Latex Mattress

Hi mll,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum! :slight_smile:

It’s certainly reasonable to want a product that is “healthy” and “safe”.

I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience previously, and it’s certainly good to vet businesses and products, but I wouldn’t let that cast an entire dark cloud over every vendor in this industry you encounter.

Savvy Rest does maintain a GreenGuard GOLD certification (see explanation of that certification here), and they certainly use higher quality products in their mattresses. However, they tend to be in a bit of a higher price range and you might want to investigate some other options using similar componentry and then make your own “value judgement.”

Certifications like Oeko-Tex 100 are applied for and then tested for (and hopefully qualified for) by the manufacturer of the foam. Mattress manufacturers are (almost exclusively) assemblers of mattresses, using componentry from various suppliers (foams, springs, fabrics, etc.)

The mattress companies you mention all have stellar reputations and are members here, which means that I think highly of them and they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency. They are extremely knowledgeable about latex and different configurations, and I would not hesitate to recommend them for your consideration. It is in the interest of these companies to be completely transparent and accurate with the componentry within their products (which they are), and they have no history of substituting inferior products when advertising something different. To do so and then be found out would immediately ruin the integrity of their company and almost certainly be the beginning of the end of their ability to do business.

All of the latex you are likely to encounter (either Dunlop or Talalay that is made with either natural or synthetic rubber or a blend of both) will have a reliable safety certification such as Oeko-Tex, Eco-Institut, or Greenguard Gold (see post #2 here) and based on actual testing I would consider any type or blend of latex to be a very “safe” material in terms of harmful substances and VOC’s.

I’m not quite sure what you’re asking for here. There would be no need for a manufacturer to take a foam that they had received from a reputable foam company and then attempt to “recertify” a foam that had already been certified, and even if they went through this expense, it wouldn’t be applicable because many of the certifications have to do with the production of the foam as well, which isn’t being done by the mattress manufacturer. These mattress companies are dealing with reputable foam companies who have their own reputations to consider by supplying a quality product that meets the certifications that they have passed, so they are trusting their suppliers to provide them the correctly certified product. The reputation of the mattress companies you mentioned isn’t in questions, and while it’s always good to verify, I would suggest that there is really no reason to question the brands that you mentioned, as they are reputable and their suppliers are reputable as well.

SleepEZ and Sleep Organic are members here and I think highly of them, their products, experience and reputation, and they’ve successfully assisted thousands of customers over the years. While it is nice to read reviews and they certainly can be helpful as a tool to partially assess the knowledge and service of a particular business, they also are not the ultimate, definitive or most accurate way to gauge a business. It’s quite easy for a company to acquire thousands of “likes” from different marketing companies for a relatively small payment, as you can witness over and again with some online mattress brands selling products of dubious quality that have “5-star” ratings. Basing your own opinion on the short thoughts of others, who in most cases are unqualified to render an educated analysis of a particular product, isn’t the most reliable method for evaluating a business. This is also the reason that this site will never be a review site (there isn’t a section for reviews) because it will always be more focused on educating the members here with more “fact based” information than on encouraging them to repeat the same mistakes that consumers have been making for many years … which includes warning them that reading or “counting” reviews as a reliable source of research can be among the worst ways to choose a mattress.

I [quote]want to buy a 100%Natural latex bed from top to bottom, no synthetic junk in the latex, I do not want ANY flame retardant other than Certified organic wool, and would prefer a Certified organic cotton cover.[/quote]

Most people that are looking for an “organic” mattress are usually concerned more with “safety” than whether the materials have an actual organic certification. There is more information about the three different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of an organic certification in post #3 here and there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons or whether a “safety” certification is enough.

I’m not sure where you read this. I did review a post where I specifically mentioned that Latex Green Dunlop cores do not contain flame retardants, but that a finished mattress would need to be able to past 16 CFR Parts 1632 and 1633, but that would be the responsibility of the mattress manufacturer and this certainly can be accomplished naturally with a wool fiber barrier. Perhaps you read this?

Both Coco Latex and Latex Green are well-known sources of good quality 100% natural latex and they supply several of the members of the site (and many others) with their Dunlop latex. I personally would have no concerns using either of their 100% natural Dunlop latex.

The mattress shopping tutorial also includes a link to a list of the members here that sell mattresses online and many of them also sell latex mattresses using 100% natural Dunlop latex and have a wide range of different designs, options, features, return and exchange policies, and prices that that would be well worth considering. Post #3 here also includes a list of the ones that sell component latex mattresses and many of these are very similar to Savvy Rest mattresses except of course they are in much lower budget ranges.

My best advice would be to take some time and read the links above about “organic” and “safety” certifications and decide exactly what is most important to you in your new mattress. Also, please read through the Mattress Shopping Tutorial linked above. At that point, your most important next step would be a detailed phone conversation with a few of the mattress companies you mentioned previously, and express to them your specific desires and concerns. Use their expertise to come up with recommendations that best suit your personal preferences (your personal PPP as described in the Mattress Shopping Tutorial). Then you’ll be on your way to making a truly informed decision.

Phoenix