Latex Mattress Retailers near Downsview (Toronto)

[phoenix]

Hi sb,

You have some good questions so I’ll see if I can unravel some of the information for you and sort out the parts that are “mostly correct” from the parts that aren’t.

First: I asked about ILD and he said ILD is meaningless - he said latex from different parts of the world have different levels of firmness and instead he emphasized the need for pressure-point relief. I have read on this forum that a few years ago corruption and subsequent failure of a foam supplier created difficulties for GTA mattress manufacturers and left them with very limited access to foams of different ILDs. Is this correct and does it still affect the GTA mattress industry. Could this contribute to Soma’s statement that ILD does not matter?

I agree that when you are testing a mattress locally that ILD is mostly meaningless. There is much more detail about this in post #39 here and the posts it links to about focusing on specs (especially a single spec that is only part of a much bigger picture and by itself doesn’t mean much at all) vs your own personal testing and experience on a mattress.

The manufacturers and retailers in the Toronto market have access to many different suppliers and both Talalay and Dunlop are available in a wide range of firmness levels and from many different sources. While I don’t know why someone else may believe what they do or say what they say … their comments about ILD are “mostly true” regardless of the type or firmness of the latex that they have available to them.

Second: Apparently the elasticity inherent in good-quality latex mattresses automatically provides spinal alignment; i.e., spinal alignemnt is a non-issue for Soma mattresses. The sales person again emphasized the importance of pressure-point
relief - which is especially true for side sleepers. Is this correct re: spinal alignment?

IMO this isn’t correct. It’s certainly possible for some latex mattresses to be either too soft or too firm in either the comfort or support layers to provide ideal alignment. This is part of why testing for PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) is more important than the “comfort specs” of a mattress (such as ILD). While latex has a higher compression modulus (the rate that a material becomes firmer with deeper compression) than other foams which means that the odds of alignment issues or the risk of using softer/thicker comfort layers or softer support layers may be less than other materials … it is certainly still there.

Third: Soma printed spec sheets for two different mattresses. One spec was for a basic mattress with two 3" layers of medium natural rubber and the second was for a three layer mattress (2" firm, 4" my choice, 2" soft pressure relief). The sales person repeated several times that the basic mattress might not provide the needed pressure relief for side sleepers and that a softer mattress top would be better. Is this be correct?

Nobody else can feel what you feel and there are to many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone else to be able to predict which mattress will work best for you in terms of PPP based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more reliable than your own testing or experience. Having said that … in many cases it’s true that thinner mattresses can be firmer than thicker mattresses that use layers that have a similar firmness level (ILD) and that side sleepers generally need softer and more pressure relieving comfort layers than back or stomach sleepers but there are also many other variables and “specs” involved in the feel and performance of a mattress that play just as important a role. Like ILD … layer thickness or the thickness of a mattress is just one more variable that interacts with all the others. There is more about the effect of thickness in post #14 here.

Fourth: Same mattresses and spec sheets as above. All Soma mattresses have wool “quilted and hand-tufted to cover”. The
basic mattress has 700g per square metre. The three layer mattress has 1225g per square metre. What is the significance of
this?

The amount of wool that is quilted in a cover and how it is made or quilted will affect the “feel” of a mattress and can also affect temperature regulation (wool is a great temperature regulator). More wool will will also add to the cost of a mattress but I would treat these types of specs as just “one more variable” that contributes to PPP and which mattress is the best match for you. In other words it would be a preference issue based on which mattress your testing indicated was the best match for you. There is more about wool quilting in post #6 here.

Fifth: The sales person mentioned that Soma mattresses have a density of 85 pounds per cubic foot (I hope I am quoting him
correctly), which is 10 pounds more than most manufacturers. Does this sound correct? And does it really mean that a one
foot cube of latex weighs 85 pounds? That seems to be very heavy!

No … the 85 is referring to kilograms per cubic meter. 85 kg/m3 would be about 5.3 lbs/ft3. The density of latex is a “comfort spec” and you can see some comparisons between kg/m3 and lbs/ft3, and a rough ILD range for Latex Green 100% natural Dunlop in post #2 here which you can use as a reference or to “translate” between them.

Sixth: The salesperson says he has owned his mattress for 7 or 8 years and that it hasn’t lost any of its firmness in that time. But I am doubtful that anybody would notice firmness changes over that period of time …; but his claim is that their mattresses do not lose their firmness over time - partially because of the 85 pounds per cubic foot vs 75 pounds.

Latex is the most durable of all the foam materials and will lose firmness much more slowly over time than other materials but all foam materials will soften or break down to some degree over time. With latex it just happens much more slowly. You can see an example in this video of a Dunlop latex mattress that was almost 50 years old (although I wouldn’t expect every latex mattress to maintain it’s comfort and support for that long). Firmness is also a secondary factor in durability and in most cases firmer layers will tend to be more durable than softer layers as well but this wouldn’t be a reason to choose firmer layers that weren’t as good a match for you in terms of PPP. There is more about all the variables that can affect durability and the useful life of a mattress relative to each person in post #4 here and the posts it links to.

Now for Ton Furniture (aka Dreamworks). I said I wanted an all latex mattress, but the closest they have is a soy-based 6" base and 4" latex top (thicknesses may be off). They can custom manufacture an all latex mattress for me, but that would almost double the price. The have natural wool, but I don’t recall how much and they do not specify it in their specs. Finally, their fabric is organic cotton fabric, but they also have bamboo written across the top of the mattress.

So a mattress with a 6" soy base costs about $900 less than a similar latex base, but what do I gain by going with all latex?

While I would make sure you have all the information you need about the type and quality of all the layers (see this article) so you can identify any weak links in a mattress and make more meaningful comparisons to other mattresses … assuming that the quality of the materials are good and that there are no weak links in the mattress in terms of durability then there is more about some of the pros and cons of an all latex mattress vs a latex polyfoam hybrid such as this in post #2 here.

Hope this helps

Phoenix