you’re referring to my response to general latex durability questions in post #2 here. In the simplest answer, I would say, yes, you’re splitting hairs here. All latex will tend to be a durable product. In the higher ILDs, Dunlop and Talalay, blended or natural, will be quite durable. In the lower ILDs, especially in Talalay there is a bit of difference in the company manufacturing the product in what they claim is more durable. Talalay Global says that their blended tests out more durable than their 100% NR, where Radium claims their 100% NR is more durable. Again, we’re dealing here with small differences (and you’re not considering anything in the low ILD range) and compounding and curing processes are always evolving, so I wouldn’t personally have a concern of one versus another.
A flippable latex mattress is an attractive product, as some can be made with a central core and then different ILD layers on the top and bottom for different comfort preferences, or the same comfort can be made on each side. Quite often a 3" firmer core is used and then different ILD layers will be placed above and below this core. You weren’t specific on the construction of what you were considering, but this is always nice option.
Generally speaking, this is again correct, as there is more actual latex in the higher ILD layers (cell walls/struts are thicker), but it can also come down to where the layer is placed within the mattress, as layers closer to the upper layers within the mattress notice more compression and use over time. But again, you’re dealing with a very high quality product and in general there would be no concern getting at least a 10-year comfort life out of a good all-latex mattress.
Many people do prefer using a firmer core and then a topper to customize comfort. There is certainly nothing wrong with this and it does allow you to customize comfort over time. You’d certainly want to carefully test any configuration you are considering in person when considering a topper as part of your initial purchase, as you are introducing another variable into the equation.
As you’ve already done some reading on the site, I think you’re aware that neither I nor anyone else on the site can make personal recommendations for you on how one item might feel over the other. But the good news is that any of your choices are better than what the large majority of people end up purchasing and in terms of quality and value there are really no “bad choices” or “mistakes” left here, and when you are at this point and there are no clear winners between your finalists then the odds are high that any one of them would be a good choice that you would be happy with.
I’m interesting in learning how you decide to move forward and any decisions you make.
A decision was finally made and we are going with SleepEZ 13000. While the use of a local sleep shop was appealing, there were just too many pros vs cons in favor of SleepEz (or a couple other online vendors). For over $500 less we can get a more customizable mattress with the same, or even better, warranties and flexibility. The local sleep shop was only a 6" latex core with 1.75" of additional layering/quilting on each side. So, 3.5" of weaker links (two sided). Since we were waffling between Med and Firm, why not get both and see what works! Twice the latex for less. Just placed the order. And since both my wife and I are scientists, this feeds our passion for experimentation.
I’ll follow-up either after setup or a month or so into our experience.
