I’m fortunate enough to have a local latex mattress manufacturer close to me. His store is royal bedding in Pelham, AL. I made a visit there a few nights ago and really like the owner(Tom). His mattresses seems to be a good value when looking to buy loca vs pretty much every other store in my area. I know there are several advantages to buying local, and a good all latex king size mattress from him would be in the 2500-3000 range. That sounds pretty good, but, all of his latex mattress are blended dunlop which is one of the cheaper latex available.
On the other hand, that same 2500-3000 would get me a mattress from a trusted member that is natural latex with the choice of dunlop, talalay or a combinations of both. And I would have the chose to make adjustments/swap out each layer to fine tune to my specific needs. So I’m really torn which route to take. Paying the same price for a blended dunlop locally or paying the same or similar price for a fully customizable all natural latex form a trusted member.
I’d consider pretty much all latex you are likely to encounter to be a good quality and generally quite durable material, and personally I wouldn’t have a concern about a blended Dunlop versus a natural. There are some blended Dunlops that are mostly natural in their ratio (85/15 is a common one). If you have a preference for natural versus blended for personal reasons that is of course your call to make, but not something upon which I place a large priority.
I’m not personally familiar with Tom, but through others with whom I’ve spoken and respect I’ve been told that he is very knowledgeable and honest. For you it would come down to the level of value you place upon the personal advice and ability to test an item in person, along with the local services available to you, versus ordering something online that may not be exactly the same as what you tested and perhaps the exchange process involved with a retailer you consider, and the pricing benefit/product selection. There are pros and cons to each option, and for me personally it would come down more to the service/help/experience I would be receiving from any retailer (online or local) versus a blended/natural choice.
I know those are my personal opinions, but I hope they help you in your decision making process.
Jeff Scheuer, The Beducator
Beducation / Mattress To Go
Thanks, that does help a lot. So I guess the choice between blended dunlop vs natural dunlop or talalay(blended or natural) isn’t as important as I thought. So that leans me more toward the local manufacturer.
But one other thing to throw in the mix is, since his blended dunlop is basically the same price as getting natural online, there is also the option of going with blended dunlop online through a trusted member. Going that route would be about half the price as local which shatters the 20% savings ratio of whether to buy local or online if everything else is equal.
The differences between natural and synthetic and blended have been discussed quite a bit here on the forum previously. You may like reading this post.
As for choosing online or local, that’s again something that would come down to your own personal preference (the 20% price difference was an opinion Phoenix previously posted here on the forum), and something you’d just want to weigh with your own pro/con list. It sounds like you’re considering good quality materials, so that’s a great start, but in the end only you can make that final choice of where to source your product and what’s most important to you.
Good luck in your choice!
Jeff Scheuer, The Beducator
Beducation / Mattress To Go